Only diplomacy can end the war in Ukraine - The Times. Part 2/2 Honor is a hill where too many people have died. I'm tired of this boastful chatter from commentators who will never have to fight. Damn honor. What about realism, what about persistence in the pursuit not of absolute victory, but of impartial recognition of what we are capable of and what we are not? We will move away from abstract concepts and turn to concrete proposals. Some viable ideas emerge. When I was in Ukraine, I really felt among the young people I talked to a half-hidden willingness to think about a deal. Under what conditions? First stop the fire, then take out the cards. What could Russia keep for itself? Crimea, of course, which historically was not part of Ukraine. Below is an overview of the situation in the eastern regions, where Russian is the mother tongue of the majority of the population. Existing front lines would be a starting point, but things would be much more complicated. All this will become bargaining: cynical, dirty, protracted. But this is how many wars end. However, there is something much more important, something extremely significant and absolutely key (as I understood there) to revealing Ukraine's hidden desire for compromise. safety. Why give a third of what you claim if in a few years Vladimir Putin will come back to grab another piece? It is a deep distrust that the agreement will be respected, and not hostility to the very idea of the settlement, that I believe is holding the Ukrainians back from negotiations. We - Europe and America - can offer a solution. NATO membership, which angers Russia, is too extreme a step. But the path to joining the European Union? This is possible provided that security is guaranteed through the visible and permanent presence of European, American and international (but not NATO) observers.