“Putin, in an attempt to appease Trump, may offer a ‘carrot’ in the form of halting missile and drone attacks on Ukraine – yet the price could excessively high. The Kremlin could trade an air ceasefire for, for instance, an agreement to stop all arms supplies to Ukraine. This would seriously harm Ukrainian interests – the war is not being fought solely in the air. Most of it is taking place on the ground.”

Leonid Litra, Senior Research Fellow at the New Europe Center and Visiting Fellow at ECFR, commented to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on the potential trilateral meeting between Washington, Kyiv, and Moscow.

The expert stresses that the United States is overly optimistic about the Russian side’s genuine willingness to engage in good-faith negotiations to end the war. Regardless of the meeting format, Russia’s objective will remain to “talk the process to death.”

However, in Litra’s view, if India’s purchase of Russian energy resources (which is a very large volume) could be stopped, it would be a step forward toward ending the Russia–Ukraine war.

More at the link (in Ukrainian).