Ukraine: peace still a long way off?
Talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine have so far failed to produce any tangible results. Russia continues its airstrikes on Ukrainian cities with undiminished intensity, and Ukraine has responded by shelling Russian oil facilities while the fighting continues on the front. Europe's commentators discuss the prerequisites for peace and assess the chances of achieving it.
Putin is exploiting Trump's passivity
Moscow has no reason to hold back, Público explains:
“Putin has never expressed any intention of ending the war. On the contrary, he has intensified the attacks on Ukrainian cities, continuing the same orgy of destruction and death that he unleashed with the invasion. As long as he can count on the passivity of the American president he has no reason to end the ground war or abandon his maximalist and absurd demands for an end to the conflict - the surrender and demilitarisation of Ukraine. That would open the door to a new European security architecture dominated by constant threats from Moscow.”
No sign of the war ending
Despite Trump's efforts, Kommersant sees no prospect of an end to the war:
“Attempts to move from political declarations to concrete agreements on a solution to the Ukraine conflict and a rapprochement between the US and Europe have so far had the opposite effect. ... Given the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kyiv ... even Donald Trump himself is losing hope of a quick end to the conflict or a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky.”
Peace anytime soon is wishful thinking
Europe needs to increase its military support for Ukraine for its own security as well as Ukraine's, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung argues:
“Putin is setting up one arms factory after another, securing supplies from his dictator friends and establishing new army camps on the Nato border. ... Anyone who believes that peace is possible in this situation is living in a fantasy world. Europe should face the danger and draw realistic conclusions. The continent is militarily exhausted, and it may take too long to restore a credible deterrent against Russia. Europe's best protection against Putin's imperialism is now Ukraine. The country has been resisting the Russian onslaught for three and a half years, albeit with terrible losses.”
The monolith of war is breaking open
Commenting in Bernardinai, columnist Valdas Kilpys sees this as a decisive phase in the war:
“We have reached a tremendous turning point. Nobody is talking about victory any more. There is talk of a pause or a cessation of hostilities. This is crucial, because semantics are fundamental. When there is talk of 'victory', negotiations are impossible. But when there is talk of a ceasefire (not peace), the monolith of war breaks open and a gap for negotiations is created. This is the moment - the opening - that we are now living in.”