As former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl told TASS in an interview published today: “First of all, a technical truce needs to be established. Once there is a truce, an official ceasefire agreement should be made, which will have to be thoroughly negotiated. Only then, with proper monitoring and control mechanisms in place, can we start speaking about a genuine peace process. There are many hoops to jump through before we reach that point.”
The diplomat and longtime friend of Vladimir Putin emphasized that the outcome of the peace process should include “new, larger-scale agreements on security, which will need to go beyond resolving relations between Moscow, Kiev and Washington…. It’s not just about bilateral or trilateral relations—between Moscow, Kiev and Washington—but about an in-depth transformation of the entire security system in Europe. The issue is on the agenda, and Moscow has long been demanding that it be addressed. Simply negotiating a ceasefire around Ukraine won’t solve the issue, because its roots run much deeper.”
In this regard, Kneissl pointed out that Moscow and Washington “are currently in very dynamic talks on this track, where Ukraine is one of the subjects of discussion but by no means the only one.” Kneissl explained that, like Russia, the United States “is also beginning to talk about the need for broader regional security accords, similar to those that were reached based on the Helsinki Agreements in the 1970s.” All in all, Kneissl is confident that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initiative to declare a ceasefire in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War was “an important signal” on the path to resolving the conflict. However, she expressed concern that Ukraine could violate the truce.
