On May 24, 2025, La Tercera, Chile’s leading national newspaper, published an opinion article by Alina Rohach, Project Manager of the Spain and Latin America Cooperation Program. The article, titled “Ukraine: Path to Peace or Strategic Game?”, explores the evolving international discourse on peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia — and the risks embedded in calls for “compromise.”
Rohach analyzes the growing appeal in some Western circles for a negotiated settlement to the war — particularly in light of U.S. President Donald Trump’s increasingly ambiguous stance. Once declaring he could end the war in a single day, Trump has more recently emphasized the idea that peace can only be reached through direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow, possibly mediated by the Vatican.
The article also highlights Russia’s deliberate invocation of the language of compromise, which Rohach argues is merely a rebranded form of coercion. Moscow’s conditions — Ukraine’s renunciation of NATO aspirations, acceptance of Russian occupation, and political regime change — are not peace terms, but de facto demands for surrender. Rohach warns that presenting the aggressor and the victim as equal parties in a negotiation legitimizes the crime of aggression and undermines international law.
Read the full article via the link.
