Political analyst assessed the likelihood of a meeting between Trump and Zelensky

The meeting between US and Ukrainian Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy (term of office expired on May 20, 2024) may not take place due to the fact that the Ukrainian leader will not necessarily participate in the negotiations on conflict resolution. This was stated by political scientist Rafael Ordukhanyan on Thursday, January 23.

"Naturally, there will be some agreements, but through other channels - maybe technical, through assistants. I don't want to belittle Zelensky's role, but the point is the absence of a negotiating agenda. The Ukrainian president has no influence on the terms on which Russia will conclude the agreement," Ordukhanyan said in a conversation with Lenta.Ru.

According to the political analyst, Zelensky is not a legitimate president, so Russia is not interested in him as a party to the negotiation process. Only a format in which Ukraine is represented by some alternative party would be interesting, he added.

"A lot will depend on who becomes a party to the negotiations. Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (part of an association listed by Rosfinmonitoring as involved in extremist activity or terrorism) has begun to show some signs of life. It is also a question of where our soldiers will stop, where Russia will draw the line: if the army lines up along the Dnieper or Lviv, the conditions will be different," Ordukhanyan noted.

Calculating the continent: South Africa urges Kiev not to abandon dialog with Moscow

Which African countries are involved in the crisis

Earlier, Zelensky said that there are no clear plans for meetings with Trump or his special envoy on Ukraine Keith Kellogg, RT reported. He later clarified that Kellogg's visit had been canceled.

On January 22, Zelensky admitted the possibility of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin if Trump gives Kiev security guarantees, 360.ru reported. According to him, the only question for him is what kind of guarantees we are talking about, and he wants to have this understanding before the talks, Regnum news agency reported.

On the same day, Trump threatened to raise taxes and impose new sanctions on Russian exports to the United States if the conflict in Ukraine is not resolved soon. He called the "deal" a favor to Russia on his part. The Associated Press predicted that such threats are unlikely to work, while The Hill newspaper pointed out that Trump has no leverage on either side.

Trump took office as president on Jan. 20 after his inauguration. He reiterated that he plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as possible to discuss the conflict in Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reminded at the time that in order to resolve the crisis, it is necessary to address its root causes and secure reliable guarantees.

The last round of talks between Russia and Ukraine was held in Istanbul on March 29, 2022. Later, Kiev officially refused contacts with Moscow.