MOSCOW, December 16. /TASS/. The US-Ukraine meeting in Berlin fails to secure a compromise on Donbass; Ukraine's elections are complicated by a lack of competition; and EU plans to seize Russian assets put Belgian businesses at risk. These stories topped Tuesday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
Talks between Vladimir Zelensky, US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, held in Berlin on December 14-15, did not result in a territorial compromise on Donbass that could be presented to Russia.
On December 15, Western media outlets reported that Zelensky did not agree to the demilitarized zone proposed in Trump's peace plan, which would require the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration in Donbass. According to the Bild newspaper, the US proposed that Ukraine withdraw its troops from 5,600 square kilometers of Donbass territory, which Russia considers its own in accordance with its constitution.
According to the Americans, this zone would become a "demilitarized economic zone" without Russian troops. Media leaks revealed that Trump's plan would de facto recognize Moscow's control over Crimea as well as Donbass while establishing a frozen line of engagement in the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions. On December 12, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov stated that a compromise on the demilitarized zone could be the deployment of armed Russian National Guard units to the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration after Ukrainian servicemen withdraw, rather than deploying the Russian army. Sources say that Ukraine, in an attempt to attract Trump, also proposed creating a free economic zone in this demilitarized area where US entrepreneurs could work.
