06-02-2025, 02:06 PM
The failure of today's peace talks to agree on a cease fire is pretty much as expected and not news. What is somewhat news is that Russian media has published the conditions for a cease fire Russia is demanding from Ukraine. Clearly Ukraine finds them beyond unacceptable. The quite chilling action taken by Russia in making the conditions public inside Russia is that it makes it much more difficult for Putin to back away from any of them. The public can now certainly ask "Why did we not get ..." if that later has to be surrendered as a demand. At a minimum, it IMO ensures there will not soon be any agreement. It is unimaginable that Putin would formally reveal such demands and then quickly back away from them.
The conditions put forth are actually nothing "new". It is the same stuff Russia has been saying in sound bytes all along. It is now however an "official" position with all the demands in one place. Perhaps this may mandate a rethinking of the US position on a negotiated peace. Unfortunately the "new" position may be an attempt to wash our hands of the whole mess. That would result in us having no further say in the outcome.
The conditions put forth are actually nothing "new". It is the same stuff Russia has been saying in sound bytes all along. It is now however an "official" position with all the demands in one place. Perhaps this may mandate a rethinking of the US position on a negotiated peace. Unfortunately the "new" position may be an attempt to wash our hands of the whole mess. That would result in us having no further say in the outcome.