Vitaly Shevchenko

I think, Celia, it would be helpful to try and cut through the rhetoric that we have been hearing from politicians in Washington, in Kiev and Moscow.

And I think this plan, it largely boils down to the possibility that Russia and the United States

are successful or may be successful in forcing Volodymyr Zelensky to give up land in exchange for a pretty vague promise of a ceasefire.

And looking at the security guarantees mentioned in that plan, they are hardly rock solid.

And other provisions in the plan, they will never be accepted by Russia.

Things like the deployment of a foreign force, maybe a military force, to monitor that ceasefire.

Russia has rejected that idea consistently.

So at the end of the day, are we...

any closer to the end of hostilities in Ukraine, that is very unlikely still.

And even if it happens, it will not happen on Ukraine's terms.

It will happen on Russia's terms, supported by the United States, if this plan were to go ahead.

Well, the two trends of thought that I have detected coming from Ukraine are pretty clear.

One is that, well, look, peace is better than war.

We're tired.

We are being pummeled every day and every night.

Enough.

The second train of thought is, well, look, it's our territory.

Ukraine got invaded.

Now, both Russia and the United States are forcing us to give up that territory and present it as a breakthrough.

And Europe cannot stop that possibility.