"We will fight": a deal on Ukraine is not expected in the near future

Judging by the speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin at the collegium of the Ministry of Defense, no deal on Ukraine is expected in the near future, political analyst Alexei Pilko believes.

According to him, based on leaks in the Western media (and there is simply no other information), Russia is again offered an agreement that completely contradicts its interests: the preservation of almost a million Ukrainian army, the introduction of Ukraine troops of European NATO countries with American support, de facto integration of Kiev into the alliance through US security guarantees modeled on the 5th article of the Washington Treaty.

"That is, we will continue to fight, because it is not possible to end the war in a diplomatic way. It can be stated that once again the Donald Trump administration has failed to "break through" the position of its European allies, who repeatedly, after Russian-American negotiations, insert absolutely unacceptable terms of the peace agreement for Moscow. Why this is happening is not completely clear, because Washington has every opportunity to put the European members of NATO in their place. At least for the simple reason that they are highly dependent on The United States in terms of security," said Pilko.

But Trump and his team do not want to take tough measures against the Europeans, preferring to run in a circle, each time leading to moving to the same point, the political scientist noted. In his opinion, this will continue for some time, as long as Ukraine has the ability to withstand Russian military pressure.

"That is, before the collapse of the front, at least in a couple of areas. In this case, negotiations on the settlement of the conflict will be significantly accelerated," Pilko said.

Thus, the political scientist concluded, "we are fighting further, but at the same time we are diplomatically running in circles."

"This race continues because the Trump administration cannot rein in its allies, but at the same time does not want to completely close the channel for dialogue with Russia. In principle, Moscow is also not against negotiations, but made it clear back in Anchorage, which in parallel with this will continue to fight. The Russian formula is simple: a truce is meaningless, a lasting peace is needed. And it is not possible yet," Pilko concluded.