It is difficult to move forward in the negotiations as the fighting continues to be intense, says Grigori Golosov, a professor at St. Petersburg’s European University.
Ukraine and Russia’s peace talks appear to be theatrical, although they have been reported to have made significant progress over the past week.
Russia has continued to bomb Ukraine while negotiating peace with Ukraine in its own war of aggression.
The night before Thursday, Russia bombed a theater in Mariupol, according to Ukrainian authorities, where more than a thousand civilians who had lost their homes had fled.
On Wednesday, Ukraine said the talks had become more realistic and Russia said the deal was even close. In the media rumored of the possibility of a compromise, but despite hopeful news coverage, there is no end in sight to the suffering of civilians.
Read more: The President of Ukraine spoke to the US Congress, and at the same time the peace talks were progressing – or were they progressing?
St. Petersburg Professor of Policy Studies at the European University Grigori Golosov does not expect lasting solutions from the peace talks, at least at this stage.
“The negotiation process is a ritual on both sides, as the Russian leadership has not yet abandoned its plan to beat Ukraine completely. Russia is now reorganizing its forces, although it has encountered significant difficulties. “
“As for Ukraine, so is the president [Volodymyr] Zelenskyi has repeatedly stated that he will go to the negotiations only because he would not be accused of losing the opportunity for peace. However, he has always said that he does not expect any concrete results from the negotiations. “
Golosov considers the only good thing about the talks so far is that they talk about the humanitarian side of the war, above all the “humanitarian corridors” for the evacuation of civilians.
Negotiations complicated by a complete lack of trust between the parties. Golosov does not believe that the negotiations will continue, at least as long as the fighting continues to be intense.
“Even something as small as humanitarian corridors is extremely difficult to reach agreement on, even more importantly, political issues,” he says.
“My overall assessment is that these negotiations now have no practical significance. But that doesn’t mean they won’t have a chance in the future. ”
Russia assured on Thursday that it will use “enormous energy” to negotiate a peace agreement with Ukraine.
“Our delegation is making an enormous effort to show greater readiness on the part of the other party,” a Kremlin spokesman said. Dmitry Peskov described the progress of the talks on Thursday, according to the news agency Reuters.
“Adopting such a document, complying with all its parameters and implementing them could very quickly stop what is happening.”
Zelenskyi for its part, on Thursday reiterated its call for an end to the war, security guarantees and Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Zelenskyi has not changed his position that Ukraine’s borders must be recognized according to 1991, the Reuters news agency reported.
In his statement, Zelenskyi refers to the borders that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The borders are also the same as Ukraine had before Russia occupied the Crimean peninsula in 2014.
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