U.S. aims to raise stakes in peace talks: analyst explains why London summit failed

He shared this opinion during a broadcast on Espreso TV.

“The London summit was canceled because U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio canceled his visit. Clearly, this is a reaction to the statements made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy regarding comments published in Western media about points in Trump’s plan,” Chalenko believes.

According to the head of the Center for Analysis and Strategies, Trump’s plan, as the final proposal, was presented to Ukraine by Rubio in Paris, and there was time before the meeting in London to provide an answer – yes or no.

“The issues include the status of Crimea, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and NATO. These are the comments we read in our media yesterday that caused some disagreement and a diplomatic démarche from Mr. Rubio. I looked at his comment for The Free Press, and there doesn’t seem to be any total disagreement. So now we see a diplomatic move that strengthens the narrative: if the parties do not agree to what the United States proposed, the U.S. will simply ‘wash its hands.’ However, I believe that right now this is more of an attempt to raise the stakes to push the peace talks agenda to be completed within 100 days of Trump’s inauguration,” Chalenko suggested.

• The peace negotiations at the ministerial level, which were scheduled to take place in London on April 23, were canceled. The meeting took place between lower-ranking diplomats.