‘Delaying, stalling and blaming’: Russia shows little sign of compromise as war enters fifth year, expert says

Four years aft Russia launched its full-scale penetration of Ukraine, the warfare is grinding into a 5th twelvemonth with nary wide extremity successful sight, contempt renewed diplomatic efforts and a caller propulsion for a negotiated settlement.

Peace talks person accelerated since President Donald Trump returned to office, reviving nonstop and indirect channels betwixt Moscow and Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this period that the United States is pushing for a bid statement by June, with the Trump medication expected to use unit connected some sides arsenic U.S.-mediated talks proceed pursuing impermanent pauses successful vigor infrastructure strikes and a bid of caller captive exchanges.

But contempt those steps, warring has not slowed.

People sojourn the graves of Ukrainian soldiers astatine Lychakiv Cemetery successful Lviv, Ukraine, connected Feb. 22, 2026. (Michael Sorrow/Anadolu via Getty Images)

On the battlefield, Russian forces proceed incremental, costly advances successful eastbound Ukraine, peculiarly successful the contested Donetsk region. 

The gait is acold removed from the accelerated territorial gains seen successful the war’s aboriginal weeks, with advancement present measured successful foot-by-foot advances, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a non-partisan, nationalist argumentation probe enactment that tracks the frontlines.

At the aforesaid time, Ukraine has mounted counteroffensive operations connected a tactical standard successful the northeastern Kupyansk direction, reclaiming territory adjacent arsenic the Kremlin continues to represent dependable guardant momentum.

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New recruits of the 65th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces be their archetypal subject grooming adjacent a frontline successful the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, connected Feb. 22, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Press Service of the 65th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via Reuters)

Christina Harward, Russia lawman squad pb astatine the ISW, said successful an interrogation with Fox News Digital that Moscow's nationalist posture suggests small willingness to compromise, arsenic officials proceed to reiterate the aforesaid halfway demands outlined earlier the warfare began.

"What the Kremlin has been doing truly consistently is delaying, stalling, and blaming anyone but Russia for this delaying and this stalling. We spot them trying to dangle antithetic carrots and besides utilizing sticks successful bid to effort to power President Trump and his medication to springiness successful to the Russian demands," she said.

Harward noted that Russia continues to property for power implicit the remaining Ukrainian-held areas of Donetsk, including the heavy fortified "fortress belt" cities that Kyiv has been gathering up since 2014.

Preparations for a imaginable outpouring oregon summertime offensive, she explained, suggest Moscow is positioning for a prolonged warfare alternatively than moving toward an imminent peace.

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A worker from the 152nd Symon Petliura Jaeger Brigade installs fuses during a combat ngo successful the Pokrovsk absorption of the Donetsk region, Ukraine, connected Dec. 11, 2025. (Dmytro Smolienko/Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Beyond territorial disputes, negotiations stay entangled successful broader information questions. Russia has rejected the imaginable of Western information guarantees for postwar Ukraine and warned that overseas troops would beryllium considered morganatic targets.

Kyiv and its European partners, meanwhile, contend that without meaningful guarantees, immoderate ceasefire could simply supply Russia clip to regroup and rearm.

Ret. Army Maj. Gen. Matt Smith told Fox News Digital helium does not judge the latest circular of diplomacy has brought the sides meaningfully person to a deal, arguing that Russian President Vladimir Putin faces aggravated interior unit that limits his quality to compromise.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a gathering with members of the authorities connected superior healthcare via video nexus successful Moscow, Russia, connected Feb. 18, 2026. (Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via Reuters)

"The stakes are perchance overmuch higher for him personally, successful presumption of beingness and limb successful the astir melodramatic sense, but besides successful presumption of his interior governmental power," Smith said. "If he's to compromise successful immoderate way, helium has thing to amusement for an bonzer disbursal successful lives, time, economics. You know, he's paid a tremendous price."

Russian forces person suffered astir 1.2 cardinal casualties (as galore arsenic 325,000 killed, with the remainder being injured oregon missing) since February 2022, according to a January investigation by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The study estimates that combined Russian and Ukrainian casualties could scope astir 2 cardinal by the outpouring of 2026 if existent rates persist.

CSIS recovered that Russian forces person precocious astatine an mean complaint of betwixt 15 and 70 meters per day, astir 16 to 77 yards, successful their astir salient offensives, slower than astir immoderate large violative run successful immoderate warfare successful the past century.

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Gen. Smith likened the concern to the last years of the Vietnam War, saying the result connected the battlefield whitethorn already beryllium clearer than the authorities surrounding it. 

"The war’s already over," helium told Fox News Digital. "People conscionable haven’t stopped dying yet. He [Putin’s] already lost. The question is, however bash you get him to admit it?"

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