Ukraine destroys 40 aircraft deep inside Russia ahead of peace talks in Istanbul

2 comments

1. I enjoyed BBC’s headline: **”Ukraine accuses Russia of undermining next round of peace talks”** – literally laughed when I read it. Like bro, you can’t just claim you destroyed 30% of their strategic bombers and then walk into negotiations whistling a tune and expecting a friendly handshake.

   I suspect Ukraine thinks this made their negotiating hand stronger because they’re all about “showing strength”, but in this case it’s the exact opposite, any deals that were on the table before are now long gone. Russia is going to want payment for both the physical and reputational damage caused by these attacks, which means they’ll demand further concessions, possibly beyond the eight oblasts they told Ukraine they’d be asking for this time (up from five oblasts last time).

   It doesn’t seem like Ukraine actually wants a deal, at least any sort of reasonable deal that a loser might actually obtain from the neighbor beating the pulp out of them. But if they did want one, they really approached this all wrong. Delays and attacks will just continue increasing the cost, not reducing it as they seem to think. Not sure why that isn’t obvious, but Ukraine has an odd way of thinking about power and negotiations.

2. How is the wish for a lasting peace and a demand that the international community does not recognise occupied territory, compatible ?

   It simply means Ukraine could legally try to start a military intervention to regain occupied territories anytime in the future.

Comments are closed.