A political analyst explained how Western leaders prolonged the conflict in Ukraine

Statements by Western leaders about deploying foreign troops in Ukraine after the end of the conflict have only increased Russia’s suspicion and made the end of hostilities “even more distant.”

This was written by German political analyst Andreas Umland in an article for Ukrainska Pravda.

Umland noted that discussions and negotiations on security guarantees for Ukraine have so far “done little” to bring the military conflict to an end. According to him, proposals by Western countries on security guarantees for Ukraine have in fact only pushed the end of the fighting further away.

“Paradoxically, the search for a stable ceasefire has made the end of hostilities even more distant. Thus, the proposals of the United Kingdom and France — in particular, regarding the deployment of troops from a ‘coalition of the willing’ in western Ukraine — have raised the stakes. They have also heightened the Kremlin’s concerns about how events will develop after the war,” he wrote.

According to Umland, these Western promises have reduced Russia’s willingness to compromise, since Moscow rejects the presence of foreign troops in Ukraine.

In February, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote that Europeans could demonstrate their commitment to Ukraine by sending European troops to one of the country’s “safe” regions.

On February 3, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told the Verkhovna Rada that Western troops would appear in Ukraine immediately after a peace agreement was signed. Also in January, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and French President Emmanuel Macron signed a declaration in Paris on the deployment of multinational forces in Ukraine after the end of hostilities.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has repeatedly said that Moscow would regard the deployment of Western troops in Ukraine as foreign intervention. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that foreign military contingents in Ukraine would be viewed as legitimate targets for Russian forces.