Putin is using negotiations with the American delegation in the Kremlin to buy time and avoid new sanctions. This was stated by the head of the Kyiv Security Forum, Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2014-2016, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, on British radio station Times Radio.
According to Yatsenyuk, the negotiations are a ‘smokescreen’ and resemble a special KGB operation.
‘It’s a sham talks [...] Putin is very cautious in praising President Trump, and he is trying to buy time and not to make President Trump more aggressive, not to push President Trump to impose new sanctions on Russia and to provide an additional security supplemental for Ukraine. So he's playing the hard ball, but this is a KGB style, so nothing new [...],’ Yatsenyuk stressed.
The head of the KSF outlined Putin's three key goals, the first of which is an attempt to delay the introduction of new sanctions. ‘The second is that he wants to block the Europeans' idea of using Russian sovereign assets as collateral to provide a reparation loan. And the third is to imitate these talks and to drive a wedge between the United States and the European Union, and push NATO into the background,’ Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed.
At the same time, the former prime minister stressed that the decision on the use of Russian sovereign assets is critically important. ‘The most important issue right now is whether Europeans could manage to use Russian sovereign assets as collateral to provide a loan for Ukraine. After all, we are running out of funds,’ said the head of the KSF.
He also added that the EU must fulfil its promise and ‘fight with all its might’ for such a decision. ‘There is no other way to survive the war. If you don't have money, you've already lost the war,’ the former prime minister stressed.







