Zelensky's subservience and Western attempts to weaken Russia undermined negotiations, says USP researcher.

Sputnik - Naftali Bennett, former Prime Minister of Israel, revealed last Sunday (5) that he mediated a contact between the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, in which the Russian leader guaranteed that eliminating the leader of the Ukrainian regime was not in the plans of the special operation launched in February 2022.

 According to Bennett, this promise was promptly shared with Zelensky, who then decided to leave a bunker where he was hiding to return to his office. Shortly after the event, however, negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, which had been progressing, were interrupted by the West. On Monday (6), the Kremlin confirmed Putin's conversation with Bennett.

 "All my actions were coordinated down to the smallest detail with the US, Germany, and France. [...] They broke off the negotiations," Bennett stated.

 According to Valdir Bezerra, a researcher at the BRICS Studies Group (GEBRICS) at the University of São Paulo (USP), there is a direct correlation between the increased participation—both direct and indirect—of the West in the conflict and the weakening of dialogue mechanisms. The researcher points out that the increased military aid to Ukraine has diminished Zelensky's willingness to negotiate with Russia.

 The former Israeli leader pointed out that before the West interrupted negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, at least 17 draft agreements had been drawn up between the parties.

 "At that time, still at the beginning of the conflict, Western aid to Ukraine was quite restrained, which made Zelensky more inclined to negotiate with Russia. It is worth remembering that Zelensky on several occasions showed himself willing to sit down with Vladimir Putin to better understand Russian demands. However, as the conflict dragged on and as the West became more emboldened to increase its direct and indirect participation on the battlefield, Zelensky's willingness to negotiate was gradually undermined, culminating, for example, in the numerous accusations that the Ukrainian president began to direct against Vladimir Putin."

  According to the expert, the West's main geopolitical interest in the conflict is to try to "weaken Russia's position in the region while simultaneously strengthening the American and European position in the post-Soviet space."

 "Russia is a land power with security concerns that involve precisely its western borders (where Belarus and Ukraine are located today). It is no coincidence that when Putin came to power, he suggested a common security architecture for the entire European continent, but what ended up happening was that the West followed a different path, based on its unilateral interpretation that European security could be achieved without necessarily taking into account Russia's anxieties regarding the expansion of NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization]," he explained.

 "In short, maintaining the conflict represents the intention to make this hegemonic version of the West prevail in Eastern Europe, to the detriment of Russian concerns."

  When questioned about Zelensky's motivations for pursuing the Western agenda and keeping Ukraine in conflict with Russia despite the country's losses, Bezerra believes that Kiev hopes to benefit from eventual financial support for reconstruction funded by the West, along the lines of the Marshall Plan—which restructured Europe after the war. According to the expert, this explains Ukrainian subservience.

 "The Ukrainian leadership, represented by Zelensky, hopes to receive financial support from the West, in the style of a 'Marshall Plan 2.0', for the country's future reconstruction. Another factor may be related to his intention to definitively position Ukraine under the protective 'umbrella' of the United States, which naturally implies a more subservient domestic and foreign policy and, therefore, one more likely to follow the agenda and interests of the Americans and Europeans."