Name: What are the concessions Moscow is pushing hardest to extract? | DW News
Uploaded: 2025-11-28T16:57:27.000Z
Duration: 7 min 56 s
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The Trump administration is accelerating its push for a negotiated end to Russia's war against Ukraine.

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The president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, will head to Moscow next week for talks potentially with Vladimir Putin.

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At this stage, it's not clear what deal they'll be discussing.

President Trump described the meeting as being to fine tune the amended version of a draft peace plan that was rejected by Ukraine and its European allies.

But despite the diplomatic push, there is no sign of Russia easing its attacks.

Let's get into this with Michael McFaul, who's a professor of political science at Stanford University.

He served as US ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, is also the author of Autocrats vs Democrats, China, Russia, America and the New Global Disorder, which came out last month.

From what you've learned about this fine tuned US Peace plan, do you think it does meaningly move this conflict towards an end?

Of course, everybody wants this barbaric invasion of Ukraine to end Vladimir Putin's invasion.

The first proposal, of course, was a non starter.

It was just the old talking points, the old maximalist positions of Putin from years ago.

I think the there was real progress in the meeting between Secretary of State Rubio and Zelensky's chiefs of staff, Andrea Yermak.

From what I understand, that was a very productive meeting.

But if it's productive between the Ukrainians and Americans, it's most likely to be a document that Putin won't accept.

So I'm not sure that we've advanced anything concretely.

And in particular, what I'm struck by is I have not learned in any of the various reporting about the many, many plans that have been floated that Putin has changed his position on anything.

Not one single concession that has changed that makes me suspicious that we're close to a deal.

How does the greatest military political power on earth come to a point where it says to the world, well, it leaks to the world that they have a plan that is everything that Vladimir Putin has been wanting for years and not think that no one's going to buy it?

I don't know the answer to your very good question.

I just am not impressed with Mr. Witkoff's work in terms of trying to end this war.

I applauded what he did with getting the war to end in Gaza and getting the prisoners released that he should be applauded for that.

But applying those same tactics to this conflict is just not working.

And in Particular, it seems like when the special envoy, Wyckoff meets with Putin or talks to Yuri Ushakov, all he does is write down what they want.

I've seen no evidence whatsoever that he's actually mediating, that he's actually negotiating, that he's actually doing the give and take, the very give and take that President Trump just described on the airplane.

That's what normally it takes to end very complicated wars like this one.

And so far, it's all just been placating what Putin wants, and that hasn't worked.

President Zelensky has been working with European leaders to make the amendments to this plan.

Do you read that as genuine optimism or a pragmatic response to US Threats?

Well, I do think some of the most egregious constraints on Ukrainian sovereignty from the original plan were removed in the Geneva talks.

I don't think it's been resolved what it means to give Ukraine a security guarantee.

I think that's one of the big outstanding questions for President Zelensky.

And then on the other side, Putin has been very clear, tragically, that he is not going to stop fighting until he has all of Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

30% of Donbas is still held by Ukrainian soldiers.

So those two issues, to the best of my knowledge, have not been resolved in Geneva.

And I worry that they won't be resolved when we bring the Russians into the conversation.

So the Russians say that parts of this amended plan look positive, but the rest needs discussion.

Is there any comfort to be taken from the fact that they haven't dismissed it out of hand?

I guess, if you're an eternal optimist, yes.

I've heard what his deputy Foreign minister, Rybkov, just said a few hours ago.

And they said very clearly, we're not giving any concessions.

We are basing the negotiations moving forward based on allegedly.

I don't know what was agreed to in Anchorage.

But they're basing it on what was agreed to in Anchorage.

And that suggests to me that they're not in a flexible position and that, again, I want to hope that I'm wrong.

But we've been here before, we've seen this before, and

And I'm pessimistic that this new round of negotiations will lead to a different conclusion.

President Zelensky has been caught up in this alleged corruption scandal involving his former associates.

I think we need to remember that the Russian army is losing casualties at a far greater rate than the Ukrainian army is.

And after three and a half years of fighting, they've barely moved on the battlefield.

I mean, you look at a map, it's basically the same map with very incremental villages here and there being lost after three and a half years.

So the idea that the Russians are winning, that is an idea sometimes floated here in the United States.

It is tragic, however, that both sides are losing too many people.

And that's why, of course, we would like to see an end to this war.

But it is incorrect to assume that Ukraine is on the verge of collapse.

I just see no evidence to support that proposition.

If the war ends with Russia keeping territory, even indirectly, do you think this will embolden other revisionist powers?

If Putin gets his way and through imperial annexation, gets to take part of Ukraine, I think that undermines the international order that was set up after 1945 to stop wars of imperialism and to stop annexation.

And by the way, it's been pretty successful at that.

And so I worry what the signals are to around the world, especially in Beijing, with respect to Taiwan.

Professor Michael McFaul from Stanford University.

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What are the concessions Moscow is pushing hardest to extract? | DW News

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