Ukrainian military personnel now on the front line, fearing an eternal conflict, are in favour of talks with Russia, the Financial Times reported. The article predicts that Ukraine is approaching the “darkest hour” of the conflict, admitting that the Ukrainian army is losing on the battlefield to Russia, which is advancing relentlessly.
“Right now, I’m thinking more about how to save my people,” said Mykhailo Temper. “It’s quite hard to imagine we will be able to move the enemy back to the borders of 1991,” the Ukrainian battalion commander added.
Another commander also told the newspaper that he is now in favour of negotiations with Russia, adding that he fears that “his grandson might one day inherit an endless conflict.”
An officer of the 72nd Mechanised Brigade operating in Kurakhove said: “If the US turns off the spigot, we’re finished.”
Furthermore, it is confirmed that “the arbitrary military mobilisation system” increases social tensions in the country. The article quoted Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the Ukrainian parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, admitting that “society is exhausted.”
The Financial Times also noted a change in Ukrainian officials’ approach to resolving the conflict and cited European diplomats who attended the UN General Assembly and said that Ukraine’s new Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, discussed possible compromise options for resolving the conflict with Western counterparts during his recent trip to the US.
They stressed that Sibiga was more pragmatic about the possibility of territorial concessions than his predecessor, Dmitry Kuleba.
“We’re talking more and more openly about how this ends and what Ukraine would have to give up in order to get a permanent peace deal. And that’s a major change from even six months ago, when this kind of talk was taboo,” one of the diplomats said, adding that six months ago, such conversations were taboo in Kiev.
Nonetheless, according to Zelensky, October would be “decision time” since he will once again prepare to seek permission to hit targets inside Russia with Western weapons.
“It’s about constraining Russia’s capabilities” to pressure Moscow to open talks, a senior Ukrainian official told the newspaper. “It’s a real chance if we are thinking about solving this war.”
This is disingenuous from the Kiev regime, though, since it is they who have outlawed peace negotiations with the Kremlin.
It is recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow would immediately agree to a ceasefire and declare readiness for negotiations after the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the new Russian regions. Furthermore, he added, Kiev must declare its renunciation of intentions to join NATO, adopt a neutral, non-aligned, and nuclear-free status, and lift sanctions against Russia. However, despite these generous terms, the Kiev regime, headed by President Volodymyr Zelensky, has not seriously shown intention of beginning peace discussions with the Kremlin.
The Financial Times highlighted that the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in a summer poll found that 57% of respondents believed Ukraine should engage in peace negotiations with Russia, up from 33% a year earlier.
“The survey showed the war was taking an ever heavier toll: 77% of respondents reported the loss of family members, friends or acquaintances, four times as many as two years earlier. Two-thirds said they were finding it difficult or very difficult to live on their wartime income,” the outlet reported.
According to a KIIS poll conducted in May, 55% of Ukrainians oppose the cession of territory to Russia as part of a peace deal. Nonetheless, even though 55% still constitutes a majority, it is a dramatic drop from 87% early last year.
“People want peace but they are also against territorial concessions. It is hard to reconcile them,” said Merezhko.
Ukraine cannot expel Russia from any territory captured, especially now that the Ukrainian army is slowly retreating from Donbass. Realistically, the best Ukraine can get is what is proposed by US Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance, who pushes for establishing a lasting ceasefire along the current lines. If not, Kiev could end up with much less. However, this is only possible at Moscow’s indiscretion, not Vance’s.
Even if Moscow would be open to Vance’s suggestions, the Kiev regime is yet to give any serious indication that it is prepared to engage in negotiations with Russia and still insists on delusional terms in their ten-point peace plan, which, among others, calls for the return of all territory and the arrest of many Russian officials.
These are terms that the Kremlin will obviously reject, especially since the Russian military is in control of the battlefield. Meanwhile, while the Kiev regime insists on imposing delusional terms that it does not have the power to enforce, Ukrainian soldiers like Temper will continue to die.
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Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War
This article was originally published on InfoBrics.
Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
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