Photo: Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgy Tykhyi (Vitaliy Nosach, RBC-Ukraine) Author: Natalia Yurchenko
The negotiations between the Ukrainian and US delegations in Saudi Arabia lasted eight hours. The actions of the Ukrainian team were remotely directed by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
This was reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Georgy Tykhyi on Facebook.
“The negotiations in Jeddah were among the most interesting of those in which I had to participate. Namely from the point of view of the art of diplomacy, strategic thinking, the search for non-standard solutions, the correct balance of flexibility and firmness, the ability to take tactical steps for the sake of the final goal. All this was demonstrated yesterday by the Ukrainian delegation and, above all, the President of Ukraine, who remotely directed its actions,” he noted.
Tikhiy noted that the negotiations lasted more than eight hours in total – “almost continuously, if you don't count lunch, during which work also generally took place.”
“I can only say one thing about the impression of such a duration: historians underestimate the role of human exhaustion in making historical decisions. It is precisely in these last hours of the endgame, when fatigue is already making itself felt, that a way out of the impasse and even difficult compromises suddenly become possible,” the speaker added.
He also named the “emotional and informational background of the meeting” as an important factor, which determined the boundaries of the space for compromise and influenced the negotiating positions. According to him, the meeting took place under the sights of hundreds of television cameras from around the world and in a thick cloud of “informed sources.”
Another nuance, according to Tykhyi, is the importance of the personal role of the negotiators. The Foreign Ministry spokesman emphasized that the Ukrainian delegation included both the diplomatic and military blocs, “everyone showed themselves to be extremely professional, principled and wise.”
“I remember how, at one of the most difficult moments, towards the end, Minister Andrei Sybiha looked at me half-turned and his expression read “well, well”, but also a calm “everything will be fine”,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman wrote.
According to Tykhy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky played a key role. The speaker noted that Zelensky remotely “directed the delegation's actions to the ironclad defense of a number of fundamental positions and wise flexibility in relation to others, which allowed us to achieve a final positive result.”
Tychy reported that already on the plane, after the negotiations, confirmation was received from diplomats that “all processes in Rzeszow had just been restored.”
At the same time, he emphasized that Ukraine “completely seized the strategic diplomatic initiative and changed the course of the game” during the negotiations.
Negotiations between Ukraine and the USA
Let us recall that yesterday, March 11, a meeting of Ukrainian and US delegations took place in Saudi Arabia. The negotiations took place in Jeddah and lasted eight hours.
Ukraine was represented at the talks by the head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, and Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Pavlo Palisa. The United States was represented at the meeting by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US National Security Advisor Mike Walz.
Following the meeting, it became known that the United States will resume providing military aid to Ukraine and exchanging intelligence.
The American side also proposed a 30-day ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine supported the proposal, and a decision by the Russian Federation is awaited.
More about the negotiations in Saudi Arabia and what Ukraine and the US agreed on – in our article.
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