Ukraine and its allies must act quickly to ensure its troops have the weapons and training to fight Russia, or Kyiv may be forced into a deal to end the war that suits Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG).
“For too long, allies clung to magical thinking about Russia’s weakness and Ukraine’s ability to force the Kremlin into talks with battlefield success,” Alissa de Carbonnel, ICG deputy program director for Europe and Central Asia, told Newsweek in emailed comments.
As Kyiv and Moscow hope that its adversary will offer major concessions in exchange for peace, Ukraine must draft enough troops and wait for its backers to give it the weapons it needs to fight a long war, the Crisis Group think tank said in its report released Tuesday.
The Crisis Group also described how Kyiv’s allies will have to “walk a careful line” to scale up military assistance gradually, like the U.S is doing, “to shift Russian perceptions of the threat that aid poses to Moscow.”
In recent days, Putin has signaled he would consider peace talks that recognize the current battlefield lines but will fight on if Ukraine and its allies do not agree, according to Reuters, citing unnamed sources familiar with discussions.
However, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Putin was simply trying to derail a Ukrainian-initiated peace summit in Switzerland next month with “phony signals” about his alleged readiness to halt the war.
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