Ukraine<\/a> could be drawing to a close \u2013 a rare instance in which Putin appeared to hint at a possible timeline for ending the invasion. But his top advisers have said the Kremlin continues to demand that Ukraine withdraw its troops from the eastern Donbas region as a precondition for future negotiations.<\/p>\nPutin remains determined to seize the remaining parts of the region by force this year before any serious talks begin, people familiar with his thinking have told the Guardian. Ukraine has flatly rejected any suggestion it would unilaterally withdraw from its own territory, a position bolstered by recent battlefield dynamics in which Russian advances have largely ground to a halt.<\/p>\n
The two armies are showing mounting signs of exhaustion and continuing to sustain heavy casualties, while trading strikes on each other\u2019s energy infrastructure. Against that backdrop, analysts say a diplomatic breakthrough is unlikely.<\/p>\n
Germany\u2019s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, suggested Putin\u2019s peace remarks were likely to be a ruse. \u201cIf he sees the end of this war approaching, couldn\u2019t he simply end it himself? Then he would have control over the timing,\u201d Pistorius said during a visit to Kyiv. \u201cInstead, as always, he sets conditions. It\u2019s to be feared \u2013 and I hope I\u2019m wrong \u2013 that this is yet another deception. But it can\u2019t be ruled out, and it seems to be part of his hybrid war strategy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The defence minister said Putin, \u201cwas trying to divert attention from his own weaknesses\u201d. <\/p>\n
A US-brokered ceasefire is due to expire on Tuesday and Moscow has rejected prolonging the truce. But EU leaders have in recent months stepped up efforts to secure the bloc a seat at the table in any future substantive peace negotiations.<\/p>\n
European capitals have long insisted that no discussions or decisions about Ukraine should take place without Kyiv\u2019s involvement. Many across the continent now fear that talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine aimed at ending the more than four-year-long war have made little progress, while leaving the EU increasingly sidelined and vulnerable to pressure to accept a deal it does not support.<\/p>\n
There is little prospect of Schr\u00f6der emerging as Europe\u2019s representative with the Kremlin. His record of defending Moscow has repeatedly put him at odds with mainstream European opinion. After evidence of mass killings emerged in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha in April 2022, he said he did not believe the massacre had been ordered by the Kremlin.<\/p>\n
Germany\u2019s Europe minister, Gunther Krichbaum, said Schr\u00f6der had \u201cnot necessarily demonstrated in the past that he could act as a neutral mediator, as an honest broker, so to speak\u201d, as he was \u201cheavily influenced\u201d by Putin.<\/p>\n
\u201cClose friendships may be legitimate everywhere in the world, but they don\u2019t contribute to being perceived as an honest negotiating partner,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Margus Tsahkna, Estonia\u2019s foreign minister, said: \u201cGerhard Schr\u00f6der is Putin\u2019s idea. I think they are very close. Gerhard Schr\u00f6der will not be representing Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark Galeotti, an expert on Russian politics, described the suggestion as a \u201cclassic Putin idea\u201d. \u201cHe tries to sound reasonable, but frames any potential dialogue in terms most comfortable to him,\u201d Galeotti told Times Radio.<\/p>\n
Schr\u00f6der has not publicly commented on the idea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The EU has dismissed Vladimir Putin\u2019s suggestion that the Kremlin-friendly former German chancellor Gerhard Schr\u00f6der could serve as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-443778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}