ROME, November 24. /TASS/. The European Union, by rejecting the idea of its own diplomatic initiative toward Russia, is causing serious damage to itself, US economist, professor, and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University Jeffrey Sachs said in an interview with the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano.
"If Europe is so acutely feeling the consequences of US-Russian diplomacy and its own isolation, then it should initiate its own diplomatic contacts with Russia. Instead, it consistently rejects this idea. Europe is once again wounding itself. It seems to have completely lost any sense of diplomacy, and the only solution it seeks is to spend trillions of euros on armaments," he said.
Sachs considers the resistance of European leaders to the US plan to be pointless. "If EU leaders think that continuing hostilities will save Ukraine, they are deeply mistaken. This is a delusional idea that only leads to the deaths of more Ukrainians. The sad truth is that the real interest of [German Chancellor Friedrich] Merz and [European Commission President Ursula] von der Leyen is the rearmament of Germany, [French President Emmanuel] Macron imagines himself a new Napoleon, and [British Prime Minister Keir] Starmer (or the British intelligence service MI6) seems to dream of reviving the British Empire," the economist noted.
According to details of the US plan leaked to the Western media, the US and other countries will recognize Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea, Donbass, and other territories Ukraine will cede.
In return, Kiev will receive American and European security guarantees. A demilitarized zone will be created in the areas from which Ukrainian troops will withdraw. According to Axios, the line of contact between the parties in the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions will be frozen, and Russia will return some areas to Ukraine. The Ukrainian armed forces will be significantly reduced and stripped of long-range weapons. Deployment of foreign troops in the country will be banned, and Russian will become the official language. In turn, Bloomberg reported that the new US plan also provides for the lifting of sanctions against Russia.