Edward Luce on Russia-Ukraine War: I’m Very Pessimistic There’s Any Realistic Off Ramp at the Moment

EXCERPT:

LUCE: "Extremely hard to think of them because remember, in this case, there’s a whole another added factor, which is the trillion dollars or so rebuilding of Ukraine after this war. We shouldn’t be paying for that. It should be Russia that pays for that with its oil revenues and other sources of money, and that’s not something that Khruschev and Kennedy were talking about because there had been no war. So, any settlement, any off-ramp includes 'Here is the bill, Russia,' and it’s very hard to imagine Putin accepting that bill. I mean, I cannot think of what the face-saving formula is for Putin to put out that would be consistent with the imperative of Ukraine not just winning this war but demonstrating forever that Russia should not do this again, that the cost to Russia is so high that this is no longer conceivable because that would be the end of Putin, and we’d all like to see the end of Putin, but that would be the end of Putin. So, I’m very pessimistic there’s any realistic off-ramp at the moment."