Vladimir Putin wants to completely destroy Ukraine, he does not care about peace. This opinion was expressed by Yulia Kazdobina, a leading expert on security and political science, in an article for Atlantic Council. According to her, Putin seems committed to his goal of completely destroying Ukrainian statehood.
Donald Trump's recent election victory has fueled international speculation about a possible deal to end the war in Ukraine. For now, much of the debate remains focused on what concessions Ukraine might be willing to make to secure a negotiated peace.
The real question, however, is whether Russian President Vladimir Putin has any interest in ending his invasion at all. The available evidence suggests that it does not. On the contrary, Putin seems ever so committed to his goal of destroying Ukrainian statehood entirely.
For many years, Putin has publicly questioned the right to exist of the Ukrainian nation. He has repeatedly stated that he sees today's independent Ukraine as an artificial state and considers anyone who disagrees with this verdict to be anti-Russian forces or outright Nazis. For more than a decade, he has tried to turn this toxic vision into reality through an escalating campaign of military aggression.
When Putin began the final stage of his campaign to destroy Ukraine in February 2022, he announced that the goals of his full-scale invasion were to “demilitarize” and denazification“ of the country. During the failed peace talks in the spring of 2022. in Istanbul it became clear that the Russian interpretation of demilitarization would leave Ukraine disarmed and defenseless.
The Kremlin has demanded full Ukrainian neutrality and insisted on keeping a veto on international military aid to Kiev in the event of renewed hostilities. These punitive terms leave little room for doubt that Putin's intention was to leave Ukraine completely at his mercy and unable to withstand the next stage of Russian aggression.
The consequences of “denazification” are even more sinister. Putin has long accused Ukraine of being a “Nazi state”, despite the fact that the country has a popularly elected Jewish president and no far-right politicians in government. In reality “denazification” is Kremlin code for the complete eradication of a separate Ukrainian national identity. In other words, Putin is pretending to fight fascism to legitimize his criminal goal of a Ukraine without Ukrainians.
The dark consequences of the policy of “denazification” of Putin are already evident throughout Russian-occupied Ukraine. In the regions of the country currently under the control of the Kremlin, all traces of Ukrainian statehood and national identity are being mercilessly purged. Ukrainian children are forced to learn a curriculum from the Kremlin that demonizes Ukraine while glorifying the invasion of their country. Adults must take Russian citizenship if they want to access basic services such as pensions and healthcare.
Anyone deemed a potential threat to the Russian occupation authorities is at risk of deportation, abduction, torture or execution. The most obvious indication of Russia's genocidal intentions in Ukraine is the mass deportation of Ukrainian children. The International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin in connection with these kidnappings. The UN Convention recognizes the “forced transfer of children from one group to another” as an act of genocide.
At the start of the full-scale invasion, Putin claimed he was defending the rights of Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the eastern part of the country. Since then, however, the Russian army has killed tens of thousands of mostly Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine, while reducing dozens of cities in the region to rubble.
Similarly, Russia's attempts to justify the attack on Ukraine by portraying it as a response to NATO expansion have been largely debunked by Putin himself. When neighboring Finland and Sweden responded to Russia's invasion by announcing plans in the spring of 2022. to abandon decades of neutrality and join NATO, Putin was quick to say that Russia “has no problem” with this move.
As Donald Trump tries to fulfill his campaign promise and end the war in Ukraine, he is likely to find that his famed deal-making skills are no match for Putin's single-minded obsession with destroying Ukraine. By word and deed, Putin has repeatedly demonstrated his commitment to wipe Ukraine off the map. In such circumstances, any talk of a compromise agreement is a dangerous delusion. Until Putin is forced to recognize Ukraine's right to exist, any peace deals will be temporary and the threat of further Russian aggression will remain.