That’s a rather odd change of tone since the statement not only definitively states that Ukraine is a sovereign nation but it also outright encourages EU membership for Ukraine which comes with a similar military defense guaranty to NATO, though importantly it of course does not come with US backing. At a guess I would say that they are trying to preemptively position themselves as the “reasonable” party in the upcoming (on-going?) negotiations.
This is the realpolitik answer. Intake perception of power, intentions, hard power, and leverage, among other things to get the context for position changes.
Now that Trump’s plan to seize 50% of Ukraine’s mineral deposits has leaked, Putin might be more worried about the USA/NATO/“the west” getting “all” of Ukraine and Russia getting nothing. So if he backs off from wanting to seize Ukrainian territory, he can push for “Ukrainian sovereignty” to prevent the USA from turning Ukraine into a vassal state.
That’s a rather odd change of tone since the statement not only definitively states that Ukraine is a sovereign nation but it also outright encourages EU membership for Ukraine which comes with a similar military defense guaranty to NATO, though importantly it of course does not come with US backing. At a guess I would say that they are trying to preemptively position themselves as the “reasonable” party in the upcoming (on-going?) negotiations.
This is the realpolitik answer. Intake perception of power, intentions, hard power, and leverage, among other things to get the context for position changes.
Now that Trump’s plan to seize 50% of Ukraine’s mineral deposits has leaked, Putin might be more worried about the USA/NATO/“the west” getting “all” of Ukraine and Russia getting nothing. So if he backs off from wanting to seize Ukrainian territory, he can push for “Ukrainian sovereignty” to prevent the USA from turning Ukraine into a vassal state.
reasonable. How many war crimes do they have racked up? It’s well into the thousands.