A readout of the Nov. 13 meeting between U.S. special representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s representative, Vladyslav Surkov, yielded no hope for peace in Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has claimed 10,000 lives in nearly four years and left Ukraine without control of Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas.
Volker and Surkov met in Belgrade, Serbia.
The readout left no doubt that nothing was accomplished:
“It was their third meeting and was a thorough discussion of the current diplomatic state of play concerning efforts to end the war 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 (the 2015) Minsk (peace agreement). Both sides agreed to reflect on the discussions today, and to think about further ways to address this challenge.”
There was no mention of when and where the next meeting of the two representatives would take place.
