RTVi, 11.02.2025

Even Donald Trump is already saying this openly: it is necessary to stop the killing of people in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, a ceasefire is necessary, and only then should future negotiations be conducted on this basis.

But this was obvious before – back in 2022, when both losses and destruction were less! No meaningful negotiations are possible while the bloodshed continues, while people are dying.

But if we talk specifically about [peace] negotiations, then such a prospect is not in sight at all. Each of the three parties – Russia, the US/EU, and Ukraine – has its own and completely different ideas about further developments.

In addition, there is no respectable and efficient diplomatic base, no understanding of the global and European perspective in general and the fate of NATO in particular, no ideas about the new deployment of weapons in Europe, about how security guarantees should be arranged in the new conditions and who should provide them. That is, today there are objectively no prerequisites for peace negotiations. There are conditions that Moscow has put forward, there is a categorical refusal from Kyiv, and there are general semi-lyrical arguments from Washington. There is no more or less clear plan.

It will take weeks, months, and possibly years for all this to appear. However, meanwhile killing of people continues. The future is being destroyed.

That is why it is necessary to stop immediately – all the three sides must agree to a ceasefire: stop shooting, bombing, blowing up, record the deployment of military equipment and the withdrawal line of heavy weapons, create a buffer zone and corridors of movement for the civilian population, conduct large-scale prisoner exchanges, agree on neutral control over compliance with the terms of the ceasefire and monitoring the situation. And only after that can we begin to seriously discuss the prospects.