Putin Resorts to Old Foot-Dragging Ploy

The Russian Foreign Ministry had another interpretation, which was more cryptic: “The parties engaged in a constructive discussion focusing on possible specific steps to implement the understandings reached during President Vladimir Putin’s October 16 telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump.” Those “possible specific steps,” however, did not include the hoped-for meeting in Budapest.

Trump remains positive on the potential for negotiated peace, “exhort[ing] both sides to lay down their arms and freeze the conflict in place. The Ukrainian president immediately agreed to the idea, but the Kremlin rebuked the call for peace, which would see Kyiv keep the roughly 22% of the Donbas region that Russia has been unable to occupy in more than 11 years of war,” the New York Post observed.

However, Kremlin forces, moving by inchstones in fighting to occupy the 22%, are paying a terrible price. The Ukrainian General Staff reported that, as of Oct. 22, the number of killed and wounded Russian soldiers has topped 1,133,000 since the war began 1,335 days ago.

We have seen this movie before: The West threatens to apply greater military or economic pressure on Russia; Putin suggests he wants to engage in peace or ceasefire talks; emissaries meet and find the Russians as intransigent as ever. According to the Institute for the Study of War's "Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment," “Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated that Russia is unwilling to agree to an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine that does not result in Ukraine’s complete capitulation.”

Does Trump See Through Russia’s Foot-Dragging?

Curiously, Trump does not acknowledge Putin’s foot-dragging strategy publicly. Although the US president has threatened to provide Ukraine with advanced weapons and to impose secondary sanctions, he has not followed through. Until he does, it seems the US negotiating position is stalled.

Surprisingly, the European Union is putting teeth in its proactive moves to underwrite Ukraine’s war costs. “They [the EU] also plan to push forward with plans to use billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets to help fund Ukraine’s war efforts, despite some misgivings about the legality and consequences of such a step,” the Associated Press reported.

The United States must not continue playing Putin’s game.

The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliate.