Three European leaders took the train today to Kyiv to meet Volodymyr Zelensky. The visit has been billed as a “symbolic joint trip to show their support for Ukraine”, but there will have been pressure on the Ukrainian president to indicate what it might take on the part of him and his people to meaningfully engage in peace negotiations with Russia.
We’re seeing increased reports that many in Europe think Ukraine should be ready to concede at least some territory if it would bring the war to a rapid end. But recent research conducted in Ukraine by a team which included Kristin M Bakke of University College London with two US colleagues found that 82% of respondents believed Ukraine should not under any circumstances concede territory.
Drilling down into that, they found some interesting variations in the views depending on both gender (women were less likely to insist on taking back all occupied territory) and location of respondents (people in the west of Ukraine were more insistent on winning back their territory than in the east where the fighting is concentrated at the moment).
