Despite public rhetoric, Washington and Brussels are working on Kyiv’s future negotiating position, not on achieving victory.

Amid problems with Western aid to Ukraine, the Joe Biden administration and European officials are quietly changing the strategy to support Ukraine, shifting the emphasis from achieving a complete victory over Russia to improving Kyiv’s position in possible negotiations to end the war.

As a White House official and a European diplomat based in Washington told Politico on condition of anonymity, such peace talks would likely mean handing over some Ukrainian territory to Russia.

It is noted that the White House and the Pentagon publicly still insist on the need for the complete expulsion of the Russian army from Ukraine, but are secretly discussing with Kiev about the need to switch to strategic defense, abandoning attempts to liberate the territories. These efforts also include strengthening air defenses and building defensive fortifications. In addition, the Biden administration is focused on quickly reviving Ukraine’s own defense industry.

“It is very likely that a shift to a defensive posture would allow the Ukrainians to conserve resources while future Russian progress would look unlikely,” said Anthony Pfaff, an intelligence expert at the U.S. Army War College who co-authored a study that suggested Putin would invade Ukraine. .

A European diplomat based in Washington said the European Union also wants to speed up Ukraine’s NATO membership to “put Ukrainians in the best situation for negotiations” with Moscow.

Looking at the strategic situation, Politico notes that “Ukrainians themselves are engaged in a public debate about how long they can stand up to Putin.”

With Ukraine short of both troops and weapons, Zelensky’s refusal to consider any new negotiations with Moscow looks increasingly politically untenable at home. The Ukrainian president, who is seeking to mobilize half a million more troops, faces growing domestic opposition from his commander-in-chief, General Valery Zaluzhny, and Mayor of Kyiv Vitaliy Klitschko,” the publication writes.

Ukraine is urged to agree to a difficult peace

Today, the famous American publicist and political commentator, member of the editorial board of The New York Times, Serge Schmemann, published an opinion article on the pages of his publication, in which he called on Ukraine to agree to immediate peace with the loss of territories.

In his opinion, in the face of declining Western support, Ukraine has no prospects of expelling the Russian army from its territory in the foreseeable future. Continuation of the war will mean further resource and demographic depletion of Ukraine. Whereas ending the war will provide a chance to build a powerful democratic state with the support of the West.