Talking to Putin Won’t Be Enough to End Ukraine War
The Russian leader says he’s ready to meet. He won’t negotiate seriously until the costs of fighting are steeper.
His call.
Photographer: Alexander Kazakov/AFP/Getty Images
Later this week, White House envoys plan to discuss with their European counterparts how to end the nearly three-year war in Ukraine. For any negotiations to produce a durable settlement, however, the US and its allies must show they’re willing to enforce it.
To date, Russian President Vladimir Putin has demonstrated no serious interest in peacemaking. Russia controls about a fifth of Ukraine and believes it holds the upper hand on the battlefield. Putin set out to subjugate the whole country; walking away with parts of four war-ravaged regions after taking more than 600,000 casualties would hardly be a triumph. He has repeatedly denied Ukraine’s sovereignty and set preconditions for talks — including forcing Ukraine to effectively disarm and abandon its NATO ambitions — designed to make it easier to restart the fighting.