In my previous column, I have already said that I believe that Russian President Vladmir Putin is not a rational actor. That said, I think Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, more likely than not, understands that Western sanctions are forcing Russia to accept a ceasefire.
Earlier this week Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov publicly issued four demands for an end to the conflict. Peskov said Ukraine would have to agree to (1) a ceasefire, (2) recognize Crimea as part of Russia, (3) recognize the independent states of Donetsk and Luhansk, and (4) not pursue NATO membership.
President Zelenskyy rejected this ultimatum, but he also said he was willing to negotiate and discuss these conditions. The major obstacle to any agreement is the Ukrainians do not trust Putin to keep a deal.
I do believe that Western sanctions offer the best chance to force Putin's hand. While I still believe that President Putin should resign for this invasion, our top priority is securing a peace deal to prevent further loss of life.
This point was made clear to me when I recently listened to an old interview of the late Richard Holbrooke in 1998. As Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs, Holbrooke negotiated the 1995 Dayton Agreement, which ended the war in Bosnia.
According to the U.S. State Department, the war in Bosnia resulted in 200,000 deaths and another 2 million fled their homes. Holbrooke believed that his wife and author Kati Marton was instrumental to the success of the negotiations.
Richard Holbooke said he was influenced by his wife's books on Raoul Wallenberg and Count Folke Bernadotte:
"And where Kati's books were particularly critical to us was as we prepared for what we knew might be meetings with the war criminals in Bosnia, Karadzic and Mladic, we had to decide whether or not to meet with them. And I was inspired by her books to realize that the thing to do is to meet with these terrible war criminals, knowing that it's all right to meet with them if you can save people who are still alive and it's not disrespectful of the dead."
When Raoul Wallenberg entered Hungary in 1944, the Nazis had already deported 440,000 Jews from the country and killed most of them. There were only about 200,000 Jews left in Hungary and Wallenberg was on a mission to save as many Jews as he could.
Wallenberg gave Jewish residents diplomatic protection through protective passports and he established safe houses to hide Jews. He also bribed German officials to rescue Jews.
Wallenberg even met with Adolf Eichmann and tried to persuade him to surrender. Eichmann tried to have Wallenberg assassinated for his efforts.
Count Bernadotte was the Vice President of the Swedish Red Cross. In 1943 and 1944, he secured the release of 11,000 prisoners in exchange for German prisoners. In 1945, he negotiated with Heinrich Himmler to release 21,000 people from German concentration camps in the last two months of the war, including thousands of Jews.
He brought another 10,000 survivors of the concentration camps to Sweden for medical treatment after Germany surrendered.
Holbrooke was right that if Wallenberg can meet with Eichmann, and Count Bernadotte can meet with Himmler, then the United States could meet with war criminals to end the war in Bosnia. For the same reasons, the United States and Ukraine can negotiate a deal with Vladimir Putin today.
If Biden and Zelenskyy were to agree to Putin's terms on Crimea, Donbas, and no NATO membership, then Putin should withdraw his forces from the rest of Ukraine. To ensure Putin's compliance with the deal, the West should not drop sanctions until the withdrawal is complete and Putin has released all prisoners.
Prisoners of war should be released on both sides and Putin should also release the thousands of brave Russians who have gone to jail protesting this war. In Putin's Russia, a person can receive 15 years in prison if they call this conflict an "invasion" as opposed to Putin's preferred term of a "special military operation."
If Putin reneges on the deal, we can restore the sanctions. If Putin is forced to accept, it will prevent more Ukrainians and Russians from being killed.
In conclusion, I agree with Richard Holbrooke that such talks should commence because "you can save people who are still alive and it's not disrespectful of the dead."
Robert Zapesochny is a researcher and writer whose work focuses on foreign affairs, national security and presidential history. He has been published in numerous outlets, including The American Spectator, the Washington Times, and The American Conservative. When he's not writing, Robert works for a medical research company in New York. Read Robert Zapesochny's Reports — More Here.
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