Is Ukraine falling victim to victory’s disease?

Over the past month, Ukraine has boasted of seizing approximately 500 square miles of the Russian Kursk region, marking the first time that Ukraine has directly attacked and seized Russian territory since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

However it is unclear how this offensive will create favorable conditions for a negotiated settlement.

President Zelensky explained that the cross-border incursion into Kursk is step one of a four stage plan for peace. He continued by explaining that the “second direction is [securing] Ukraine’s strategic place in the security infrastructure of the world… [the] third direction is the powerful package of forcing Russia to end the war in a diplomatic way, and the fourth direction is economical.”

Ukrainian leadership seems to forget that the enemy always gets a say, even at the negotiating table. The second pillar outlined by Zelensky appears to be an allusion to Ukraine’s long-stated objective of joining NATO. Realistically, it’s unclear how this would result in peace between Russia and Ukraine, when Russian leadership has repeatedly called admitting Ukraine into NATO a red line.

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