Ho negoziato con la Russia. L’unico scopo di Putin nei colloqui è confondere l’Occidente

Full article: MUNICH – [Vladimir Putin](https://inews.co.uk/topic/vladimir-putin?srsltid=AfmBOoo0pA__qmfZA9NR4bP95-pMly-Wh_vcyZTACWyDOaY-RPTnwUIH&ico=in-line_link) will never agree to a [peace deal in Ukraine](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/what-putin-is-actually-after-in-landmark-ukraine-peace-meeting-4189666?srsltid=AfmBOopEyBgeDKatnDfmafVOVOcqTErdsrLqPvXiKvOToH0AOOBbKjBq&ico=in-line_link) and negotiations are purely a means to distract and confuse the West, the US’s former Ukraine negotiator has told *The i Paper.*

Another round of trilateral talks between the US, [Ukraine](https://inews.co.uk/topic/ukraine?srsltid=AfmBOorq4EEsGAi646FaCQxjmR_4KwyNf2k69Ntz1DH6NT1zlCCr-IGD&ico=in-line_link) and Russia is set to get under way in Geneva on Tuesday, after discussions were held in the UAE at the start of this month.

Kyiv’s delegation lead, Kyrylo Budanov, said on Monday that “Ukraine’s interests must be protected” amid concerns about the White House’s willingness to bow to Russian demands.

US President Donald Trump has been [brokering negotiations aimed at ending the war](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/trump-putin-alaska-ukraine-meeting-who-won-3863728?srsltid=AfmBOoojPS4XNcui8ByXsZKSNorBvugbO80jFeVf2bU-oVebsc6dktyV&ico=in-line_link) since he returned to the White House last year, but they have so far failed to yield results.

Kurt Volker, who was special representative for Ukraine in the first Trump administration, between 2017 and 2019, said that the talks would never be able to secure a lasting and legitimate peace – but could produce a temporary ceasefire.

“I don’t think he’ll ever agree to a peace agreement because that would require treating Ukraine as a solid independent country and treating President Zelensky as a legitimate equal,” Volker said. “Putin will never do that. He wants to keep the door open for subjugating all of Ukraine.”

However, Volker said he thought a ceasefire could be agreed if enough financial and military pressure was put on [Russia](https://inews.co.uk/topic/russia?srsltid=AfmBOoqLZqNyDhMM80AypWKzdsplIdfYFY1FLD88ERZ5dAJdxpvPoNoI&ico=in-line_link).

# Peace talks ‘designed to distract the West’

During his time as Ukraine envoy – three years after Russia’s illegal seizure of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region – Volker met his Russian counterparts four times over two years, and came away convinced the talks were largely designed to distract and confuse the West.

“It was clear from even back then that President Putin is the only one making decisions in Russia, so my counterpart had no authority to actually agree to anything or to negotiate anything seriously,” Volker said at Munich Security Conference.

“It was just a way to see whether he could confuse the West and get us to chase rabbits down holes, and sometimes say sensible things. For us, [it was] an opportunity to communicate clearly what we are thinking and what our position is, to see whether we can find any common ground.”

Putin responds only to military and economic developments on the ground, not diplomacy, Volker said.

The radical left is fetichizing “tlaks” as it summoning them would be the only way for everyone to come back to their senses and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity from the bay of Biscay to the Urals.

Yet in order to talk, you need to be two – or three. There is absolutely no intent on finding acceptable terms for a ceasefire on part of Russia for a simple reason which is that Putin has no plan B for after the war. He needs to present the opinion a credible claim at total victory to navigate the dangerous waters that would inevitably follow (the release of hundreds of thousands of traumatized fighters within the society, the economic disturbance due to the post-war recession, etc).

Europe has a vital interest in maintaining the integrity of Ukraine and putting a stop into territorial revisionism by Russia.

The US try to force a scandalous deal in order to allow the regime’s cronies to cash in on Russian oligarch money, but after they have stopped virtually all help towards Ukraine, they have not much leverage left to strong arm Ukraine.

So there is no room for talks. You can listen and wait for the other side to move nonetheless, but the struggle will continue until the Trumpist regime is ousted in the US, the far right wins in Europe, Ukraine falters or Putin dies.