Russian ruler Vladimir Putin is not interested in ending the war against Ukraine. He remains committed to his goal of completely destroying Ukrainian statehood, said Yuliya Kazdobina, a senior fellow at the “Ukrainian Prism” Foreign Policy Council, according to the Atlantic Council.
Meanwhile, many expect that US President-elect Donald Trump will make efforts to end the war in Ukraine once he takes office in January 2024. However, it’s unclear how Trump will push Moscow to peace negotiations with Ukraine. Sources in Trump’s team suggested that the new US president will possibly end the war at the expense of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. This approach has raised concerns among allies about the future of US support for Ukraine and the potential for a peace deal that could favor Russian interests.
Kazdobina says that for many years, Putin has publicly questioned the Ukrainian nation’s right to exist, adding that Ukraine is an artificial state and calling those who oppose this concept anti-Russian forces or outright Nazis.
“For more than a decade, he has sought to turn this toxic vision into reality via an escalating campaign of military aggression,” said the expert.
Kazdobina noted that at the start of the war in 2022, Putin claimed to be protecting the rights of Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the east of the country. However, since then, the Russian army has killed tens of thousands of predominantly Russian-speaking Ukrainians, turning dozens of towns and villages across the region into ruins.
The expert also emphasized that attempts to justify the invasion of Ukraine as a response to NATO expansion were debunked by Putin himself.
“When neighboring Finland and Sweden responded to Russia’s invasion by announcing plans in spring 2022 to abandon decades of neutrality and join NATO, Putin was quick to declare that Russia had “no problem” with the move,” said Kazdobina.
The analyst claims that Russia’s indifference towards those countries becoming NATO members was striking as Finnish accession more than doubled Russia’s NATO border. Meanwhile, Swedish membership transformed the strategically vital Baltic Sea into a NATO lake.
Given all this, Kazdobina concluded that Putin does not actually view NATO as a threat to Russia’s security but merely used the question of Ukraine’s potential accession to the Alliance as a smokescreen for his imperial ambitions in Ukraine.
According to the expert, US President-elect Donald Trump will likely find that his deal-making skills are no match for Putin’s singular obsession with destroying Ukraine.
“In words and deeds, Putin has repeatedly demonstrated his commitment to wiping Ukraine off the map. In such circumstances, any talk of a compromise settlement is dangerously delusional.
Until Putin is forced to recognize Ukraine’s right to exist, any peace deals will be temporary, and the threat of further Russian aggression will remain,” Kazdobina added.
Earlier, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated that Putin is not interested in peace and aims to seize more territory in Ukraine, as per UNIAN.
He emphasized the need to continue supporting Ukraine with weapons.
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