BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – The political scientist Carlo Masala expects that the Ukraine war will ultimately end at the negotiating table. “The conditions for negotiations are created on the battlefield. That’s my point,” said the military expert from the University of the armed forces in Munich in an interview with the German Press Agency.
That the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy negotiations with the Russian President Wladimir Putin ruled out, will ultimately not prevent him from doing so. “The conflict cannot be solved militarily in the sense that the Ukrainian army drives the last Russian soldier out of Ukrainian territory,” said Masala. “It won’t work. Therefore, if there is an opportunity for negotiations without Russian preconditions, Zelensky is the one who will sit at the negotiating table.” Putin, for his part, will start negotiations if he decides that continuing the war will do him more harm than good.
However, this point has not yet been reached, emphasized Masala, who had spoken out in favor of the delivery of battle tanks to Ukraine early on. “If we only look at the next few months, the decisive question will be whether the Ukrainians will succeed in separating the southern from the eastern front, driving a wedge in there. That would be a heavy blow for the Russians, because then Crimea would also come under pressure.”/cd/DP/zb