Everyone and welcome on today's program. I'm joined by John Meersheimer and Alexander McCurice

to discuss where the proxy war in Ukraine is going. I guess everyone's been following the

very dramatic developments on the front lines, but also the negotiations, which are, I guess, less clear.

And, yeah, I thought it was a good point to start where the negotiations are going,

because Russia, of course, has set some very big demands, which are difficult to meet.

While the EU and Zelensky seem to reject everything that Russia has demanded.

Well, the US wants to end the war, but it has no leverage over the Russians.

And so far, it's been willing to put significant pressure on Zelensky and the European.

So are these negotiations going anywhere or are they already dead in the water?

Well, I will float my own opinion, which is that these negotiations are not exactly dead in the

water, but they're not going to be what ends the war. What ends the war is the situation on the battlefields. That is what is going to be what ends the war. What ends the war is the situation on the battlefields.

That is what is going to end the war because the Russian proposals, which I don't think the Russians see as unreasonable or maximalist.

I mean, we call them that in the West, but I've just been to Russia,

and that was not my impression of how they're seen there. On the contrary, there, they're seen

as almost minimal, the least that Russia could demand. Anyway, I don't imagine anybody in the West,

the Europeans, the Ukrainians, obviously, or even the Americans ever accepting them.

So in terms of the war, I can't really see how these negotiations can produce a positive outcome to end it.

But what they might do is if they can be continued

in a way that results in some kind of a resumption, if not of a dialogue, but perhaps of communication

between Russia and the United States, then over time they might lead to something

in terms of not an American-Russian rapprochement.

I think that is asking too much, but at least a certain level of understanding between

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