Putin, Zelensky signal a new willingness to talk

After months of resolute refusals to negotiate, both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin are finally expressing a desire to talk.

It’s difficult to establish whether either leader is sincere, though Zelensky said he will deliver his plan to US President Joe Biden, Ukraine’s biggest wartime booster, sometime in November. Putin, whose army invaded Ukraine first in 2014 and then again in 2022, hasn’t articulated exactly what he has in mind.

At the current conflict’s outset, the warring leaders specified concrete peace terms that required the other to give up their war aims unconditionally. Ukraine demanded the full withdrawal of Russian troops that took over the Crimean Peninsula and a swath of eastern Ukraine in 2014. Putin, meanwhile, declared a goal of incorporating Ukraine into the Russian Federation.

Zelensky’s shift, announced last month, is more formal. It was contained in a four-point outline that represents a shrunken version of a ten-point peace proposal he outlined in 2022.

The 2022 “Peace Formula” emphasized the demand for the complete withdrawal of all Russian troops and a Kremlin promise never to invade again. His current “Victory Plan” includes a call “to end the war in a diplomatic way.”

“We understand that it is very difficult to diplomatically end this war without the Russian side,” he said, answering requests from Western European allies to invite Russia to talks.

The “victory” scheme was heralded by the recent Ukrainian conquest of territory in and around the city of Kursk in far western Russia, which Zelensky suggested should inspire allies to provide more economic and military aid.

“The main point of this plan is to force Russia to end the war,” Zelensky said.