Zelensky and his Western backers continue to sabotage peace

They are approaching this latest round of negotiations with the same mindset that has doomed previous efforts — not to reach a settlement, but to ensure the continuation of the war

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are set to meet in Istanbul today for what would be the first direct peace talks in more than three years. But these are already off to a very bad start — and the main reason for that is that the Ukrainians (and their Western backers) are not acting in good faith. In fact, all signs indicate that the Ukrainians and Europeans are approaching this latest round of negotiations with the same mindset that has doomed previous efforts — not to reach a settlement, but to ensure the continuation of the war.

Zelensky and Western governments — including the Trump administration — have criticised Putin’s decision not to attend the talks or meet Zelensky in person, but to send a delegation instead. Zelensky dismissed the latter as a “sham”, and said this is proof that Russia isn’t really interested in peace. But this makes little sense. In such cases, it is entirely standard for appointed negotiators to lay the groundwork and prepare draft agreements, after which the leaders step in to begin discussions based on a mutually accepted framework.

Russia, after all, has made amply clear what it’s preconditions for an agreement are: recognition (de facto if not de jure) of Russia’s annexed territories — Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — as part of the Russian Federation; Ukraine’s full withdrawal from contested territories; and Ukraine’s renunciation of NATO membership aspirations and adoption of neutral, non-aligned status, coupled with demilitarisation, in exchange for Western security guarantees.

It makes little sense for Putin to meet Zelensky until the Ukrainian side has agreed to these — especially considering that Russia, as is well known, has the upper hand on the battleground. Indeed, when Putin called for direct negotiations with Ukraine over the weekend, after predictably rejecting the West’s unilateral ceasefire proposal, he clearly wasn’t suggesting immediately meeting with Zelensky in person. The Russian president certainly isn’t going to allow himself to be dragged into some impromptu showdown in front of the world’s media, such as the one that occurred in February in the White House between Zelensky, Trump and Vance.

Zelensky, one must presume, understands all this very well — and therefore his pearl-clutching at Putin’s refusal to meet him in person can only be understood as an attempt to sabotage the talks before they even begin. The same goes for the West’s recent attempt to pressure Putin into a thirty-day ceasefire deal.

On May 10th, Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer, Donald Tusk and Friedrich Merz visited Kyiv, where they issued an ultimatum to Putin: accept an unconditional ceasefire or face “massive” sanctions jointly imposed by Europe and the United States. This stance was reportedly endorsed even by Donald Trump over the phone.

Invectives, accusations, ultimatums, threats — this is hardly the approach of anyone genuinely interested in fostering dialogue or securing a peace agreement. On the contrary, such proposals seem deliberately crafted to be rejected by Russia. After all, it doesn’t take a diplomatic genius to realise that Putin is not going to let Russia be pressured into a unilateral ceasefire by the very side that is currently losing the war. The idea is not only unrealistic — it’s downright absurd.

In this sense, when European leaders talk of imposing a new round of “devastating sanctions” — an idea allegedly inspired by Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Trump, who has suggested hitting Russian exports with 500 percent tariffs if Putin doesn’t stop his attacks on Ukraine — they aren’t really attempting to pressure Russia into a deal. They are doing their best to ensure the continuation of the war. In short, if anyone will be “devastated” by the new sanctions, that will be Ukraine as well as Europe, which continues to suffer much more than Russia from the very (auto-)sanctions it helped impose.

This fits into a longstanding approach of European governments to the conflict — one that sadly now appears to be endorsed even by the Trump administration, particularly in light of the newly approved US military aid for Ukraine.

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Thomas Fazi

Website: thomasfazi.net

Twitter: @battleforeurope

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