Volker and Surkov fail to reach united position on Ukraine
On Monday November 13, US Department of State Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker and Russian Presidential Aide Vladislav Surkov conducted negotiations in Belgrade.
The US embassy in Russia reported that there was comprehensive discussion of the current diplomatic state of affairs regarding efforts to stop the fighting in the Donbas.
“It is not surprising that the United States and Russia have different concepts for how to make peace, but we will continue to work to get there. There has always been a need for a combination of political and security measures to be taken under Minsk. Both sides agreed to reflect on the discussions today and to think about further ways to address this challenge,” the US Embassy’s press release states.
TASS cites Surkov as saying that the matter of the peacekeeping mission for the Donbas was discussed.
“[Our] American friends gave their suggestions for our draft Security Council resolution – twenty-nine paragraphs. Our delegation considered three of them acceptable. Not a lot, of course, but three is still not zero. It’s better than zero,” the Russian Presidential Aide commented.
“The Russian and US representatives are in solidarity with respect to the main thing – that the Minsk agreements need to be implemented. In order to do this, the fulfilling of Kyiv’s political obligations needs to be expedited while simultaneously improving security in the conflict zone,” Surkov added.
This was Volker and Surkov’s third meeting. They conducted negotiations in Minsk in August 21 and in Belgrade on October 7.