#peace-negotiations

#peace-negotiations

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Paris on Monday, where he will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss continued European support for Kyiv as US President Donald Trump seeks to push Zelenskyy to make harsh concessions to aggressor Russia in hopes of ending Vladimir Putin's nearly four-year invasion. On Sunday, US and Ukrainian negotiators held "productive" meetings in Florida, where peace proposals were discussed.

Yermak's resignation could have tremendous consequences for domestic governance, as well as for Ukraine's negotiating position in talks over ending the war with Russia, where he had served as the head of Ukraine's delegation to peace talks with the White House. It's a mini revolution in the political system and the governance system, said Kyiv-based political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko. Yermak was the key element in the system of power that Zelensky had built.

The trip, where he is scheduled to meet Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is an attempt to revive talks with Moscow seeking an end to the war. "We are preparing to reinvigorate negotiations, and we have developed solutions that we will propose to our partners. Doing everything possible to bring the end of the war closer is Ukraine's top priority," Zelenskyy said of the visit.

Verdun in the Donbas. The future of Ukraine and Russia, of European security, and of US-Russian relations now all hang on a few small half-ruined towns in the northwestern part of Donetsk province. Indeed, given the continued risk of a radical escalation leading to actual conflict between NATO and Russia, the stakes may be higher even than that.

Germany's foreign minister said on Monday that Qatar, Egypt, Turkey and other Arab states are exerting pressure on militant group Hamas in Gaza to disarm to support further peace negotiations with Israel. "All these states don't want Hamas to continue to be active. They want disarmament and in this respect we have a good pressure scenario, because it won't work without pressure," Minister Johann Wadephul told Deutschlandfunk radio.

We have a great team over there, great negotiators, and they're, unfortunately, great negotiators on the other side also. But it's something I think that will happen, got a good chance of happening. I may go there sometime toward the end of the week, maybe on Sunday, actually, and we'll see, said Trump. But there's a very good chance, negotiations are going along very well. We're dealing with Hamas, and many of the countries.

Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the 20-point plan are due to begin in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday. The talks, which come on the eve of the second anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel that led to the war, have raised hopes that the devastating conflict, which has killed tens of thousands in Gaza, could soon end. But at the same time, there are plenty of potential obstacles to sealing a deal.

No other international leader has been as frequent a visitor to the White House during Donald Trump's second term as Benjamin Netanyahu: the Israeli prime minister visited the Oval Office Monday for the fourth time in eight months. None of his previous visits yielded any progress toward peace, and those meetings only served to buy the Israeli leader more time in his deadly offensive in Gaza.

The UK is prepared to provide soldiers to help with logistical support and training in Ukraine, but will not deploy them close to Russia.

In one of the largest overnight aerial attacks in August, Russia launched 270 drones and 10 missiles against Ukraine in the early hours of August 19.

After all the hype around the Alaska summit, all we got was a 12-minute press conference that said very little of substance. No end to the war, no sanctions.

Every meeting, every minute this meeting continues is a great thing towards peace, right? However, my initial take is that Putin's word can never be trusted.