在两周的密集外交之后，12月2日，以弗拉基米尔·普京在莫斯科让唐纳德·特朗普的特使们等候两个半小时、随后进行五小时几乎毫无细节的会谈收场，表明通往和平并无实质进展。这些会晤之前是11月30日在迈阿密举行的一次会议，产生了一个修订后的20点框架，本身又是对一周前欧洲支持方案的重写，而克里姆林宫顾问在莫斯科谈到“四份不同文件”，进一步模糊了局势。
对乌克兰而言，在欧洲仍无法就在防务或资金上形成共同立场之际，战略压力正在上升，即便在最近战场战果的鼓舞下，普京仍在强化三项核心诉求：在顿巴斯提出更多领土要求、限制乌军规模，以及要求承认被占领土为俄罗斯领土。乌克兰官员警告，通过增加文本版本并坚持这三项不可接受的条件，俄罗斯意在以不可能的条款破坏进程并加剧跨大西洋裂痕。
国内动荡加剧了这一压力：近一个月来，围绕国有核电公司Energoatom的一场大规模腐败丑闻震动了基辅精英，迫使已担任中枢权力掮客六年的总统办公厅主任安德里·耶尔马克在11月28日下台，并引发他否认的潜在指控。在34岁和50岁的候选人争夺接班人之际，史蒂夫·维特科夫第六次前往莫斯科后，特朗普团队推动迅速达成协议，但原本被寄望于在11月下旬取得的突破已推迟到年底，而乌克兰外交官仍紧抓所谓向上的“和平螺旋”，12月4日的一则更正则凸显局势变化之迅速。
Over a fortnight of diplomacy culminated on December 2nd with Vladimir Putin keeping Donald Trump’s envoys waiting two and a half hours in Moscow before five hours of largely detail-free talks, signalling no real movement toward peace. These meetings followed a November 30th session in Miami that produced a revised 20-point framework, itself a rework of an earlier European-backed plan, while Kremlin advisers in Moscow muddied matters further by speaking of four separate papers.
For Ukraine, the strategic pressure is rising as Europe still cannot agree on a common line on defence or funding, even while Putin, emboldened by recent battlefield gains, hardens three core demands: more territorial claims in Donbas, a cap on Ukraine’s army, and recognition of occupied lands as Russian. Ukrainian officials warn that by multiplying texts and insisting on these three intolerable conditions, Russia aims to sabotage the process with impossible terms and widen transatlantic rifts.
Domestic turbulence compounds the strain: for almost a month a massive corruption scandal at Energoatom has shaken Kyiv’s elite, forcing out presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak on November 28th after six years as a central power broker and raising the prospect of charges he denies. As candidates aged 34 and 50 vie to replace him, Trump’s team presses for a rapid deal after Steve Witkoff’s sixth trip to Moscow, yet expectations of a breakthrough by late November have slipped toward year-end even as Ukrainian diplomats cling to a self-described upward ‘spiral of peace’, and a December 4th correction underscores how fast-moving the situation remains.
Source: America’s peace initiative has stalled in Moscow
Subtitle: Volodymyr Zelensky faces a political crisis over corruption
Dateline: 12月 04, 2025 05:33 上午 | Kyiv