In Europe, they are convinced that the war in Ukraine could last up to three years

The war in Ukraine will likely continue for anywhere from one to three more years.

European officials gave this forecast to The Wall Street Journal on condition of anonymity.

They believe Russia is negotiating in bad faith and is trying to use the talks to achieve what it cannot secure on the battlefield—namely, to obtain territory in the Donbas.

A senior Ukrainian official told the newspaper that the negotiations have largely come down to convincing U.S. President Donald Trump that Ukraine is not the obstacle to ending the war. Moscow is taking a similar approach, the WSJ writes, trying to persuade U.S. representatives that it is Kyiv that does not want the war to end. Both sides, the paper says, share one goal in the talks: to avoid Trump’s anger—so that he does not increase pressure by imposing additional sanctions on Russia or reducing assistance to Ukraine.

“Talks held this week in Geneva under U.S. mediation ended like the other rounds of talks this year: no one could point to any real progress. Optimistic diplomatic slogans conceal a deadlock in the peace process that, in the view of many observers and even some participants, has turned into political theater,” the article says.

Today, WSJ journalist Bojan Pancevski wrote that Volodymyr Zelenskyy instructed his team to prepare to keep fighting for another three years. Zelenskyy’s office denied his claim.