No shortcut to hard road to peace in Ukraine

Zelenskyy expects and demands greater effort from the Western coalition for mobilizing support for Ukraine than their divided societies and risk-averse political elites are prepared to make. His persistence, nevertheless, represents an effort to stay on course to achieve a just and sustainable peace, which would assure Ukrainian security and prosperity while also yielding a new peace dividend to all European states currently compelled to pay the costs of arming Ukraine and themselves. It would also answer the interests of major powers such as India, Brazil, and Türkiye, who are presently finding some opportunities to benefit from the war but more likely to prosper more from an enduring peace in Europe. While Putin’s regime is the main obstacle blocking the road to peace—a formidable and dangerous one, it must be admitted—not even China, the Kremlin’s pivotal strategic partner, would describe it as insurmountable.