MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. The European Union is seeking to insert itself in negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict, and China’s top diplomat traveled to India amid warming ties. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump plans to abolish mail-in voting. These stories topped Wednesday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.

 

Izvestia: EU seeks role in Ukrainian settlement

The European Union is seeking to involve itself in negotiations between Moscow, Washington, and Kiev. French President Emmanuel Macron earlier proposed sending a European representative to a potential trilateral meeting between Russia, the United States, and Ukraine. Even as European leaders could be invited to join the process, their participation may add further hurdles to conflict settlement at this stage, experts argue. The Europeans seem to be attempting to create extra challenges for Russia.

The August 15 meeting between Russian and US presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Anchorage alarmed European leaders who support the idea of sending more lethal weapons to Kiev. On Tuesday, Europe held two major meetings as the `coalition of the willing’ and the European Council convened via video link.

The `coalition of the willing’ agreed to hold more meetings with the United States to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, The Guardian reported, citing a statement. And President of the European Council Antonio Costa said following a video conference of the members that it is necessary to introduce security guarantees that would be similar to Article 5 of NATO’s Charter on collective defense involving the United States. Also, he called on the EU to increase military support to Ukraine and expand anti-Russian sanctions further.

"The Europeans are seeking to hamper Russia’s advances. They can see that Russia is winning and taking more land and they want that stopped," German political analyst Alexander Rahr told Izvestia. "They would like to freeze this process so that Ukraine can lose as little land as possible," he explained.

Even as the European Union has imposed 18 packages of sanctions on Russia since the special military operation was launched, with the United Kingdom and Switzerland joining the bloc, the Europeans claim to provide a venue for negotiations.

If European countries join the negotiation process right now, it will complicate and delay resolving the Ukraine conflict," believes Andrey Kortunov, an expert at the Valdai Discussion Club. "The Europeans will inevitably take part, especially when and if European security issues are discussed," he told Izvestia. "But <…> it is difficult to expect any constructive or compromise proposals from European capitals," the expert concluded.

 

Vedomosti: China’s top diplomat arrives in India on his first visit in three years

Wang Yi, Director of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission Office and China’s Foreign Minister, visited New Delhi from August 18 to August 20 on his first trip to the Indian capital since 2022. He met with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, on the sidelines of the 24th round of talks on resolving border disputes, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

China and India revived dialogue on maintaining peace and ensuring stability in border areas "across the board." The two sides held the previous round of talks in Beijing in December.

China and India maintain strained relations, marred with a border dispute, Sergey Tsyplakov, professor at the Higher School of Economics, told Vedomosti. While there can be progress, the two sides have so far agreed to avoid clashes in the Himalayas, he explained. With the border dispute simmering since the 1960s, it is still a long way to go to agree on any border delimitation, professor at St. Petersburg State University Yana Leksyutina added. Even as the territorial dispute is not an existential issue, resolving it would cause domestic political repercussions to India, so it is in no rush, Alexey Kupriyanov, Head of the Indo-Pacific Center at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, explained.

This time, Wang visited New Delhi at the invitation of Ajit Doval, the National Security Advisor of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on its website. According to Kupriyanov, Doval is a key figure in charge of Modi’s Asian diplomacy. On August 5-7, Doval paid a sudden visit to Moscow to boost ties with Russia as he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Doval’s Moscow visit came as US President Donald Trump first threatened and then imposed an additional 25% tariff on India for purchasing Russian oil, bringing the total taxes against the South Asian republic to 50%.

In part, China and India, indeed, are drawing closer together because of Trump, Kupriyanov says. According to him, rapprochement has been taking shape for more than six months already. Falling Western investment in the Indian economy, problems with the implementation of major national projects, and fears in New Delhi that Trump will deliver on his promise and force the repatriation of US companies have fueled this trend. So, this could be a good time to bring relations with India back to normal, according to China, Leksyutina argues. The United States has been putting economic pressure on BRICS which may strengthen financial cooperation inside the group, she said.

 

Nezavisimaya Gazeta: White House plans to get rid of mail-in ballots

US President Donald Trump announced his intentions to lead a movement to abolish mail-in ballots to ensure a fair electoral process and prevent the events of five years ago when the presidential election was plagued by fraud from repeating. By railing against mail-in voting, Trump shows that he still believes that the 2020 election was won by him rather than Joe Biden.

