Resolving Ukraine crisis calls for willingness to seek common security

A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not being planned, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the media on Friday, stating the "agenda is not ready at all". His comments came a week after US President Donald Trump met with Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, for talks aimed at ending the three-year conflict in Ukraine. The US president also met with Zelensky and European leaders on Monday last week.

Despite the desire for peace shared by all parties, the US-led peace process, which once looked workable after the multilateral meetings at the White House, has come to a halt again.

So far the only major outcomes of the process are to the benefit of the United States — the signing of a favorable mineral resource deal with Ukraine and getting the agreement of most members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to increase their defense spending to 5 percent of their GDP, with most of it earmarked for weapons purchases from the US. The US administration has not managed to prompt any major substantial breakthrough on the core issues concerning a negotiated end to the Ukraine crisis.

That Moscow and Kyiv have not narrowed the gap between them on the territorial issue or how to realize a security guarantee for Ukraine means there is still much work to be done to get the two sides to soften their positions to get peace talks started.

Commenting on a potential meeting between Putin and Zelensky, Trump told reporters on Friday: "We're going to see if Putin and Zelensky will be working together. You know, that's like oil and vinegar a little bit. They don't get along too well... but we'll see, and then we'll see whether or not I would have to be there. I'd rather not. I'd rather have them have a meeting and see how they can do."

Although Trump still didn't rule out his possible participation in a meeting in the statement, it shows a delicate change of attitude compared with the more positive remarks he made after the meetings at the White House when one of the focuses was on whether there should be a four-party meeting involving major European countries after the US-Russia-Ukraine trilateral meeting, as the French president urged.

The US-brokered peace process seems to have come right back to where it was after the Trump-Putin meeting on Aug 15.

No wonder Zelensky, who dares not criticize either the US or European countries, tried to point a finger of blame at Russia indicating Moscow is "doing everything" to prevent his meeting with Putin from taking place.

"The meeting is one of the components of how to end the war. And since they don't want to end it, they will look for space to (avoid it)," the Ukrainian president claimed.

But he should be reminded that before Moscow and Kyiv can reach any agreement on the core issues, no meeting between him and Putin is likely to produce any desirable result.

Both Russia and Ukraine have intensified attacks on each other's energy infrastructure over the past week.

Notably, Ukraine launched an attack on the Unecha pumping station in Russia's Bryansk region, which is a crucial part of the Druzhba oil pipeline that supplies oil to Hungary and Slovakia, two members of the European Union, making the situation even more complicated.

While ruling out a suggestion put forward by Lavrov that permanent United Nations Security Council members could underpin a security guarantee for Ukraine under a settlement that ends the Ukraine crisis, Zelensky even blamed China for not helping to stop Russia's "special military operation" in 2022, and made groundless accusations that China had "aided" Moscow. This view bears no resemblance to the reality. China has always acted in an open, fair and objective manner on the Ukraine crisis, and its constructive role is widely recognized by the international community.

As Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in response to a question on Zelensky's blaming of China on Friday, China is willing to play a constructive role in the peace process.

All sides should uphold a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security concept, and work to promote a political resolution of the Ukraine crisis.