While Ukraine continues to fight for its territorial integrity, its vision of victory is clearer: the expulsion of all Russian troops from the country, including Crimea and the occupied territory of Donbas. However, in the West, opinions are increasingly being heard that such a scenario is unlikely in the near future.
CNN writes about this with reference to expert Rim Montaz from the Carnegie Foundation.
He believes there is "a growing, quiet consensus that negotiations that involve accepting at least a temporary loss of sovereignty over the territories are the only way to end this war."
"Kyiv is in one of the weakest positions since February 2022," the expert believes. But he points out that the prospect of negotiations, the result of which will be the actual loss of territories, "is a political minefield" for Zelenskyi.
The publication assumes that, in any configuration of the front line, Moscow will demand guarantees of Ukraine's neutrality "or, at least, an indefinite suspension of its desire to join NATO."
Zelensky, on the other hand, "will not be able to swallow this without guarantees of Ukraine's future security", CNN describes one of the main contradictions of the hypothetical negotiations.
