«Even a bad peace is off the table»: Historian on why Putin will keep fighting

As long as Russian president Vladimir Putin maintains the illusion of advances by the occupying army on the front line, he will not give up continuing the war. A worsening economic crisis in Russia could even reinforce his willingness to keep fighting.

Ukrainian and American historian Serhii Plokhii stressed this in an interview with Vitaliy Portnikov on the Espreso channel.

«The economic crisis in [Russia] does not necessarily mean the military actions will end. It could, in fact, reinforce the desire to fight in order to manage the crisis internally, ” he said.

He said that compelling Putin to seek peace involves two components, one of which is worsening economic conditions in the aggressor state. However, Plokhii argued that the possibility of peace depends even more on whether the front line advances in the direction desired by the Kremlin leader.

«As long as Putin holds the illusion that he can move the front line, from my point of view, one can essentially forget even about a bad peace, ” he said.

As an example of a similar situation, the historian cited the Korean War, where negotiations lasted for years.

«In fact, peace came when both sides realized they would not be able to significantly shift the front line. That their chances were much greater as negotiators than as soldiers, ” Serhii Plokhii noted.

The expert emphasizes that he sees no willingness for peace in Putin, no matter how much U.S. special envoy Witkoff smiles at him, or how much Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner reinforces his charisma with a business approach.

«I do not see Putin agreeing to this, based solely on a poor economy, ” Plokhii concluded.