United States: A new report released Friday by Pentagon think tank the RAND Corporation argues that such developments do not serve Washington's best interests, despite the fact that both Moscow and Kyiv believe they do. Will benefit from continuous fighting.

The book "Avoiding a Long War", written by Samuel Charap and Miranda Priebe, acknowledges common assumptions about the conflict, but states that American interests "often align with, but are not synonymous with, Ukrainian interests."

The authors claim that because Russia has already suffered significant economic, military, and prestige damage as a result of the conflict, further incremental weakening may no longer be in the best interests of the US.

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The disruption of markets for food, fertilizer and energy has not come without a price for the West, and the cost of "keeping the Ukrainian state financially solvent" will only "multiply over time".

He added that NATO's military aid to Ukraine "could become untenable after a while" and that Russia could "reverse the gains of the Ukrainian war." The conflict "is consuming senior policy makers' time and US military resources," drawing Washington's attention away from other international concerns such as China while bringing Moscow and Beijing closer together.

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The study described President Vladimir Zelensky's victory plan as "optimistic" and "impossible", according to which Ukraine would withdraw all the territory it claimed and Russia would be forced to participate in war crimes trials and pay reparations. will force.

The authors warn that Moscow "considers this war to be near existential" and has demonstrated a "high degree of resolve", raising the possibility that it would resort to nuclear weapons if it felt threatened.

The report acknowledges that the prospects for a negotiated solution are "poor in the near term" because Kyiv believes Western support will last forever and because Moscow has no reason to believe the sanctions will ever be lifted.

According to the report, the US could "condition future military assistance on a Ukrainian commitment to negotiations" while providing security guarantees to Kyiv that "would not be as binding as US mutual defense treaties" or NATO membership. Additionally, Washington must set "conditions for sanctions relief" and assure Moscow of Ukraine's neutrality.

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RAND, which was set up by the US military-industrial complex in 1948, has long offered Pentagon policy recommendations. A plan for an "exaggerated and imbalanced" Russia was presented by the think tank in 2019 and included economic sanctions, arms deliveries to Ukraine, encouragement of insurgency in Central Asia and even the deployment of additional nuclear weapons in Europe. On the other hand, last year's July guidance on how to contain tensions with Moscow while arming Kyiv has had no effect.