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US President Donald Trump has promised to quickly end the war in Ukraine by bringing the conflicting parties to the negotiating table. However, reaching an agreement will be extremely difficult due to the very different positions of Kyiv and Moscow.
How the situation may develop is predicted by the German publication Die Zeit.
The publication recalled that Ukraine demands the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory, and Russia seeks to gain control even over the still unoccupied parts of the four formally annexed regions of Ukraine.
Based on this, Die Zeit envisages four possible scenarios.
Failure of negotiations
If an agreement is not reached due to the incompatibility of the positions of Kyiv and Moscow, active hostilities will continue in the coming months, since both countries still have the necessary resources for this.
At the same time, Russia may succeed in its intention to completely occupy the Donetsk region.
Korean script
A demilitarized zone similar to the one separating North Korea and South Korea will be created on the territory of Ukraine. It will run along the actual front line.
Its creation was discussed last year by Trump's special representative for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, and Vice President J.D. Vance.
The inviolability of the agreements should be guaranteed by the deployment of Western troops in Ukraine. But without the participation of the United States, this option looks doubtful.
Cyprus scenario
In Cyprus, part of which is controlled by Turkey, instead of US troops or Western countries, the inviolability of the demarcation line is guaranteed by UN "blue helmets".
This situation has been going on for decades – without shelling, but also without a final resolution to the conflict.
The key difference from the Korean version is that the peacekeepers are not standing behind the defending side, but directly on the DMZ line.
This option may be acceptable for Ukraine, since despite this situation, Cyprus was able to join the EU.
NATO membership
The most desirable option for Ukraine would be for the country to join the North Atlantic Alliance.
However, this is opposed not only in Moscow, but also in some NATO member states.
Attempting to implement this option could lead to prolonging the war.
