“As long as Putin is convinced that he can get more in Ukraine, his war against Ukraine will continue”

Leo Litra, Senior Research Fellow at New Europe Center, Senior Policy Fellow at the ECFR, stated in his interview for “War and Politics 24” YouTube channel.

The interview analyses Russia’s maximalist negotiating posture and the limits of current peace efforts. Leo Litra argues that Putin’s rhetoric about an imminent end to the war is performative: “I don’t think that anyone believes that Putin is serious when he’s talking about peace efforts because if he would be serious, his actions would be rather different.”

On the question of Europe stepping in to replace the US in negotiations, he is cautious: “If the EU is in a position of weakness in relation to Russia, then this is a very bad timing to start engaging – Russia first needs to be in a position of weakness itself.”

Regarding domestic pressure on the Kremlin, Leo Litra notes that the context is steadily deteriorating for Putin: “The economic strains are bigger for the Russian society and even in opinion polls controlled by the government, there is a clear indication that support towards the war and towards Putin is lower, and the support for a peace deal is significantly increasing.”

Watch the full interview below.