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West Seeks ‘Face-Saving’ Ukraine Peace Deal to Dodge ‘Loser’ Label – Expert

© Sputnik / Ramil Sitdikov / Go to the mediabankRussia-Ukraine negotiations in Istanbul. May 16, 2025
Russia-Ukraine negotiations in Istanbul. May 16, 2025 - Sputnik International, 1920, 29.01.2026
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Marco Rubio’s description of the much-talked-about Ukraine security guarantees that stipulate French and UK troop deployment, along with US support is “definitely a roadblock because there was Russia’s formal opposition to any presence of NATO troops on Ukrainian soil,” French geopolitical analyst Come Carpentier de Gourdon tells Sputnik.
“It would in fact make Ukraine a member of NATO, which is not something that Russia is prepared to accept as far as I know,” Gourdon noted.
He added that although Washington speaks of “pulling back from many foreign areas” and focusing on North and South America and the Asia-Pacific region, its actual policies remain unclear, since Rubio, who belongs to the neoconservative camp, favors maintaining a broad US military presence worldwide.
According to Gourdon, Rubio’s Ukraine security guarantees scheme could translate into several scenarios.
Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky. - Sputnik International, 1920, 16.12.2025
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“It could be a formula similar to what has prevailed for the last 50 years between the two Koreas”, with a “permanent division” and US troops stationed on the Ukrainian side.
Ukraine would keep claiming Donbass, which would “obviously be supported by the West.”
“Some sort of quid pro quo can be worked out, like perhaps stationing troops in Finland, as was the case” with the USSR’s Porkkala naval base after WWII or “even a Russian contingent in Cuba, which would not be acceptable to the US in principle.”
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As for sending Western weapons to Ukraine, “there should be strict limits and control” and these should be stationed “not close to the border with Russia or to the line of control between Russia and Ukraine.”
It’s still unclear what the ultimate decision will be, because the US and Western European powers “want to work out some sort of face-saving so that they do not look as having completely lost” the Ukraine conflict, Gourdon concluded.
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