Peter Baker: Putin Wants a ‘Sphere of Influence’ Where the West Agrees to Have Nothing to Do with Ukraine

RUSH EXCERPT:
BAKER: "Well, look, it’s a nonstarter at the beginning of a negotiation, I think, and I’d be interested to see what Ambassador McFaul thinks. I mean, any genuine long-term peace agreement. Many diplomats I’ve talked to acknowledge will probably at some point or another result in some of that land ending up in Russian hands. As unjust as that may be, Ukraine certainly can’t agree to that on the front end. As a matter of principle. It’s just wrong for them from their point of view, both politically and on principle, to say yes, we’ll give up our territory to an aggressor who has seized it by force. But if you actually get to a long-term peace agreement, the reality is the Russians aren’t going home from all of donbas. Now you know where those lines are drawn. We don’t know. Putin, of course, being maximalist, wants them to be drawn even further than his troops have gone. That seems hard to imagine being agreed to in any negotiation. But the problem with the negotiation is it’s really not about the lines on the map. It’s about bigger things. And that’s where the real rub is. What Putin wants is not just control of 20% of Ukraine. He wants control of all of Ukraine on some level or another. He doesn’t acknowledge that it has a right to exist as a sovereign, independent nation. What he wants, basically, is a sphere of influence where the west agrees you have nothing to do with Ukraine, Ukraine, leave it to me. It’ll be in Moscow’s orbit, even if it’s not technically part of Russian territory. And that’s something that Zelenskyy wants, of course, nor do the Europeans. The question is whether that’s something President Trump would agree to."