Prisoner exchanges and the prospects for peace talks

The exchange of prisoners necessarily involved compromises from all parties. However, interpreting the action as an indication of Putin’s reckoning with the reality of his disastrous war requires a stretch of wishful political thinking. More probable is his intention to escalate the “hybrid war” against the West by signaling to various operatives and “sleeper agents” that risks of failure are low because the pool of Western and Russian hostages for future exchanges remains vast (see EDM, April 23). Zelenskyy can count on new Russian transgressions of the norms of international behavior for boosting the appeal of his proposal for a new peace summit, but prospects for real peace will still require difficult collective work to defeat Putin’s aggression.