Ukraine and Russia reject "peace in exchange for territories" proposal, unblocking "tank coalition"

The Western countries' decision to provide Ukraine with tanks could have been made because Kyiv and Moscow rejected a peace plan that provided for the cessation of hostilities in exchange for maintaining Russian control over part of Ukrainian territory.

Source: European truth, referring to the Swiss service of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), which cites two independent sources in the German authorities

The sources reported that in mid-January, US President Joe Biden instructed William Burns, Head of the Central Intelligence Agency, to check the readiness of Ukraine and Russia for negotiations.

Burns voiced the offer of "peace in exchange for land" to Kyiv and "land in exchange for peace" to Moscow. The size of the territory in question allegedly amounted to about 20% of the area of Ukraine, which approximately coincides with Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

The NZZ sources added that both Ukraine and Russia have abandoned the "peace plan". In Kyiv, they refused to divide the Ukrainian territory, and in Moscow believe that in the long run they will still win the war.

They claim that it was after Burns' failed diplomatic mission that the US president decided to give in to the insistence of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and approve the supply of Abrams battle tanks. This is what unblocked Berlin's decision to allow the provision of Leopard 2 tanks, both from its own  and from the stockpiles of other countries.

According to NZZ, Biden's decision came as a surprise to Scholz, so his own decision on Leopard 2 tanks was probably spontaneous and not thoughtful, as the German side publicly stated.

Previously:

On 25 January, the German government officially announced the decision to send Leopard 2 main battle tanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and allow re-export to other countries that also want to do so. At the same time, US President Joe Biden announced the provision of 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.

On 31 January, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that following the results of the first promises from partners, Ukraine should receive from 120 to 140 units of modern Western tanks.

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