Giving Peace a Chance – Comment is Freed
The gap between the spy s perspective and the soldier s perspective on this war may be growing in Russia. No amount of obfuscation can hide the fact that this has been an operational and logistical shambles. However much the armed forces are currently regrouping and redirecting their campaign, the longer the war goes on the greater the potential losses in troops, equipment, and reputation. It is a reality that Putin is now desperate to hide from his own people, crushing dissent with draconian measures, attempting to cut his country off from all sources of news that might contradict the state media. But the realities will continue to intrude, reflected in the anger of desperate mothers or the persistent bravery of demonstrators on the streets of St Petersburg and Moscow.
Can a war launched on lies be stopped with the truth? The challenge from the start for those wondering how this war can best be concluded has been to identify a peace process that encourages Putin to walk away from his delusions. Even if the Russian military campaign had been far more successful there was never the capacity to install and sustain a puppet government. This leads to question about whether there are secondary objectives such as territory in the Donbas or the neutralisation of Ukraine – that might satisfy Putin. But even here there are issues about the process itself. What will be required not only to get the two sides to agree but for them to be confident that any agreement would be honoured.