War in Ukraine: Vladimir Putin refuses the possibility of establishing “gray zones” in the face of American emissaries

To American envoys, the Russian president affirmed, Thursday, November 12, that he would remain inflexible on his maximalist demands to end the conflict in Ukraine. Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were received in Moscow by Vladimir Putin, then left the Kremlin late in the afternoon. They then went to Dublin to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky, following Ukrainian-Russian talks in Abu Dhabi, under the aegis of Washington.

In a long exchange with Donald Trump's envoys broadcast, rarely, on Russian television, the Russian president rejected any possibility of establishing "gray zones" or demilitarized zones around the front line. Russia currently occupies a little more than 19% of Ukrainian territory, and since 2022 has been demanding the annexation, rejected by kyiv and the international community, of four Ukrainian regions of which it does not control the entirety: Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson.

Vladimir Putin described as “absolutely unacceptable” the possibility of deploying foreign troops in Ukraine, requested by kyiv as a guarantee of security against a resumption of the conflict. "The Europeans know this and what are we hearing? That after the conclusion of peace they will immediately deploy troops to Ukrainian territory," he said.

The Russian president also proposed the organization of a "humanitarian" operation in the Ukrainian town of Kostiantynivka, at the heart of the fighting in the Donetsk region. “Let's do something similar to what we did” in Olechky, he continued, citing the Russian-controlled Ukrainian town in the Kherson region where a humanitarian operation recently took place supported by the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump.

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner also called on Russia to let the Europeans participate directly in the talks, a possibility that Moscow continues to rule out for the moment.