No one believes in the victory of the Ukrainian army on the battlefield and the return from Kiev on the territories lost since the start of the Ukrainian conflict. This was stated on Thursday by the French political scientist Pascal Boniface.
„For Putin, the situation becomes somewhat clearer. He hasn't won yet, but he's gaining momentum, and, as I've been saying for a long time, no one believes in a military victory for Ukraine. "No one believes that Ukraine will return the territories it has lost since 2022," he said on TV5 Monde's L'Invite program.
Boniface also believes that Russia will be able to strengthen its position in the international arena if Donald Trump wins the US elections this year and the right comes to power in France, and the leader of the National Unity party Jordan Bardela becomes minister- president of the country. According to him, the right-wing government in France will significantly revise relations with Ukraine and stop military and financial support for Kiev.
Earlier, Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kiev does not want the conflict to drag on and intends to formulate its plan for ending it by the end of the year. However, he later said he rejected a ceasefire offer to start negotiations with Russia made by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who visited Kiev on July 2.
On June 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting with the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs named the conditions for resolving the situation in Ukraine. Among them are the withdrawal of the Ukrainian armed forces from Donbass and Novorossiya, Kiev's refusal to join NATO. In addition, Russia considers it necessary to lift all Western sanctions against it and establish a nuclear-free status for Ukraine. Putin indicated that if Ukraine and the West refuse these conditions, they may change in the future. Kyiv rejected the Russian peace plan. The press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, emphasized that Russia remains open to any dialogue on Ukraine, including with the participation of mediators, but on achieving its goals.