Why Settle Ukraine War Now?
Agreements regarding territorial exchange are the last lingering components to negotiating an end to the Ukraine War. That’s the assessment of John Mearsheimer, an international relations scholar at the University of Chicago. Much of the underpinnings of a peace deal were already resolved at a prior conference in Istanbul, Turkey.
Steve Witkoff, the American Special Envoy to the Middle East, believes resolving the conflict now offers the best chance for success. “Territory” is the reason.
Under the current division of land, Russia would presumably get Crimea plus the four oblasts in the easternmost quadrant of Ukraine, around Donetsk. If the war went on longer, and Russia also seized Odessa, that would be a far more difficult territory to surrender. Not only the Ukraine, but much of the European Union would balk then.
Mearsheimer explains some of the parameters here in an interview with Aaron Maté on The Jimmy Dore Show.
