The United States and Germany are in talks over an effort to persuade Ukraine to negotiate a peace deal with Russia broadly along the lines of the present battle front, according to a report.
The two largest states in Nato and Kyiv’s biggest military backers are said to be deliberately limiting arms deliveries to make it clear to President Zelensky that the conflict is now “frozen”.
Despite the arrival of small quantities of modern western battle tanks such as the German-made Leopard 2, Ukraine’s summer counter-offensive has failed to make significant territorial gains, leading to concerns among some of its partners that the war may now devolve into an attritional struggle.
This week the US mission to Nato declared on Twitter/X that Washington would “continue to support [the Ukrainians] to be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table when the time comes [for talks]”. It added: “We are focused on setting the conditions for a just, durable and sustainable peace.”
While it later clarified that the US believed Ukraine’s battle to reclaim its borders from Russia was “winnable”, the message added to speculation that Kyiv’s supporters were looking for a way to put a stop to the fighting amid “war fatigue”, economic worries and concerns over the depletion of their own military stocks. Several weeks ago Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, inadvertently told a prank caller that “there is a lot of tiredeness on all sides” and “the moment is approaching when everyone will understand there is a way out”.
The lack of progress on the battlefield has also concentrated attention on an admission that the European Union will not meet its target to supply Ukraine with a million shells and missiles by March, its stated deadline, and Berlin’s steadfast refusal to provide Kyiv with Taurus, an air-launched stealth cruise missile with a range of more than 300 miles.
The newspaper Bild said it had been told by a German government source that the aim was now to put Ukraine in a “strategically good negotiating position” from which it could open talks with the Kremlin about its “sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
The source was quoted as saying: “The White House and the [German] chancellery are consulting on this. Zelensky himself should conclude that it can’t go on, without any demands from the outside. Of his own accord he should look to his nation and explain that they have to negotiate . . . what Berlin and Washington are seeking as an alternative for negotiations is a frozen conflict without concord between the parties to the conflict.”
The White House said that the report by Bild did not accurately reflect the administration’s outlook of the conflict.
Adrienne Watson, spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said: “President Biden has been clear that we are committed to continuing to provide Ukraine with what they need to succeed on the battlefield.”
A spokesman for the German government said it would be Kyiv that decided the goals of the conflict. “Germany stands firm on Ukraine’s side,” he said. “We will support Ukraine for as long as necessary to defend itself against the Russian assault.
“This is a matter of the defence of sovereignty and territorial integrity, and of Ukraine’s survival. In the process we are in constant and close conversation with our international partners.”
However, Roderich Kiesewetter, a security policy expert and former army colonel from the opposition Christian Democratic Union party, said: “They are deliberately not delivering what Ukraine needs to liberate its occupied territory, such as Taurus, but rather limiting themselves to the defence of a rump Ukraine.”
