All details can only be disclosed years from now – Ukraine's MFA shares insights on Jeddah talks

He wrote about this on Facebook.  

"The negotiations in Jeddah were among the most interesting I have ever participated in, particularly in terms of the art of diplomacy, strategic thinking, finding unconventional solutions, maintaining a skillful balance between flexibility and firmness, and taking tactical steps for the sake of the ultimate goal," Tykhyi noted.  

According to him, all of this was demonstrated during the negotiations on March 11 by the Ukrainian delegation and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who remotely guided its actions.  

The spokesperson stated that all the details of the meeting "can only be disclosed many years from now." However, he shared a few nuances that "won’t cause harm."  

"First, the duration. The negotiations lasted more than eight hours in total—almost uninterrupted, except for lunch, during which work continued as well. Regarding the impression of such a long duration, I can say only one thing: historians underestimate the role of human exhaustion in making historical decisions," Tykhyi wrote.  

He pointed out that in the final hours, when fatigue sets in, "suddenly, a way out of a deadlock becomes possible, and even difficult compromises."

Another important nuance of the meeting, according to the MFA spokesperson, was the emotional and informational backdrop, which "defined the boundaries for compromises and influenced the negotiation positions."  

"By the evening before the meeting, the information space was completely flooded with articles from unnamed sources. A sort of anonymous communication between key players. Expectations, attempts to facilitate or derail the process, or simply random statements and interpretations," the spokesperson wrote.  

He also emphasized the crucial role of individual negotiators in this meeting. Tykhyi recalled that both the diplomatic and military sectors were represented in the Ukrainian delegation. According to him, everyone demonstrated "maximum professionalism, principles, and wisdom."  

"I remember, in one of the toughest moments, already near the end, Minister Andrii Sybiha glanced at me halfway and on his face, I read a silent 'well, well,' but also a calm 'everything will be fine,'" Heorhiy Tykhyi wrote.  

He shared that in the final stages of drafting the joint statement, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy played a key role, "directing the delegation's actions toward an unyielding defense of several fundamental positions while maintaining strategic flexibility on others, which allowed for a final positive result."  

"I won't go into the details of the joint statement and the decisions reached… I'll just say that there's no better reward after such an intense day than sitting on a plane and receiving a short, dry confirmation from our diplomats in Poland that all processes in Rzeszów have just been resumed. And also seeing how in the Russian information space, 'firetrucks are rushing around, and people are scrambling.' Because they realized that Ukraine had just completely seized the strategic diplomatic initiative and changed the course of the game," Tykhyi concluded.

• Ukrainian politician and diplomat Roman Bezsmertnyi shared his opinion on the topics that will be discussed during the negotiations in Saudi Arabia.