Kuleba explained in his article that “shuttle diplomacy” meant “the shuttle of diplomats between the parties to the conflict”, but now it is necessary to act differently. According to him, the three rounds of negotiations on security guarantees held in January (the US and Russia, NATO and Russia and the OSCE and Russia) “showed network diplomacy in action.” “This creates the effect of hundreds of mirrors for the Kremlin: Russia hears the same position from everywhere, agreed with Ukraine,” Kuleba said.
The Minister stressed that the diplomatic system of Ukraine in recent weeks has been working “like a modern gadget”, simultaneously solving several problems. This, in his opinion, allowed Kiev to achieve a high level of international support.
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Kuleba on January 16 revealed a plan to “contain” Russia, which “took a dangerous new course of escalation.” The strategy includes “strong de-escalation diplomacy”, developing economic sanctions, and deepening Western defense cooperation with Ukraine. Now Kuleba noted that another element has appeared in the plan – assistance to maintain the economic and financial stability of Ukraine.
Commenting on the strategy during its presentation, the head of the Foreign Ministry noted that the talks held in Europe from January 10 to 13 were “the culmination <...> of the general deterrence diplomacy.”
“The unity of the West was obvious,” he said, adding that “the overseas community has shown Russia that it is firmly on the side of Ukraine.”
At three meetings, the parties discussed draft agreements on security guarantees, which the Russian side proposed to the United States and NATO in December 2021. According to Moscow, it was not possible to achieve concrete results on them: the parties did not agree on not expanding the alliance to the east and refusing to join the countries of the former USSR, including Ukraine – these are the points Russia considers key to its security. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has repeatedly said that the alliance will not compromise on Ukraine’s membership in it. At the same time, both Washington and Brussels spoke about their readiness for dialogue with Moscow. The United States noted that some of the Russian proposals could be discussed.
On January 26, the Russian side received written responses from the United States and NATO to their demands. During a conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, Vladimir Putin said that the Western countries in their responses did not take into account the requirements for the non-expansion of NATO and the non-deployment of weapons near Russia’s borders.