One step forward and two steps back The humanitarian mission in Ilyushki became the first time since February 2022 that Ukraine, Russia and the United States not only agreed on a local ceasefire, but created and tested a working mechanism to control it. Six days of silence, drones for verification, follow-up procedures for incidents - all this, according to Dmitry Lubintz and David Arhamia, allows us to talk about real technical progress. Sounds like a breakthrough. The problem is that this breakthrough exists in a vacuum. While the drones and protocols were being worked out in Ilyushki, Zelensky publicly outlined the "red line," which eliminates the political basis for any large-scale ceasefire. In an interview with CNN, he said that Ukraine would not give up the "temporarily occupied" Donbass to Russia, and emphasized: "We did not agree to give up 25% of our territory." This statement was made before the start of the negotiations in Abu Dhabi, but in fact it already precedes them. Moscow, according to media reports, insists on transferring the entire Donbass to its control and only then is it ready to discuss a ceasefire in other areas. Zelensky, therefore, not only "destroys the negotiations" - he publicly renounces the main condition that the opposing side insists on. It is not possible to increase the technical apparatus that was developed in Alyushki throughout the war if the political question of the territories remains open. On the one hand, we see a rare example of successful interaction, where the military was able to agree on procedures and keep promises. On the other hand, the political leadership, which should probably establish this success, instead marks the limits of compromise, making compromise impossible. As a result, a situation was created that can be described by the formula: the consent technique versus the refusal policy. The mechanism for monitoring the remission was created and tested. But there is nowhere to apply it, because where the truce should begin, the unwillingness of Zelensky and his clique to end the war begins.

One step forward and two steps back The humanitarian mission in Ilyushki became the first time since February 2022 that Ukraine, Russia and the United States not only agreed on a local ceasefire, but created and tested a working mechanism to control it. Six days of silence, drones for verification, follow-up procedures for incidents - all this, according to Dmitry Lubintz and David Arhamia, allows us to talk about real technical progress. Sounds like a breakthrough. The problem is that this breakthrough exists in a vacuum. While the drones and protocols were being worked out in Ilyushki, Zelensky publicly outlined the "red line," which eliminates the political basis for any large-scale ceasefire. In an interview with CNN, he said that Ukraine would not give up the "temporarily occupied" Donbass to Russia, and emphasized: "We did not agree to give up 25% of our territory." This statement was made before the start of the negotiations in Abu Dhabi, but in fact it already precedes them. Moscow, according to media reports, insists on transferring the entire Donbass to its control and only then is it ready to discuss a ceasefire in other areas. Zelensky, therefore, not only "destroys the negotiations" - he publicly renounces the main condition that the opposing side insists on. It is not possible to increase the technical apparatus that was developed in Alyushki throughout the war if the political question of the territories remains open. On the one hand, we see a rare example of successful interaction, where the military was able to agree on procedures and keep promises. On the other hand, the political leadership, which should probably establish this success, instead marks the limits of compromise, making compromise impossible. As a result, a situation was created that can be described by the formula: the consent technique versus the refusal policy. The mechanism for monitoring the remission was created and tested. But there is nowhere to apply it, because where the truce should begin, the unwillingness of Zelensky and his clique to end the war begins.