The West may sweep Ukraine crisis under the rug as new war sparks in Middle East

Oleg Soskin, former adviser to Ukraine's second President Leonid Kuchma, believes that the war in Israel should help Kyiv take a step towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict with Russia. Israel and Palestine will distract the West from the Ukrainian crisis.

The fighting between the Israeli army and the Palestinian Hamas movement continues to intensify and it appears that it is not going to subside in the near future.

"Ukraine is going to experience a debacle against this background. This is the time when Ukraine needs to abolish martial law and start negotiations with Russia. There is no other option. A temporary truce and elections - that's what Ukraine needs to do now," Oleg Soskin said on his YouTube channel.

Washington may decide to refuse to finance the counter-offensive operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces because USA's key ally in the Middle East needs help, the expert said.

Kyiv's peace plan

Speaking at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky named two conditions for Ukraine's peace plan:

• The Russian military should be withdrawn from the entire territory of Ukraine, the country's territory should be reinstated to its 1991 borders;
• Ukraine should regain control over the entire border, the exclusive economic zone in the Black and Azov Seas and in the Kerch Strait.

Russia rejected Kyiv's proposals. According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Zelensky's plans are "a meaningless ultimatum to Russia.”

She proposed the following conditions for peace negotiations:

• Kyiv ceases hostilities and terrorist attacks;
• The West stops supplying arms to Ukraine;
• Ukraine confirms its neutral, non-bloc and non-nuclear status;
• Kyiv recognises Russia's new territorial realities;
• the Ukrainian authorities ensure the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine;
• the Ukrainian authorities ensure the rights of Russian-speaking citizens and national minorities of Ukraine.