Merkel says it is impossible for Ukraine to solve the issue of negotiations with Russia alone

Kiev cannot make a decision on negotiations with Moscow alone. This was stated by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on November 23.

"I think that many countries that support Ukraine should decide together with it when it is possible to discuss a diplomatic solution with Russia. Kiev cannot make decisions alone," Merkel said.

She admitted that she is unable to predict when negotiations on a peaceful settlement between the parties to the conflict will begin because she is no longer involved in politics.

Merkel pointed out that the approach of Ukraine's allies to Russia should consist of two parts - containment of Russia, on the one hand, and peace talks between Moscow and Kiev, on the other. At the same time, the former German chancellor noted that Berlin had failed to create such deterrence, and she, among other politicians, bears responsibility for this.

The day before, on November 22, the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitriy Medvedev, said that possible peace talks on the Ukrainian conflict were getting distant because the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) had used long-range weapons against Russia. The deputy chairman of the Security Council emphasized that the conflict could have been ended much faster if it had not been for NATO's actions.

British newspaper The Telegraph reported on November 21 that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose term of office expired on May 20, softened his rhetoric on the Ukrainian conflict after Republican Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election and abandoned "maximalist ambitions to defeat Russia on the battlefield."

Russian President Vladimir Putin named the conditions for negotiations on Ukraine at a meeting with the leadership of the Russian Foreign Ministry back in June. Thus, the AFU should leave the territories of the new regions of the Russian Federation, and Kiev should give up the idea of integration into NATO.

The last round of negotiations took place in Istanbul on March 29, 2022. They lasted about three hours. Later, Kiev officially refused contacts with Moscow. On October 4 of the same year, the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on the impossibility of holding talks with Putin was put into effect.