SPECIAL Informat.ro / Top international politics topics from the past week. Peace negotiations regarding the war in Ukraine, the Starlink dispute, and energy as a geopolitical stake

Russia–Ukraine–US Peace Negotiations

In Oslo, on October 20, President Volodymyr Zelensky met with US envoy Steve Witkoff, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and representatives of the European Union, NATO, and the major European powers to build a joint peace proposal. Zelensky described the outcome as an important step: “We have some clear ideas about how we can achieve peace. We are united with our European partners in this effort and want the Americans to take these ideas to the Russians. One of the important ideas is to move toward a trilateral meeting of the leaders, which would resolve the issues that only leaders can resolve.”

A US official described the discussions as “constructive,” arguing that Ukraine had brought “new ideas and proposals,” that “real progress” had been made toward a coordinated approach, and that the objective was “creating a path toward direct trilateral and broader multilateral negotiations.” The next day, Witkoff met with Vladimir Putin for nearly three hours in St. Petersburg, with Kushner participating online, while Prime Minister Støre said afterward that “we could be entering a phase in which the Russians are also looking for opportunities for diplomacy.”

The Ukrainian position is now clearer than ever. In an interview with Fox News, Zelensky said he would accept an agreement that freezes the war along the current front line: “We call it a ‘ceasefire’ or ‘stopping the killings,’ as President Trump called it. Freezing and stopping. And, of course, this is the minimum we expect from Russia today.” He clarified, however, that stopping the fighting was not enough: “Then we will turn to the president and the Europeans and ask them for security guarantees,” so that “an aggressor no longer has any chance of returning in the future.” Asked whether he would accept an agreement leaving Ukraine with 75% or more of its territory, Zelensky answered affirmatively, while refusing to recognize Russian sovereignty over the occupied areas, and stated a basic condition: “We are open to negotiating in any format and on any subject, but please do not talk about us without us.” Kyiv also offered concrete gestures: Zelensky said Ukraine was prepared to stop strikes on Russian diesel refineries if Moscow took reciprocal steps.

The Russian response came in two tones. Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, said on Wednesday that the proposals from Oslo “did not contain much,” only to state later, on Sunday, on state television channel “Vesti” that Moscow was ready to resume trilateral negotiations after November 4, National Unity Day, and that an agreement “still requires further efforts,” with the first meeting to be a “dress rehearsal.” Spokesman Dmitry Peskov had confirmed that the Abu Dhabi round, in the first half of November, would take place in a strictly trilateral format, with the European Union absent from the table, and would focus on a postwar security system for both countries.

This is where the week’s main tension lies. Zelensky and the European leaders are demanding that Ukraine and Europe be treated as participants, not as subjects of discussion, while Prime Minister Støre emphasized that Europe “must be at the table” in any discussion about the end of the war. The Kremlin, by contrast, accuses Washington of failing to “force” Kyiv to accept an agreement and proposes a format excluding Brussels, while also demanding Ukraine’s withdrawal from parts of the Donetsk region still controlled by Kyiv’s army, a condition Ukraine considers unacceptable. The positions therefore remain far apart: Ukraine wants a front-line freeze and guarantees; Russia wants a substantive agreement before any ceasefire; the United States and Europe are trying to bring them onto the same page. Trump, according to international media, would like any potential agreement to be signed in December, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Miami.

United Kingdom and EU: Andy Burnham Reopens the Debate on Free Movement

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, about one hundred days into his time at Downing Street, said in an interview with the Sunday Times that he wanted an “honest discussion” about reintroducing free movement between the United Kingdom and the European Union. He suggested that a revised relationship with Brussels could include full EU membership or entry into the single market, which would automatically entail free movement, and explained that migration had changed after Brexit: “The ‘revolving door’ type of migration, where people came and then returned, is something else. The balance of migration has changed since then. I think we need to have an honest discussion about these things.”

