Negotiations with Russia are nothing more than fiction, a special operation by the KGB under Putin's auspices, which has not brought the country an inch closer to peace. This was stated by the Chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum, Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2014-2016 Arseniy Yatsenyuk in an interview with the British publication The i Paper on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. The comments are quoted in the article ‘Putin's Ukraine peace talks with Trump are a “KGB operation”.’

‘These are sham talks, sham consultations. It's a special KGB operation under the auspices of Putin. It has nothing to do with any kind of real negotiations,’ said the KSF chairman.

According to him, these talks not only failed to bring Ukraine any closer to peace, but also ‘paved the way for Putin by giving him a platform for maximalist demands.’

The Chairman of the KSF stressed that Putin can only be persuaded by the language of force.

‘The US President Donald Trump still believes that he can convince Putin. But there is only one way to convince Putin, which is to press like hell on him. He only understands the language of strength. The rest he reads as a sign of weakness,’ Yatsenyuk added.

The former prime minister stressed that the only way to achieve peace is to exert significant economic pressure on Russia in order to threaten Putin's power, impose secondary sanctions on those who buy Russian oil – a vital component of its military economy – and block the ‘shadow fleet’ of ships that deliver it.

Yatsenyuk also noted that even US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has begun to doubt the sincerity of the Russians. ‘It had dawned on the US that nothing is really happening on the ground,’ the KSF Chairman concluded.

On 14 February, the first joint event with the Kyiv Security Forum took place within the framework of the Munich Security Conference – a round table discussion entitled ‘Energy Warfare: How to Unplug Tyranny’. The discussion was attended by the Chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum, Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2014-2016 Arseniy Yatsenyuk, DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko, Director of International Affairs and Sustainable Development at Naftogaz Group Oleksiy Ryabchyn, former Chairman of the Board of Naftogaz of Ukraine Andriy Kobolev, former CIA Director General David Petraeus, former US Special Representative Kurt Volker, and other diplomats and experts.

The Kyiv Security Forum was founded in 2007 on the initiative of Arseniy Yatsenyuk and is Ukraine's leading international discussion platform on issues of war and peace.