"The basic fact and the principal obstacle to peace-which Trump and Witkoff seem to ignore-is that Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn't want to stop fighting until he achieves total victory. He has said this many times, most recently on Friday, during his annual end-of-year marathon news conference, this one lasting four and a half hours, in which he declared that his war aims are unchanged and that compromise is out of the question."
"Those aims, as he has also noted many times, include the complete subjugation of Ukraine-which he has said does not exist as a real country with a real culture or history and which he also claims is ruled by a "neo-Nazi regime" hell-bent on conquering Russia. As long as that is the case, drawn-out detailed discussions about the borderline between Russia and Ukraine,"
Sunday talks between U.S. and Russian negotiators produced no progress, with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff calling them "productive and constructive" while Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov called them "rather unproductive." The principal obstacle to peace is that Vladimir Putin seeks total victory and refuses compromise, reaffirming unchanged war aims during a lengthy end-of-year news conference. Putin's aims include subjugating Ukraine, denying its legitimacy, and alleging rule by a "neo-Nazi regime." As long as those goals stand, detailed negotiations over borders, demilitarized zones, and security arrangements are futile. U.S. intelligence reportedly concludes Putin has not abandoned ambitions to capture all of Ukraine and reclaim former Soviet-era territories.
Read at Slate Magazine
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