Kathrine Frich
Bombs are still falling on schools and hospitals as the envoys talk.
Peace talks usually start with both sides giving a little ground. When diplomats pack into a quiet hotel room, the goal is to find a middle path, yet sometimes one side walks in only to raise the price of peace.
Playing the boss
That hardball approach is playing out right now at the Russia-Ukraine negotiations in Abu Dhabi, according to Onet. Instead of compromising with Kyiv, Vladimir Putin is piling on fresh demands that go way beyond the front lines.
As reported by the German portal t-online, the Kremlin leader is insisting on an overhaul of how the entire continent is policed, noting that “Putin is still behaving like a mafia boss” at the bargaining table.
“Now Putin wants even more, specifically, a new European security architecture. In this way, he reveals his true intentions,” the outlet wrote.
Reshaping European security takes years, not months, making the demand look like a “perfidious stalling tactic” designed to buy time for Russian troops, t-online argued.
Meanwhile, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) noted that the only thing uniting the delegations is “likely a growing war weariness,” and warned that Donald Trump’s reported idea of forcing a “slightly different form” onto Ukraine will not satisfy Moscow.
Waiting for winter
Behind the diplomatic curtain, the real strategy relies on freezing temperatures rather than peace treaties. “The truth is: while Moscow in Abu Dhabi distracts the world with political fantasies, Putin’s army in Ukraine is deliberately killing civilians every day. The Russian president is not counting on successful negotiations, but is banking on a harsh winter of war,” t-online reported.
Bombs are still falling on schools and hospitals as the envoys talk. According to the Konstanz daily Südkurier, “the man in the Kremlin isn’t betting on negotiations” as he tries to turn Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Kherson, and Zaporizhia into icy “death zones.”
Still, that winter gamble has failed before, and Südkurier wrote: “The key now for Ukrainian negotiators will be not to miss the moment when Putin realizes this. Only then will there be a real chance for peace.”
Adding to the tension, the US team in Abu Dhabi is led by Alexus Grynkewich alongside two political newcomers, real estate mogul Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. As the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung warned, that setup risks leaving Moscow to outplay the Americans while European leaders are stuck at the “children’s table.”
