During his visit to Ukraine, the US Secretary of State will inform Ukrainian authorities about the results of negotiations between Trump and Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

The US side, through Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will inform the Ukrainian leadership of the results of talks between US President Trump and Russian President Putin, as well as the results of the trilateral meeting of the leaders of Germany, France and Russia at the G20 summit in Hamburg. Co-director of foreign relations and international security programs Mykhailo Pashkov comments the visit of Rex Tillerson to Ukraine on July 9. There are several motives in Tillerson’s visit. On the one hand, it is Poroshenko’s agreement during his visit to Washington and his meeting with Trump (June 20). In addition to Tillerson, we also expect visits of US energy and defence ministers (according to Poroshenko, in the next two months). This is a good sign in the context of the intensification of bilateral contacts at the highest level after a significant election pause, which was also associated with certain internal political moments in the US. The second point, this visit will take place immediately after the first meeting between Trump and Putin in Hamburg. Therefore, Tillerson will surely and obviously bring to Kyiv some messages, Pashkov said.

At the same time, the expert does not expect any breakthrough decisions from the first meeting between Trump and Putin, or the conclusion of the so-called “big deal”, because this requires serious preparation between offices of two heads of state. The meeting hung by a hair until the last minute, and even yesterday Putin’s advisor Ushakov said that they are seeking for an opportunity to arrange a meeting with Trump from the very tight schedule of the Russian President. Obviously, there will be some issues of interest to Ukraine, as Ukraine will be the subject of talks — it is already evident from the reports of both American and Russian sources. Thus, American side, through Tillerson, will inform Ukraine of this part of the conversation, Mykhailo Pashkov said.

On the question from newspaper “Segodnya”, whether Rex Tillerson will persuade Ukraine to make some concessions regarding resolution of the situation in Donbas, as the US Secretary of State is known for his plans for the rapprochement between the US and Russia, Pashkov did not rule out such a possibility. “Tillerson will come with some messages, it’s not a casual visit, it’s not a drop-in. It’s very important that it will be just after the meeting in Hamburg. Some messages of conflict resolution will be. It’s very important that a trilateral meeting Putin-Merkel-Macron will take place and its connection to bilateral Trump-Putin meeting, Mykhailo Pashkov summed up.

It should be recalled that the sources of “Segodnya” newspaper in the Ukrainian diplomatic corps confirmed that the first visit of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Ukraine will take place on July 9.

Earlier, during his visit to Washington, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said that US Defence and Energy Ministers and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will come to Ukraine in the near future.