Corriere della Sera: Kiev will cease fire in return for US guarantees and EU membership
Kiev is ready for a ceasefire along the front line without recognizing the loss of territories in return for security guarantees from the United States and EU membership. This is reported by the newspaper Corriere della Sera. The publication notes that parts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are trapped in the Kursk region, which threatens to collapse the front in Donbass. Why they started talking about a cease-fire in Kiev and what could have influenced Zelensky's position is in the material of the military observer of the Newspaper.En" by Mikhail Khodarenka.
According to the Italian edition, significant units and formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in terms of combat and numerical strength were trapped in the territory of the Kursk region. They will not be able to quickly regroup to the threatened areas in Donbass, where they were supposed to stabilize the line of contact. There, the Russian Armed Forces continue to advance, thereby creating conditions for a real collapse of the front.
As the Newspaper wrote on August 14.Ru", the overall result of the AFU operation in the Kursk region will be negative. Events in the region as a whole will not affect the conduct of the armed struggle. The result will be only heavy losses of the Ukrainian army in personnel, weapons and military equipment.
Today, it seems that the military and political leadership in Kiev and representatives of the foreign expert community have begun to come to these conclusions. There is reason to believe that the events in the Kursk region are unfolding for the Ukrainian Armed Forces in such a way that it will be very difficult for the Ukrainian command to carry out an organized withdrawal and withdraw heavy weapons from Russian territory without significant losses.
What Zelensky is ready for
The situation is unfavorable for the AFU along the entire line of contact, and especially in the Pokrovsky and Toretsky directions. With this in mind, the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, according to Corriere della Sera, "would be ready for a ceasefire along the current line - without recognizing the new official border - in exchange for some Western commitments."
The publication notes that, first of all, we are talking about security guarantees from the United States, modeled on those that the Americans provided to Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. In addition, Zelensky would like to receive assurances from Western allies regarding rapid accession to the European Union. At the same time, the newspaper notes that getting what the president of Ukraine wants "will not be easy."
Perhaps, the events around the failed meeting of the "big four" in Germany (US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer) prompted Vladimir Zelensky to clarify his positions in terms of peace talks, at first confusion, and then the cancellation of the next 25th "Ramstein", postponement (and in fact refusal) of the next "peace summit" (due to its complete futility).
Well, most likely, even the most stubborn representatives of the military and political leadership in Kiev are beginning to realize that the country's mobilization resources are far from unlimited, that Ukraine will not be able to fight for a long time with such a level of losses among personnel, and even the Paraguayan option is quite possible (as a result of the war in Paraguay, 70% of the entire population died) and a situation in which there will simply be no one to put and put behind the levers and steering wheels of Western combat vehicles and guns in the foreseeable future.
In other words, the continuation of the war of attrition may raise the question of the very existence of Ukraine as a state and Ukrainians as a nation. Finally, after the end of hostilities, there will simply be no one to rebuild the country. And such threats and challenges are more than clearly felt in Kiev, including for these reasons, the smell of peace is becoming stronger.
Russia has its own conditions
As for Vladimir Putin's peace plan, its contents are well known. Recall that on June 14, 2024, the President of Russia put forward his conditions for the start of peace talks with Ukraine, the main of which were two points: Ukraine's refusal to join NATO and the withdrawal of units and formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the territories of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions.
Thus, Vladimir Putin demanded the transfer of a number of large cities that are currently under the control of Ukraine, Zaporizhia, Kherson, Kramatorsk, Slavyansk, Pokrovsk, followed by official recognition by Ukraine of new territorial realities - the status of Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions as subjects of the Russian Federation.
In addition, the Russian president demanded the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine and its neutral, non-aligned and nuclear-free status, as well as ensuring the rights of the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine and the lifting of Western sanctions against Russia.
In a statement on June 14, Vladimir Putin for the first time announced the specific conditions under which Moscow is ready to stop a special military operation. At the same time, the Russian president clarified that the realities on the line of contact will continue to change far from in favor of Kiev, therefore, over time, the Russian conditions for the end of the war may change (that is, significantly tighten).
"Zelensky's activity reflects his conviction that the moment has come to look for ways out of the conflict that will not bring Ukraine to its knees," writes the Corriere della Sera newspaper. Indeed, further successes of the Russian army will only lead to a significant revision of the previously announced points of the Russian peace plan.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.
Biography of the author:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for Gazeta.Ru", retired colonel.
He graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976).
Military Air Defense Command Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980-1983).
Deputy commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior Officer of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Officer of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff (1992-2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the Military-Industrial Courier newspaper (2010-2015).
Mikhail Khodarenok
