RKSL
The Frontline
Nov 24, 2025
While the parties involved in the current discussions about ending Russia’s war against Ukraine have remained notably tight-lipped, it is increasingly clear that the diplomatic frame is being shaped by a single, unacceptable premise. The grotesque twenty-eight-point plan drafted in Moscow and shamelessly promoted by the United States is functioning as the unspoken foundation for negotiation. Beginning with this plan places the entire process on terrain shaped by Russia rather than by international law, Ukraine’s survival or the foundations of trans-Atlantic security. No lasting peace can grow on that ground. A framework designed to feed Russia’s monstrous desires cannot be repackaged as a path to peace for Ukraine.
Accepting this plan even as a starting marker shifts responsibility away from the state that criminally created the war and onto the nation that is valiantly defending freedom. It pressures Ukraine to bend while sparing the aggressor any expectation at all. It suggests that Ukrainian sovereignty can be managed, trimmed or staged for negotiation while Russia’s imperial structure is left intact. This forces Ukraine to absorb the consequences of other people’s fear.
We must acknowledge that this war has brought immeasurable hardship to Ukrainians. Cities have been leveled, families separated, communities uprooted and entire regions scarred in ways that defy comprehension. Yet the relentless assault on a smaller state has revealed a truth that neither the West nor the Kremlin ever fully understood. The Russian Goliath has nothing over the insurmountable will of the Ukrainian people. That will has reshaped the strategic balance and exposed the emptiness of the claim that Ukraine cannot win. This argument has been repeated so often that it risks becoming an article of faith, yet it disintegrates the moment it is examined. No matter how loudly Trump bellows that Ukraine “doesn’t have the cards,” the claim doesn’t hold water. Russian gains of a centimeter here and a centimeter there do not alter the strategic map or reflect the balance of power that is actually shaping the war. It is a political convenience crafted to justify premature concessions and to absolve others of the responsibilities that this moment requires.
The strategic environment reveals that Russia is confronting a profound economic crisis of its own making. The Kremlin has been forced to liquidate portions of its gold reserves, a step taken only when a state has exhausted every mechanism of financial preservation. Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Bank of Russia, has warned that the country is heading into “very turbulent times ahead,” a rare admission that the economic strain is neither temporary nor under control. Its defense industry is faltering under the pressure of Ukrainian deep strikes that have reached far inside Russian territory, destroying storage facilities, disrupting production lines and exposing vulnerabilities that Moscow can no longer conceal. Ukraine has innovated with a speed and precision that Russia cannot match. It has transformed modern warfare and imposed costs that the Russian state is increasingly unable to bear. No amount of posturing or bluster on Russia’s
part can hide the fact that Moscow now needs a settlement far more urgently than it wants to admit.
Understanding the actual situation inside Russia and beginning from the need to secure peace and security for Ukraine and the entire trans-Atlantic alliance must be the starting point for any negotiation. A serious negotiation must begin with the recognition that justice must be served and that the conditions fall squarely on the aggressor state, Russia. You don’t need a crystal ball to recognize what a durable peace requires.
To secure an enduring peace, the following conditions must be placed on Russia:
- Decolonization of the Russian Federation.
All colonized nations must be granted full independence. Chechnya, Erzya, Dagestan, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Sakha, Buryatia, Kalmykia and others have been denied self-determination for generations. Their languages, cultures and political rights have been suppressed. These must be restored and protected. Decolonization is necessary for lasting peace and for the security of Europe.
- Restoration of lands seized from other states.
Russia must return the Kuril Islands to Japan, Karelia to Finland, Königsberg to Germany, Abkhazia and South Ossetia to Georgia and Transnistria to Moldova.
- Demilitarization of Russia’s long-range war capability.
Russia must dismantle its strategic missile forces and eliminate long-range strike systems under credible international supervision. Its nuclear arsenal must be placed under multinational control. A state that wages genocidal war cannot retain weapons of mass destruction.
- Removal of the current regime and full criminal accountability.
The leadership responsible for aggression, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity must face prosecution. That includes Vladimir Putin and the senior figures who enabled his policies.
- Reparations to Ukraine and to all peoples harmed by Russian imperialism.
Frozen Russian assets and sovereign reserves must be transferred to Ukraine for reconstruction. Other nations damaged by Russian aggression must receive appropriate compensation.
- International monitoring of Russian governance.
Russia’s constitution, elections and foreign policy must be placed under international oversight for a generation. This is necessary to prevent the return of its imperial machinery.
- Protection of indigenous cultures and languages.
Indigenous nations within Russia must have their languages, traditions and cultural institutions protected. Adequate funding and international safeguards are required to prevent further erasure.
These conditions are not maximalist. They are the minimum requirements for a peace that does not simply defer the next war. What cannot be negotiated is Ukraine’s sovereignty. What cannot be offered is the partial legitimization of genocide. What cannot be accepted is the idea that the aggressor’s criminal appetite is more important than the victim’s survival.
A real peace process begins by confronting the structure of the Russian state itself. Anything less is not peace. It preserves the very forces that produced the war. Only by dismantling the machinery of Russian imperialism can Europe and the world secure a future free from the cycle of violence that has shaped Moscow’s history.