The war in Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands of people (military and civilian on both sides), forced millions of Ukrainians from their homes, reduced Ukrainian cities to rubble, and disrupted global food and energy supplies in part.
Today, let’s see if it is possible to end the war in Ukraine through peaceful negotiations. why? A new proposal by Ukraine's foreign minister for a peace summit has refocused attention on the possibility of a negotiated end to the war.
Since the middle of March, Ukraine and Russia have not engaged in any peace talks. But, at least in public, both sides have drafted negotiating positions that seem utterly unacceptable to the other. As a result, some U.S. and European officials have concluded that serious discussions about ending the fighting are unlikely in the near future.
On the other hand, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba said on December 26 (Monday) that "every war ends diplomatically" and detailed plans to hold a peace summit around February 24 next year. But he told The Associated Press that Ukraine would only negotiate with Russia if it first saw the creation of a war crimes court. Over there, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov responded that Kyiv must accept Moscow's demands - including abandoning the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims to annex - otherwise "the question will be decided by the Russian military". A tough stance like
suggests that any real peace process remains out of reach, at least if both sides think they can gain more militarily.
Ukrainian troops are struggling to retake the eastern town of Krymina after a string of victories in the east and south and a series of strikes against military targets deep inside Russian territory. The difference between
and the Ukrainian army's approach is that in the past two months or so, the Russian army has repeatedly launched missiles, and drones, attacks to damage or even destroy Ukraine's energy network. Their thinking may be simple: even if Russian soldiers struggle on the battlefield, they should cause more pain to Ukrainians. "The Ukrainian proposal gives us a glimpse into Ukraine's views on how it might one day end its war with Russia," said Stella Ghervas, professor of Russian history at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. But Lavrov's reaction was not Optimism, which suggests that peace talks may still be months away."
At the G20 leaders' summit last month,ZelenskyA broad range of 10 points The peace plan calls for the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory, including Crimea and parts of the east, known as Donbass, which Russian forces began occupying in 2014. He also demanded: an international tribunal to try Russia for war crimes; Moscow's release of all political prisoners and those forcibly deported during the war; Russia's compensation for war losses; measures for food and energy security.
Analysts pointed out: This is much stricter than the set of demands that Ukrainian negotiators initially put forward in the talks held in Istanbul a month after the Russian invasion. At the time they proposed that Ukraine be given "neutral status" in exchange for security guarantees from Western countries.
However, after the Bucha incident was exposed, and as the Russian army's destruction of Ukrainian cities and economy deepened, the Russian army's atrocities also multiplied. In August, Zelensky's top adviser, Podoliak, said the framework proposed in Istanbul was no longer feasible. "There has been a very, very big change in the emotional context in Ukraine. We've seen too many live broadcasts of war crimes," he told BBC reporters. The outcome" of the negotiations, without specifying what that might be, while making clear he has no intention of ending the attack. Western officials see Mr Putin's regular offer of talks as empty gestures.
This month, Putin stressed that Russia's military spending "has no limits," while his defense minister ordered another expansion of the armed forces, adding more than 300,000 members to a target size of 1.5 million. In this regard, Marnie Howlett, a lecturer in Russian and Eastern European politics at Oxford University, said: "This shows that there is not necessarily a push for peace through negotiation, or even some form of negotiation, but there is still a push for whatever outcome is being sought militarily. .”
