This is John Batchel, a conversation with my colleague Jeff McCausen in the United States Army retired

about the standoff on the battlefield in Ukraine and what both sides can expect from negotiations and a ceasefire.

Not much more than they started with. However, as Jeff reminds all of us, time is a thing. It bites. Frees the battlefield and wait a generation, two generations, half a generation. Different models from the 20th century continue. The Koreas, for example, Cyprus, for example.

Jeff McCawson on where we are right now and what the battlefield might look like in future.

More of this tonight.

Yeah, I think it's very likely to be the case

because a full resolution is almost impossible

since both sides of real main objectives are intractable.

On the Ukrainian side, they want the Russians to fully pull back from the territory they've

occupied to include Crimea. That would demand, frankly, probably an abrogation of the current

government in Russia and Mr. Putin stepping down his president. I don't see him doing that

anytime soon.

On the other side, the Russian maximalist demands call for really the Zelensky government to go,

neutralization of Ukraine, and massive limitations on their military. So some ceasefire in between

that can freeze the situation as it is, end the fighting, and see if

political conditions can change over time to move, hopefully, over time to a longer-term settlement

is probably the best thing you can do. We've seen that in Cyprus, seen that in Panamanjohn.

You actually could say we saw that in Berlin during the Cold War, but adjustments were made and agreements were made between both sides in several of these places,

which may have perceived to be technical at the time,

but showed that the political climates were changing and therefore the conditions for the ceasefire could also reflect that.