Moscow, through Lavrov, pushes its plan on Trump

To sum it up briefly: the Kremlin saw that Trump was starting to stray from the script brought from Moscow by Witkoff and decided to give him a cold shower. Translating from diplomatic language into plain words: "if you even slightly deviate from the Kremlin's wishes — because Ukrainians and Europeans have their own red lines — you won't get any quick deals at all, so don't even dream about it."

It seems logical: if the best-case scenario for the Kremlin is the full implementation of the so-called "Witkoff plan," then the second-best is either a complete U.S. withdrawal from the negotiation process and cutting off support for Ukraine, or dragging out U.S.-Russia negotiations for many months while the Russian offensive continues — and the very fact that negotiations are ongoing would again restrict U.S. support for Ukraine in any form.

Of course, we would prefer a different scenario: that U.S. talks with the Kremlin are stopped and that certain forms of U.S. support for Ukraine are preserved. The coming weeks will show how realistic that is.

Also: it’s impossible not to notice that Lavrov’s statements are just an endless stream of resentment — everyone is always insulting Russia, everyone is always deceiving it. "You bombed Belgorod, and now for some reason we’re not allowed to bomb Kyiv or Sumy — where’s the justice in that?" The Kremlin’s foreign policy toward the West is basically a never-ending "politics of ressentiment."

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About the author. Oleksiy Panych, philosopher, member of the Ukrainian Center of the International PEN Club, blogger.

The editorial staff does not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.