Experts call on Ukraine and the West to unilaterally demonstrate readiness for negotiations to Russia

Columnists from the American journal Foreign Affairs, focusing on international relations, are calling for the opening of communication channels for peaceful resolution of the war in Ukraine.

In their article, they write that while both Ukraine and Russia are not ready for negotiations, “all parties must take steps now to ensure the possibility of negotiations in the future.”

“In the midst of war, it is difficult to understand whether the enemy is genuinely willing to cease hostilities or is cynically engaging in peace talks only to achieve war goals. Determining the intentions of the enemy is nearly impossible in the absence of dialogue. Therefore, it is necessary to open communication channels to have the opportunity to achieve peace when such an opportunity arises,” argue Samuel Charap and Jeremy Shapiro.

Charap and Shapiro are two well-known American experts. Charap is a senior political scientist at the Rand Corporation, which analyzes, among other things, for the Pentagon. Shapiro is the Research Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

They call on Ukraine and the West to unilaterally demonstrate to Russia their readiness for negotiations by changing rhetoric, appointing special envoys, and voluntarily limiting strikes on deep rear areas, as well as conducting a prisoner exchange.

“If neither side initiates this process, the warring parties are likely to remain where they are today: fiercely fighting over inches of territory, at the cost of horrific human losses,” the authors believe.

According to them, wars are always associated with mistrust, but “if trust were a prerequisite for communication, warring parties would never have started talking.”