Yevhen Mahda: Trump Sends Farewell Greetings To Lukashenka, His Diplomacy

The US president does not want the Donbas talks to be held in Minsk any longer.

US President Donald Trump does not want the talks on the Donbass to be held in Minsk. This was announced by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev after the negotiations with the US President. According to him, the leaders of the two countries came to the conclusion that Minsk-1 is at an impasse, since the conflicting parties cannot reach agreement, Euroradio reminds.

According to the director of the Ukrainian Institute of World Politics Yevhen Mahda, today it’s not that important where the meetings of the contact group will take place. And even more so, there is no big difference in this sense between Belarus and Kazakhstan.

“The degree of the strategic partnership of Kazakhstan and Belarus with Russia is equally high. Ukrainian negotiators will feel confident enough in neither country. Another thing is that there were no spy scandals involving citizens of Ukraine in Kazakhstan, or any other unpleasant things in bilateral relations. However, in fact, a platform for negotiations can be Vienna, or Geneva - it's not a matter of principle. More important is not the place of negotiations, but their results, since the conflict in the Donbas remains far from settlement, and this is quite obvious,” – Yevhen Mahda says.

Moreover, it is not yet known whether the Contact Group will be able to work normally in the future, regardless of the country hosting its meetings, Yevhen Mahda warns.

“After the approval of the law “On the reintegration of Donbas” by the Verkhovna Rada, there will generally be an attempt to torpedo the Minsk negotiating process on the part of Russia and its satellites - the so-called separatist republics. However,it is possible to move the negotiating platform - this is a great greeting from Donald Trump to Aliaksandr Lukashenka and his diplomacy. The Belarusian ruler said that Minsk is turning almost into the second Geneva, but in fact it isn’t.”