"Negotiations have reached a dead end": putin is stalling for time – political analyst Kostiantyn Matvienko
Donald Trump, having received Ukraine’s consent to a 30-day truce, attempted to present this as a fait accompli to putin, but he decided to evade these proposals. Political expert Kostiantyn Matvienko spoke about this in an interview with OstroV.
"Although the situation in russia is also difficult and dependent on the U.S., primarily due to sanctions, putin could not simply agree to this truce and began putting forward a whole series of practically unfeasible demands. At the moment, in my opinion, the negotiations have reached a dead end", - he said.
According to the political analyst, in times of uncertainty, putin either disappears from the information space or hides behind a fog of words that are impossible to decipher, stalling for time.
"Putin will continue to stall. He is not afraid of a coup, he has no elections right now, so he is comfortably staying in his bunker. Remember how he recently appeared in military uniform in the Kursk oblast? Of course, it was staged, he didn’t go anywhere. But the fact that putin put on a military uniform at a time when the so-called peace process had already supposedly begun is a signal to Trump that russia is still at war", - Matvienko emphasized.
At the same time, he noted that putin might agree to a truce only for the sake of lifting sanctions. On the other hand, about 15 million people in russia are directly or indirectly tied to the war and military production.
"So, on one hand, there are sanctions, and on the other, there are social groups whose interests support putin’s legitimacy. He is now in a split position: he wants sanctions lifted while simultaneously maintaining the support of those who benefit from the war", - the political expert believes.
As previously reported, Trump promises to speak with putin on Tuesday and he has not ruled out that he may fail to end the war in Ukraine.