I'm John Batchel with my two colleagues, Bill Raggio of the Foundation for Defense

of Democracy's Long War

Journal and his colleague, John Hardy, following the Ukraine war, four years done, beginning of the

fifth year. And the fifth year includes a negotiating table somewhere, a moving table. It was not

part of our information when the war started. But I've lost track, John, with all the emphasis on Iran and other attention to Venezuela.

Is the negotiation continuing?

Because last hour, I reported, the Kremlin had made no change from their maximalist demands of all the Dunbass.

I do have a statement made by an observer most recently

that the Russians have suffered 1.2 million casualties of all kinds.

Does that number sound rational?

And is there a negotiation underway pending?

Their negotiations have continued really since President Trump took office last year.

I think at present, unfortunately, though, I don't really see them as having a great prospect for success.

I mean, I think that Putin is still wedded to these maximalist demands that just make peace unlikely, if not impossible. And it's not just territory. You know, the White House theory of the case is that if only Kiev could bring itself to seed a little land in the Dombas in eastern Ukraine, then, you know, peace would ensue and Putin would be satisfied. And I just don't think that's right. He's not fighting for a little bit of land in Eastern Ukraine. He's fighting to make Ukraine itself as a whole vassal state. That's a fixation that he's had for decades and has intensified with age. And I don't think it's going where. So that's why you see him, you know, in addition to demanding territories, asking for various other things that Ukraine doesn't want to give away,

like formerly forswearing NATO membership, demilitarization, codifying Russian cultural influence

of the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian language in Ukraine. And crucially, Putin vehemently rejects the Western proposed

security guarantees on which the U.S. proposal for kind of a land for peace deal is predicated.

So I think anywhere you turn, the kind of White House theory of victory of success in these

negotiations just doesn't seem likely to pan out to me. And I think, you know, the U.S. is going to

have to put more pressure on Putin for compromise. There's going to have to be a degree of

compelance, not just persuasion. And I think, unfortunately, Trump, you know, the dealmaker-in-chief, so-called,

is leaving a lot of leverage on the table. You know, we never really pursued a concerted, full-force,

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