Putin Won't Negotiate Until Annexed Territories 'Conquered': Ex-Ambassador

A former U.S. ambassador to Russia believes recent calls to broker a peaceful solution to the country's war with Ukraine are likely futile until President Vladimir Putin conquers the four territories his country recently annexed or is stopped on the battlefield.

In a tweet Tuesday, Michael McFaul—an academic and the top U.S. diplomat in Russia at the end of Barack Obama's administration—cast doubt on the possibility of a diplomatic resolution to the war, which broke out after Russia's invasion in February.

"Putin does not want to negotiate right now," McFaul wrote. "He wants to conquer the 4 territories of Ukraine he annexed on paper in a ceremony at the Kremlin. Until he is stopped on the battlefield, Putin will not end his invasion. These are the tragic real facts."

The comments came on the heels of a short-circuited move by the House Democrats' progressive caucus Monday. The Democrats intended to encourage President Joe Biden to pursue direct talks with the Russian government to broker a cease-fire between the two countries.

But the caucus announced Tuesday it was withdrawing its Biden letter after heavy condemnation from conservatives and liberals alike, who saw the move as capitulating to Russian aggression in Eastern Europe and creating unnecessary fractures in Biden's support in the Democrat-controlled Congress.

While there have been bipartisan disagreements about sending military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine—House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Punchbowl News last week that a Republican majority in the next Congress could reconsider how much assistance the U.S. is willing to provide—the prospect of imminent peace in Europe has rarely entered the national conversation.

On Tuesday, the Institute for the Study of War released a report suggesting Ukrainian military forces are unlikely to retake control of the Russian-occupied Kherson region by year's end. And to date, Putin has rejected peace deals that don't include Russia's annexation of four occupied regions in the eastern portion of the country, according to media reports.

That hasn't stopped other peace proposals—including one recently proposed by billionaire businessman Elon Musk—that have been largely met with ridicule by mainstream observers. They describe his attempt to broker peace as playing right into Russian talking points and strategies at a time when Russia is seeking to throw its weight around militarily and diplomatically on the world stage.

Other prominent figures, like former French President Emmanuel Macron, have recently suggested the burden for making a peace deal is on Ukraine rather than Russia, citing the West's ability to apply economic pressure on the Kremlin through the use of sanctions.

Though Russia has appeared increasingly desperate on the battlefield, the country has been accused by the West of leveraging its relationships with allies in the Middle East and the Far East to affect oil prices and create a bulwark against NATO, even going as far as employing nuclear threats.

"This is a great power conflict, the third great power conflict in the European space in a little over a century," Russia expert Fiona Hill told Politico earlier this month. "It's the end of the existing world order. Our world is not going to be the same as it was before."