The head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, shows no willingness to scale back his imperial ambitions, and recent diplomatic efforts, including the U.S. peace plan and visits by representatives of President Donald Trump, have only deepened divisions between Europe and Washington, The Times reports.
Source: Gazeta.UA
The negotiations have yielded no tangible progress, and no new meetings are scheduled. Forecasts suggest the war could continue at least until the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February. The only outcome of U.S. peace initiatives has been a deepening split among allies, which Moscow views as a favorable development.
Russian analyst Alexander Baunov notes that Putin is effectively forcing the West to choose not between peace plans but between continuing the war or “less bloody” negotiations that do not alter the essence of Russia’s demands.
Baunov believes that Putin is generally satisfied with the course of the war, regularly appearing in military uniform and actively demonstrating control over combat operations — unlike periods when the Russian army suffered setbacks.
Despite diplomatic efforts by British, French, and German representatives, the peace plan was revised to make it more acceptable to Ukraine. But anything that satisfies Kyiv is automatically rejected by Moscow, as became evident during the talks in the Russian capital on December 2.
Former U.S. National Security Council Europe director Michael Carpenter emphasizes that the conflict between Ukraine’s desire to maintain a sovereign democracy and Russia’s imperial ambitions cannot be resolved without a military or economic defeat of one side.
In October, the Donald Trump administration imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, yet the U.S. did not provide Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of striking strategic targets in Moscow.
Journalist and former State Duma deputy Alexander Nevzorov believes that Putin’s fear of the U.S. has significantly diminished, and the Kremlin is betting on Western indecision: in his view, loud statements from international leaders often turn out to be mere political gestures rather than real action.