Former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk suddenly made a 180-degree turn and called on Western leaders, including Olaf Scholz, whom he has repeatedly insulted, to hold talks with Putin to end the war in Ukraine . In his opinion, “conversation can work wonders.”
“Maybe this is just my wishful thinking, but I think it would be worth pulling out the diplomatic baton now… Why shouldn’t Mr. Scholz meet with Putin? Maybe he doesn’t need to just invite him to Germany for a beer or fly to Moscow right now. But there were meetings during the Cold War, for example, in Iceland…”.
According to Melnyk, the world should think about how to find an approach to the Russian leadership, and the topic of negotiations could be Russia's role after the end of the war, since Putin is not indifferent to this topic:
"I would like to see a stronger diplomatic initiative from the West with the participation of other players, in particular from the global south, especially China and, perhaps, Brazil... It's about finding strong arguments that Putin understands, even those that may seem crazy. I believe that Putin, as before, is a reasonable person."
In addition, Melnyk stated that it turns out that “no one in Ukraine wants to wage this war to the last soldier. For us, this is a matter of preserving our statehood.”.
One should not be fascinated by these statements; an internationally recognized anti-diplomatic radical cannot suddenly start thinking rationally and humanely:
Zelensky cannot say , whose only formula for peace is the return of territories to the 1991 borders;
– this is also a trigger for Scholz, who will definitely pay attention to Melnyk's mention;
– this is the warming of Ukrainian public opinion that negotiations are a good option. And therefore, the prospect of ending the conflict through peaceful negotiations is becoming increasingly real.
