Putin doesn’t need to seize Kyiv to destroy Ukraine

Russia and Ukraine took one step forward and two steps back in the search for an elusive peace settlement during talks last week. Negotiators met in Istanbul to discuss Ukraine’s potential accession to the EU and Nato, the status of Crimea and Donbas, and security guarantees for Ukraine. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky dismissed hopes of a breakthrough and dashed hopes for a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky.

Russia’s bad faith approach to negotiations with Ukraine is unsurprising and fully aligns with its conduct during previous military interventions. During the August 2008 Georgian War and throughout its post-2015 military intervention in Syria, Russia engaged in diplomatic negotiations only to then escalate hostilities. It’s a tactic straight out of the Soviet playbook. On 3 November 1956, the Soviet Union held talks with a Hungarian delegation led by defence minister Pal Maleter about withdrawing its forces from Hungary.