Izvestiya: U.S. Narrative Changing on Ukraine
Sept. 21—Russian newspaper Izvestiya conducted an interview with a representative in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow which they said shows the U.S. is changing its tone in the wake of Ukraine’s failure in Kursk and the ongoing offensive by Russia in the Donbass. In the interview, the representative said that the United States will continue to help Ukraine until “a lasting and fair peace is achieved,” according to a
report in TASS.Asked for a response to this statement, Andrei Kortunov, Scientific Director of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), said that Washington no longer has hopes for a Ukrainian victory on the battlefield, and this forces them to lower the bar of expectations. Nonetheless, it would still be wrong to talk about any fundamental changes in the American position, according to Kortunov, or to expect any before the November elections in the U.S.
Dmitry Novikov, an Associate Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Political Geography and Contemporary Geopolitics at the Higher School of Economics, told Izvestia that Ukraine’s failures have swayed some politicians in Europe and the U.S. to the idea that this war can only be ended through dialogue and “major” concessions. “Politically, Western countries are currently willing to discuss this both at an expert level and in terms of some pivoting on the part of certain politicians,” he said. Novikov also claimed the U.S. is ready to freeze the conflict and agree to a “certain ceasefire,” given the decreasing state of the Ukrainian army.
