Kate Turska: Political theater of the absurd

by Kate Turska, Co-chair of the Ukrainian Association of New Zealand (North) and the head of Mahi for Ukraine

Source: Kyiv Post

What Russia is doing right now is not negotiation. It’s performance and manipulation. It is the behavior of a power that knows it cannot win militarily and therefore tries to win on paper.

Putin’s latest statements show just how warped the Russian worldview is.

He now claims “peace” means Ukrainians withdrawing from the territories that belong to Ukraine, while the invading army stays exactly where it is. In what universe does the aggressor stay and the victim leaves? This isn’t diplomacy, it’s colonialism pretending to negotiate.

And then there’s the demand that Ukraine reduce its army. Reduce its army… while defending itself from a full-scale invasion. The only side whose demilitarization would lead to peace is the one that attacked its neighbor. Ukraine hasn’t invaded anyone, ever, but it has defended itself for over a decade. Yet somehow Russia manages to spin basic logic into a parallel-universe fantasy where the victim must compromise and the aggressor is owed something.

What’s even more revealing is Putin’s threat: “If they don’t withdraw, we’ll achieve this by military force.” Except they haven’t. They’ve tried. They’ve thrown bodies, missiles, drones, and mercenaries at Ukraine, and the result is a handful of meters gained at catastrophic cost. The bluster isn’t confidence, it’s desperation. Every time Russia escalates threats, talks about “taking more land,” or waves its nuclear arsenal around, it’s because it has run out of actual battlefield options.

This is why statements like this should never be treated as legitimate diplomatic positions or quoted by the media as if they’re part of a real negotiation. They are not “peace terms.” They are coercive demands from an aggressor who has failed to achieve his goals and is now trying to bluff the world into granting him politically what he couldn’t take militarily.

The worst-case scenario, Ukraine being “sold out” overnight, simply doesn’t fit the real world. Ukrainian society wouldn’t accept it. Parliament wouldn’t pass it. Europe wouldn’t back it. And Russia’s own maximalist demands make any genuine agreement impossible. There is no instant capitulation waiting around the corner.

But we can’t get complacent either. Every round of these talks shapes what outsiders start treating as “reasonable” to demand from an invaded country. That slow shift, the normalization of things that should never be on the table – is the real risk.

European leaders have rightly called out this theatre for what it is. The rest of the world should do the same. You cannot negotiate with a fantasy. And you cannot build peace on the logic of a regime that still believes its imperial delusions should be taken seriously.

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