WSJ: Western officials divided on need to push Kyiv into peace talks with Russia
According to the Wall Street Journal, senior U.S. and EU officials believe that an opportunity for peace talks may appear in the coming weeks or months after Ukraine successfully recaptured the southern city of Kherson.
However, the need for such talks remains in question.
The U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that it is “our job to put them in the best position on the battlefield,” and there is an opportunity for diplomacy, “they’re in the best position at the bargaining table.”
Two unnamed European diplomats said Sullivan recommended that President Zelensky and his team think about “realistic demands and priorities for negotiations,” including reconsidering the goal to regain the Crimean peninsula, which Russia illegally occupies since 2014.
Attempts to bring Kyiv and Moscow to the negotiating table were also fueled by the fears of some Western countries that their arms stocks were being depleted at an “unreasonable rate,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
