What Does Putin Really Want in Ukraine?

Trapara Vladimir (Institut za međunarodnu politiku i privredu, Beograd), vtrapara@diplomacy.bg.ac.rs

The transfer of power from the Biden to Trump administration in the United States opened the issue of a possible ending of the Russo-Ukrainian War. The author presents his standpoint by explaining that, apart from the sincere intentions of Washington and Kyiv, for peace in Ukraine to come into being, it is necessary that Russian President Vladimir Putin accepts it because he was the one who started the war. In the paper, the argument that Putin is a decisive factor in the outbreak of this war is derived from the consideration of an array of deeper and intermediate causes of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. To answer the question of what is necessary for Putin’s acceptance of peace, without him restarting the invasion later, we analysed what he wants to achieve in Ukraine, alongside the classification of his war goals. The climax of the analysis is the notion that Putin was motivated to attack Ukraine by an ambition towards historical greatness. Russia’s policy towards Ukraine, in general, and Putin’s invasion, in particular, could be subsumed under a policy of prestige in Hans Morgenthau’s classification. The author concludes that peace, acceptable for Ukraine and the West, is possible only if Putin is allowed to hold occupied territories temporarily to gain the delusion of the individual prestige he craves. At the same time, Russia needs to be further contained, and Ukraine\'s independence must be protected.

Keywords: Vladimir Putin, the Russo-Ukrainian War, Russia, Ukraine, policy of prestige.