By KYIV. Dec 28 (Interfax-Ukraine) – With its claims to the West, Russia is trying to create conditions under which Western politicians can put pressure on Ukraine for negotiations with the Kremlin, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The Kremlin will likely continue to focus its claims on the West and ignore Ukraine as a sovereign entity while supporting ongoing information operations that should force the West to offer preemptive concessions and pressure Ukraine into negotiations.
According to the study, the Kremlin routinely portrays Ukraine as a "Western pawn" that lacks any actual sovereignty to disqualify Ukrainian officials from future direct negotiations and instead frame negotiations with Russia as being the responsibility of Western officials.
Analysts said the Kremlin routinely highlights its grievances with the West over the war in Ukraine instead of its grievances with Ukraine itself to capitalize on the Western desire for negotiations and create a dynamic in which Western officials feel pressed to make preemptive concessions to lure Russia to the negotiating table.
The ISW believes the Kremlin will routinely depict Ukrainian officials as needlessly prolonging the war while reiterating its war aims in an attempt to influence Western officials to pressure Ukraine to negotiate on terms more favorable to Russia.
At the same time, ISW believes the Kremlin is not interested in serious negotiations that would produce a final settlement to the war in Ukraine, but instead seeks a temporary cessation of hostilities that would allow it to refit and replenish its military for further offensive campaigns against Ukraine.