At a meeting with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky in the Oval Office on August 18, Trump said that the best American lawyers are working to draft a bill banning mail-in voting. The US president confirmed in a post on his Truth Social media network that he is "going to lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots." Trump insists that an election with mail-in ballots and open borders allowing illegal migrants to vote alongside US citizens can never be fair.

Regardless of whether the election was rigged or not, ending mail-in voting will clearly play against Democrats, Vladimir Vasilyev, a senior research fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for US and Canadian Studies said in a comment to Nezavisimaya Gazeta. He noted that it is Republican voters, or the conservative electorate, who cast their ballots on Election Day in a disciplined manner. "And they are prejudiced against mail-in voting, and therefore cancelling it will help energize conservative voters," he argues.

Trump also has another plan to increase the GOP’s chances of winning next year’s midterm elections. The US leader supported redistricting proposed by Texas. The initiative put forward by the state in the South Central region may give Republicans five extra seats in Congress as early as in the 2026 midterm election.

 

Izvestia: Hamas agrees to Gaza ceasefire plan proposed by Egypt, Qatar

The radical Palestinian movement Hamas has approved a Gaza ceasefire proposal put forward by Egypt and Qatar. The initiative includes a partial deal based on an earlier proposal from US Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and a 60-day halt in fighting in exchange for a release of 10 Israeli hostages who are still alive and a transfer of 18 bodies, a Hamas official told Izvestia.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video address on Monday, following a visit to the military in Gaza, that Hamas is "under immense pressure."

Mohammed al-Masri, a Palestinian security expert, told Izvestia that Hamas has been under intense pressure from Egypt and Palestinian factions. "It’s noteworthy that the latest response from Hamas contained no caveats or preconditions," the expert said.

Even as, amid protests, Netanyahu may make certain concessions, after the deal, he will return to his plans to seize control of Gaza City that he has announced, as continuing the war remains his priority, Kirill Semyonov, an expert in Oriental studies, told Izvestia.

On August 17, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets, demanding an end to the Gaza war and a release of hostages. The headquarters of their families estimated that half a million people protested in Tel Aviv, while nationwide protests involved about a million people. The country has been swept by protests against the war and the Netanyahu government for more than a year now. However, there are people in the ruling coalition who oppose the deal.

Meanwhile, Hamas still holds 50 hostages, including Maxim Kharkin from the Donbass region.

 

Izvestia: Russia ready to start mining for minerals in Zambia

Russian companies are ready to launch geological exploration and mining projects in Zambia, Russian Ambassador to the southern African country Azim Yarakhmedov told Izvestia. According to him, copper, cobalt, lithium, and rare earths are of interest, among other strategic resources. Zambia is Africa’s second-largest copper producer, which makes it a major economic partner. Experts say that Russia would also like to expand cooperation with other countries, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Mali. And the list of potential partners may grow as the resource potential of many African countries has not been fully explored yet.

New Russian initiatives on the African continent will require investment, especially in the mining industry. The Russian side has something to offer Zambia in terms of financing, including cooperation within BRICS, Yarakhmedov said. "Talks are underway to potentially connect [Zambia] to BRICS platforms, including the BRICS Development Bank with settlements in national currencies, where Russia and Zambia could jointly set up production clusters, for example, in processing copper concentrate or lithium-containing raw materials," the diplomat specified.

"There are lots of items that Russia refuses to produce domestically because buying them is cheaper," expert at the National Energy Security Fund and professor of the Financial University under the Russian Government Stanislav Mitrakhovich told Izvestia.

"Of course, Africa is important to Russia. The Russian Strategy for the Development of the Mineral Resource Base until 2035, adopted by the government, includes a list of minerals that are scarce in Russia or that should be imported to meet economic needs. Among other minerals, it includes lithium, uranium, bauxite, manganese, chromium, titanium, and a number of other minerals that Africa is rich in and that are necessary for the energy transition, semiconductor, and other advanced industries," Vsevolod Sviridov, deputy director of the Center for African Studies at the Higher School of Economics, pointed out.

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