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Notes -
Lavrov has said in his statements that they have no intention of leaving Ukraine in a state of frozen conflict. If you look at their activities some months ago in Mariupol, they were determined to rebuild much of the damaged infrastructure there and reassert renewed political control of the territories they now occupy. I’m confident they probably have a policy of doing much the same elsewhere, going forward. Neither side wants to give up being able to impose the framework of discussion on the other, but Ukraine doesn’t have a lot of bargain with.
He would say that, given that the Russian goal is to win. The Ukrainians also do not intend to stay in a state of frozen conflict. They want to kick out the Russians and take back their territory.
But right now, it looks like neither side has the resources to turn their intentions into reality. The best they can do is keep fighting, which in practice prolongs the stalemate.
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