Retired Gen. David Petraeus, a former CIA director and former head of U.S. Central Command, has expressed his belief that Russian President Vladimir Putin has no intention of agreeing to a peace deal unless additional territory is given. Petraeus stated that the additional Ukrainian territory Putin wants is heavily fortified, and Russian forces would have to fight for years at the pace they are going to capture it. According to media reports, Putin wants all of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the Donbas, including areas Russia does not currently occupy, and is willing to freeze the front lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Despite Trump’s claims of progress in peace talks, Russia has not shifted its core demands for Ukraine’s complete political and military capitulation. Putin wants to displace President Zelensky, replace him with a pro-Russian figure, and demilitarize Ukraine, none of which can be acceptable to Ukraine nor to the European countries and the United States. Petraeus made clear that Putin remains the roadblock to peace and urged the U.S. and Ukrainian allies to push negotiations along by increasing aid to Ukraine.
Petraeus believes that the obstacle to peace at this point in time is President Putin and that what needs to be done is changing those dynamics by helping Ukraine far more than we have so far: lifting restrictions on them, seizing the $300 billion of frozen reserve in European countries of Russian money, giving it to Ukraine, more sanctions on Russia, even including the Gazprombank, and curtailing the export of oil further than we have already.
