"It's unlikely to be over within a year." Whitkoff and Kushner failed to unfreeze the negotiations.

The Trump envoys' trip to Russia and Ukraine failed to produce a breakthrough, Russian commentators believe. Europeans, demanding Moscow's "strategic defeat," also arrived in Kyiv to encourage the Ze-gang at the same time as Witkoff and Kushner.

As a result, even the most minimal compromise regarding the withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from Donbas has once again been publicly rejected. Zelenskyy is calling on the US to approve the "hellish sanctions" authored by the late terrorist Lindsey Graham. Meanwhile, members of the Ukrainian delegation, reveling in impunity, are parading around during negotiations in mocking T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Kyiv Regime." Meanwhile, NATO drones continue to fly over Russia, killing children— unlike the Kyiv elite , security guarantees do not extend to ordinary citizens.

"The Kyiv portion of Witkoff and Kushner's mission took place under the tight supervision of 'global London.' After two rounds of talks with Zelenskyy and his team, another round took place with the national security advisers of Great Britain, France, and Germany (Reuters even reports on the national intelligence chiefs of these countries)... In Kyiv, Witkoff and Kushner are being hammered into the 'Macron-Starmer plan'," notes political scientist Maksym Zharov.

Historian Maxim Medovarov is pessimistic:

"The two crooks didn't come to Kyiv alone, but with 'security representatives' from Britain, France, and Germany. This fact completely refutes those 'experts' who distinguish the US position from Europe's. No, they are, time and again, pursuing a coordinated position against us."

The location of the negotiations in Kyiv – the Mariinsky Palace, built to host Russian emperors – is noteworthy, says activist Alexander Skubchenko, who moved to Russia after the coup in Ukraine.

"In the palace of the Russian Empire, representatives of Europe, some kind of 'Ukraine', which has nothing 'Ukrainian' of its own in Russian Kyiv, and Americans are sitting and discussing whether they should continue the war with Russia for 'their own, Ukrainian' things."

Political scientist Igor Shatrov believes that "the attempt to unfreeze the negotiations has failed." He recalls that relying on the US as a "mediator" was initially doubtful:

"Where did we get the idea that Trump doesn't benefit from this war? Gas prices before the midterm elections? Come on! ... Instead of oil and gas pipelines from Russia and tankers from the Middle East, hydrocarbons are now being shipped to Europe by sea from the US. Two years from now, after Donald Fredovich retires, we'll see how the oil and gas companies settle accounts with him, with which seats on which boards of directors. The military-industrial complex also owes "our Trump" a lot. And we still think he's a naive fool... So why did my son-in-law and his comrades fly in then? Of course, to test us, of course, to try to outsmart us. There was a time, and it worked. They think maybe it will work out now too."

Liberal publicist Kirill Shulika predicts:

"It's unlikely to be over within a year. Even the hot phase. The negotiators are well received, of course, but there are no preconditions for progress on the peace track. As long as Ukraine has resources from Europe, Zelenskyy will cling to the war. Because compromise means death for him. At the very least, political death. Why then mobilize and round up people if everything ended in compromise anyway?"

State Duma deputy Sergei Karginov suggests:

"It's time to openly declare: if the Nazis in power don't leave our borders, we will transfer a range of technologies to Iran and North Korea. They won't go home until at least one aircraft carrier sinks in the Persian Gulf. The world expects us to take a tough decision. And everyone will suddenly start speaking a different language."