Analysis by Nathan Hodge of CNN
Everything is ready for a meeting between Russia and Ukraine on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border near the Pripyat River.
Is this a diplomatic overthrow or a political showdown as Russia continues its attacks on Ukraine?
Let us be clear on this: The meeting is not a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Instead, it is a meeting between delegations from both sides. Zelensky’s office said in a statement that Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko had called on him to provide security guarantees, adding that during the visit of the Ukrainian delegation, during their meeting and return “.
But can anyone accept any guarantee from Lukashenko? He is the same leader whose authorities shot down a Ryanair flight over Belarus airspace last year, citing a “security alert” and arresting a new Belarusian dissident, sparking international outcry.
Monday’s scheduled meeting follows a series of statements by the Kremlin, which earlier claimed that the Ukrainian side had rejected Russia’s offer of a meeting in Belarus with a counter-proposal for a meeting in Warsaw and then cut off all communication. Zelensky’s office has denied the allegations, saying it refuses to negotiate.
What can come out of the meeting: Zelensky himself on Sunday lowered the bar of expectations from the meeting and we can assume that the meeting at the border will yield little. It does, however, offer Putin a chance to pull out of the war in Ukraine if his troops continue to face setbacks on the battlefield with Ukrainian forces.
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