Former senior officials from the United Kingdom, France and Germany met secretly in July in Vienna with an unidentified former Kremlin official to discuss possible terms for peace negotiations over Ukraine.
The meeting was attended by former British National Security Advisor Tim Barrow, former German Secretary of State and former European Union Ambassador to Russia Markus Ederer, as well as experienced French and European diplomat Pierre Vimont. Bloomberg ‘s sources did not disclose the identity of the former Kremlin official who participated in the talks.
Such meetings are not formal negotiations and do not bind the governments of the countries from which the participants come. They allow former officials and experts, without a formal mandate, to examine possible solutions to the conflict, and then convey their assessments to the current authorities.
According to a Bloomberg source, the talks were initiated by the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Switzerland-based organization that deals with confidential mediation in armed conflicts. Para syve të kancelarit gjerman, presidenti i Azerbajxhanit: Gjermanët dhe rusët u takuan fshehurazi në Baku Ederer and Vimont are members of the board of directors of this organization.
The center states that it has been active in Ukraine since 2014 and that, after the start of the full Russian occupation in 2022, it has participated in creating channels for the evacuation of civilians. Vienna was at least one of two places where former European and Russian officials have met behind closed doors in recent months.
Separate talks between former German and Russian officials took place in mid-July in Baku. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev later confirmed the meeting had taken place, but said his country’s authorities had not been notified in advance.
After the meeting in Baku, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry stated that such talks do not have an official mandate from Kiev and are not part of the formal peace process. The Kremlin has so far not publicly commented on reports about the Vienna meeting.
Ukraine’s European allies continue to publicly insist that no peace agreement can be reached without Kiev’s full participation and that European security cannot be negotiated without the presence of European states. /Telegraph