Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fake readiness to negotiate the end of Moscow’s war against Ukraine amid its relentless attacks on Ukraine appears to be coming to a breaking point as the United States continues its efforts to build a peace agreement.
Continued North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) support for Ukraine’s defense capabilities indicates growing alignment among Western powers despite Putin’s attempts to exploit divisions in the West.
Russia’s war effort is being undercut by severe economic degradation, unsustainable military costs, and instability, illustrated by mounting battlefield losses, a shrinking defense budget, and the death of Transport Minister Roman Starovoit following his dismissal.
The combination of fake readiness to negotiate an end to Russia’s devastating war against Ukraine and relentless attacks on Ukrainian positions and cities has worked fine for Russian President Vladimir Putin for nearly half a year. Presently, however, it appears to be coming to a breaking point. The need to pretend is created by U.S. President Donald Trump’s expressed desire to end the war,
and Putin has done his best to convert this urge into a “reset” in bilateral relations (Republic.ru, July 11). Every time Trump became disappointed and demanded “Vladimir, stop,” Putin produced flattery, messages on flexibility, and dispatched a team of negotiators (Vechernyaya Moskva, April 24).
This game of simulation could not continue indefinitely, and the meeting on July 10 between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, marked perhaps Russia’s last attempt to prolong it for a few more weeks (Nezavisimaya gazeta, July 10).
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