Ukraine suggested an indefinite ceasefire this week, but in a twist that surprises absolutely no one, Russia reportedly violated it repeatedly. The back-and-forth accusations come just in time for Moscow's Victory Day parade, where both sides are likely to claim moral superiority while the actual fighting continues.
European Council President António Costa has proposed that the EU “organise ourselves” for talks with Russia, which sounds sensible until you remember that Russia hasn't exactly been showing up to the negotiation table sober. Costa himself acknowledged the hurdle: “Before we will all get into this question of ‘is this is a good idea?’ ‘is this is a bad idea?’ let’s first wait and see whether we have actually Russia and a Russian president that’s willing to seriously engage. And so far we have seen zero indication of that.”
So the EU's grand plan is essentially to prepare for a conversation with someone who hasn't answered the phone in years. Costa added that “by the time we get to a situation where we have a serious Russian president then we will have to revisit that topic…[It is] perhaps better not to look too far ahead on this, because I think we are nowhere near a situation where this could materialise.” In other words, the EU is getting its ducks in a row, but the pond is currently on fire and the ducks have flown to Siberia.