Politicians and experts note Ukraine experiencing lack of diplomatic resources
Ukraine lacks a high-quality diplomatic resource that would significantly influence the political landscape, founder of the Bendukidze Free Market Center Volodymyr Fedoryn believes.
In his opinion, the reason is not the lack of qualified personnel. "The country needs a strong Minister of Foreign Affairs who will determine policy. Maybe it's Petro Poroshenko, maybe Borys Gudziak, maybe someone I haven't thought of. A crisis is an opportunity," Fedoryn said.
Vadym Ivchenko, a member of Batkivschyna faction and a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, noted the importance of Ukraine introducing the position of a special representative of Ukraine to the United States, similar to Keith Kellogg, as an additional negotiator between Washington and Kyiv. "He could help resolve important issues, because currently there is virtually no normal dialogue between the Trump and Zelenskyy teams," he said on Facebook.
At the same time, Volodymyr Rysenko, a lawyer at Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center, is skeptical about the possible successes of the other negotiating team. "Has everyone already written about the successes of the diplomats of Canada and Mexico? Canada and Mexico fulfilled all of Trump's demands, no one exposed their diplomats from the White House. But they still got the tariffs," he said.
Economist Borys Kushniruk called the negotiations in the White House a "systemic diplomatic failure," but notes that the leaders of European countries understand that now we are talking not only about threats to Ukraine, but also to all of Europe, and the restoration of relations between the Trump administration and the leadership of Ukraine is important for European security.
"Ukraine needs to agree as soon as possible with the leaders of European countries on an official mediator who will be able to negotiate with Trump and Putin on behalf of Europe and Ukraine. By the way, it seems that George Maloney would be the best candidate for this mission, given her good relations at least with Trump," Kushniruk said on Facebook.
In turn, MP Petro Poroshenko, former Minister of Foreign Affairs (2009-2010) and the fifth President of Ukraine (2014-2019), said that he was ready to use his connections in Washington to restore the necessary level of cooperation with the U.S. administration. "Ukraine must use the window of opportunity to restore our strong unity, transatlantic unity with Europe and the United States," he said in an interview with the German TV channel RTL.
"This is necessary not only for the security of Ukraine, but also for the security of Europe, the security of NATO and, ultimately, the security of America. We must present arguments why 'peace through force' in Ukraine definitely meets the interests of NATO and America. I have no doubt, and I am definitely ready to go to Washington, hold meetings within the framework of parliamentary diplomacy. To meet with many of my friends, Republicans and Democrats, in the House of Representatives or the Senate, to hold negotiations on the restoration of our partnership between Ukraine and the United States. This is one of the key and most important factors of our common security," Poroshenko believes.