Given Vladimir Putin’s track record, it is still difficult to be optimistic about the Ukraine peace process, much as anyone with a grain of humanity would wish to be. After the recent dazzling flurry of diplomatic activity, the initiative has returned to Moscow. Putin has the future of this process in his hands but seems to be in no hurry to take it forward.
More worryingly, he has hardly changed his demands in many months, and he has form, which is not encouraging. During his time running the Russian Federation in various capacities, he has flagrantly broken every previous guarantee of Ukrainian sovereignty including the Budapest Memorandum (1994), the Treaty of Friendship (1997), and a 2003 border treaty.