The prime minister explicitly ruled out joining the euro and the Schengen Area: “I cannot see myself ever recommending anything that would involve joining the euro or Schengen.” He acknowledged that he respected the red lines in the Labour Party’s 2024 election manifesto, which ruled out free movement, the single market, and the customs union, meaning that a fundamental change would require a new electoral mandate. Political reactions were immediate: Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said that the prime minister “had not reflected sufficiently on the issue,” while Robert Jenrick of Reform UK called the idea “mad.” The statements came ahead of the United Kingdom–EU summit in Brussels, scheduled for November 20, where Burnham is due to present the public with several options for the future relationship.

Energy as a Geopolitical Stake: The North Sea and the Strait of Hormuz

In the North Sea, the British government approved gas production from the Jackdaw field on Wednesday, which will begin supplying the United Kingdom this winter, and attention shifted to Rosebank, the “next major decision” for Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, who promised a “case-by-case” decision. Both projects have a legal history: in January 2025, the Court of Session in Edinburgh ruled that the environmental approvals had been granted unlawfully because they did not assess the emissions generated by burning the extracted fuels, and new applications were submitted in July 2026. Rosebank, valued at £8.7 billion and containing between 300 and 500 million barrels, is the largest undeveloped oil field remaining in British waters, larger than Jackdaw, with potentially higher emissions and greater profits for its owners, Adura and Ithaca.

In the Persian Gulf, Qatar offers the opposite lesson. The country, the world’s second-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas before the war triggered by Trump in Iran, has ended up importing gas from the United States after Iranian attacks on its energy infrastructure and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz drastically reduced its exports. State-owned QatarEnergy signed a contract on Thursday with US producer Cheniere Energy for four million tonnes of LNG annually until the end of 2054, two million tonnes each from the Sabine Pass facilities in Louisiana and Corpus Christi in Texas, at a price indexed to the US Henry Hub plus a fixed fee, with deliveries beginning in 2031. Analyst Simon Munton summarized the significance for CNBC: the decades-long contract shows that Qatar sees a real risk that freedom of navigation may never return to the Strait of Hormuz as long as Iran continues to attack tankers.

SpaceX and Elon Musk: Private Infrastructure as a Geopolitical Factor

Elon Musk acknowledged on Saturday that SpaceX had restricted Ukraine’s access to the Starlink service, accusing the Ukrainian military of having “violated the Starlink terms of service and used it for drone attacks intended to kill.” “This breach was closed last week,” the SpaceX chief executive wrote on X, adding that Starshield, the military version, is a separate system controlled by the US government.

The Ukrainian response was prompt and documented. Presidential adviser Serhii Beskrestnov challenged the accusation, explaining that speed limitations and the lack of coverage over Russian territory make the commercial use of Starlink for long- and medium-range strikes “physically impossible,” while former Defense Ministry adviser Serhii Sternenko added: “As someone who was involved in the process at the Defense Ministry, I can say with certainty that this is not true. All drone missions requiring satellite communications could only be carried out with Starshield.” Ukraine announced on Saturday that the service had been fully restored, with speeds above 400 km/h, one day after Trump said he had asked Musk to lift the restrictions, which, since October 14, had limited terminals to around 160 km/h, disrupting the interception of Russian drones.

The same company is simultaneously at the center of a dispute in the US telecommunications market. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile warned the federal FCC, in a letter filed after meetings on October 20, that regulatory decisions have “real consequences” for consumers, amid SpaceX’s plan to become the fourth national mobile phone operator in the United States by 2028. On October 23, AT&T and T-Mobile shares fell by nearly 8% after Bloomberg reported that SpaceX was negotiating access to at least 80,000 mobile phone sites, while Verizon fell by about 1.2%. Musk’s company had purchased a national spectrum portfolio worth approximately $8 billion at the beginning of October and received FCC approval for 15,000 next-generation satellites capable of connecting directly to phones, while the FCC is scheduled to vote on October 29 on a proposal that would open an additional 482 MHz for satellite-to-phone.finance services.