– Any concession to Putin is like a deal with the devil. You won’t like the price it has,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoljak said on Friday. Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoljak, making a deal with Putin is the same as making a deal with the devil. Photo: STRINGER / Reuters At the same time, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan was in Kyiv for a visit. There, according to The Washington Post, he tried to persuade the Ukrainian president to appear more open to peace negotiations with Russia. According to the newspaper, the US government is afraid that the Ukrainian president’s dismissive attitude will end in “war exhaustion” – both among those who support the country and those who try to remain neutral. There should be no aim to push Ukraine to the negotiating table right now. But the United States must therefore believe that the president and his circle should act more wisely, in order to retain the moral position. The war consumes an entire world. Prices are rising in many countries at the same time as there are fears of food and energy shortages. – It seems that the will to push Ukraine to the negotiating table is about to emerge in Washington, points out Nupi researcher Julie Wilhelmsen. Researcher Julie Wilhelmsen does not think peace negotiations are likely now. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB She still does not believe that such pressure will lead to progress in the first place. – The way it looks now, there are no possibilities for peace negotiations, she says. Will not negotiate until Putin is gone Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has in recent months rejected all proposals for talks or negotiations with Russia. Soon after the invasion in February, Zelenskyj was willing to promise Ukrainian neutrality and a Russian occupation of parts of Donbas to stop the war. Since then, the Ukrainian attitude has hardened. He has made it clear that the goal now is not just to defend himself, but to take back all of Ukraine. It includes the areas in the east that were forcibly incorporated into Russia in September, and the strategically important Crimean peninsula, which Russia has controlled for the past eight years. – I want to go to Crimea. I want to see the sea, the president said on Wednesday when asked about the first thing he will do if Ukraine wins the war. INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR AND AEI’S CRITICAL THREATS PROJECT / news (Updated 07.11.2022)INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR AND AEI’S CRITICAL THREATS PROJECT / news (Updated 07.11.2022) Furthermore, he refuses to talk to Russia, as long as Putin has the power. He asks how they can negotiate with a regime that has repeatedly broken agreements and believes they have the right to determine the neighboring country. – We only want to negotiate with a new president, Zelenskyj said after the Russian forced annexation of the four Ukrainian counties. Wilhelmsen believes that Ukraine’s goals and peace talks are incompatible. – Zelenskyj has expressed very ambitious goals as Ukraine has gained ground. Combined with Russia’s brutality and the notion that it is impossible to negotiate with Putin, it is difficult to imagine any peace talks, she says. Zelenskyi’s use of words has hardened after the revelations of possible Russian war crimes, including in Butsja and Lyman. Destroyed Russian vehicles after a skirmish at Butsha northwest of Kyiv in early April. The picture is from 3 April Photo: Rodrigo Abd / AP Bluff or serious for Putin? At the same time, with the losses on the battlefield, President Vladimir Putin has reiterated that Russia is willing to negotiate. He has previously asked the US to ensure that Ukraine is willing to resume talks from this spring. Putin claims it is the US that dictates the Ukrainian leadership. Still, one interpretation is that Ukrainian capitulation is the only thing the president and the circle around him can accept. – For the Putin regime, losing the territory they took in 2014 will be a huge defeat. Then Putin’s position at home could be in jeopardy. Thus, it has been established that it is absolutely essential to hold on to the four annexed regions. – These are also quite ambitious goals, and completely contradict what Ukraine envisions, explains Wilhelmsen. President Vladimir Putin says he is willing to negotiate peace, but few believe him. Photo: Sergei Bobylev / AP The West’s balancing act The West shares the Ukrainian opinion that Putin – at least for now – is not really interested in negotiations. However, the Western countries are beginning to worry about Ukraine’s uncompromising rhetoric, the sources admit to The Washington Post. – This is a development many have expected because the price is becoming too high for the European countries and for the USA. Telling one’s own population that they must continue to prioritize Ukraine economically, when they themselves are struggling with an energy crisis and recession, is becoming difficult, says Wilhelmsen. The official position is, of course, that Ukraine and the Ukrainians are paying the highest price for the war. Therefore, it is up to Ukraine to decide when they are ready to sit back at the negotiating table. – So far, the West has stuck to a supportive rhetoric, and continued to say that only Ukraine has the right to set its own goals, emphasizes the Nupi researcher. On Monday morning, a spokesperson for the German government says that they perceive Russia as unwilling to hold peace talks, and that it is up to Ukraine to decide when they want to talk to Russia. But before that happens, the diplomats believe that Ukraine is trying to make the greatest possible military progress before winter sets in. And that the Ukrainian government has thought about what they can compromise on in order to get peace. At the same time, security adviser Jake Sullivan is said to have had confidential conversations with his Russian counterpart, Yuri Ushakov, about the Russian nuclear weapons threats, writes The Wall Street Journal. The aim must have been to prevent a further escalation of the war. – We have nothing to say about this, answered Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov a few hours later.
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The US has reportedly asked Ukraine to appear more open to peace negotiations – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
