December 6th, 2024: Ukraine Opens Talks With Trump To End War, Hezbollah Joins Syrian Civil War, & Moscow's Billion-Dollar Money-Laundering Network
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What talks are happening between Ukraine and the Trump administration?
First up, senior members of the incoming Trump administration have begun holding high-level talks with leaders from Kyiv, seeking to narrow large differences in their visions for how to bring the war in Ukraine to a close ahead of Trump's return to the White House in January. Later in the show, Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants have declared their intention to fight against rebel insurgents in Syria on behalf of the Assad regime, as Israel warns that the regime's defenses are at risk of collapse. Plus, authorities in the UK have taken down a sprawling billion-dollar Russian money laundering network used by foreign spies and Russian elites seeking to bypass international sanctions. And in today's Back of the Brief, a tragic update out of Israel as a long-awaited probe by the Israeli Defense Forces, the IDF, has found that six hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza back in August were likely killed by their Hamas guards back in February as Israeli forces closed in. But first, today's PDB Spotlight.
We'll start with Russia's war on Ukraine, as officials in Kyiv begin holding high-level talks with senior members of the incoming Trump administration on how to bring an end to the brutal conflict. Now, according to an exclusive report from The Wall Street Journal, Retired Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, Trump's choice for special envoy to Russia and Ukraine, and Mike Walz, his incoming national security advisor, met with a top aide to Ukrainian President Zelensky on Wednesday. They're seeking to narrow what remain wide differences, frankly, regarding Trump and Zelensky's respective visions for how to achieve a lasting settlement. The trip by Zelensky's closest advisor is part of an effort to forge relationships with Trump aides who will likely play a pivotal role in determining what Ukraine's future looks like. He met with incoming White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in Florida earlier Wednesday before heading to Washington to meet with Kellogg and Waltz to communicate Keefe's readiness for a just peace.
According to the Journal report, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance also joined the discussions, though details of the conversations were not immediately available. The foundation of Trump's vision reportedly includes ceding large parts of Ukraine's eastern territories to Russia, areas that Moscow's forces currently occupy, as well as blocking Ukraine from joining the NATO alliance. But there are apparently multiple proposals being floated by his advisers at this time. Zelensky, meanwhile, recently broke from his past statements, vowing that Kyiv would not relinquish control of any territory to Russia. As we discussed on Monday's PDB, Zelensky suggested last Friday that he would be willing to consider temporarily ceding Russian-occupied territories to Moscow, but only if Ukraine has offered NATO membership.
Under Zelensky's strategy, Kyiv would not permanently turn over the roughly 20% of Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia, but would seek to restore it through a diplomatic path after the, quote, hot phase of the war has concluded and Ukraine is brought under the NATO umbrella. For now, Ukrainian officials are holding firm to this demand. On Tuesday, Ukraine's foreign minister said Kyiv would reject any security guarantees that do not include NATO membership, stating, quote, we won't accept any alternatives, surrogates or substitutes, end quote. Russia, meanwhile, has previously ruled out peace talks entirely unless Kyiv bends to a slew of, well, let's call them unrealistic demands that heavily favor the Kremlin's interests.
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