There is a feeling of hopefulness throughout Russia, although some are still doubting that peace will come. But now on Russian streets, some are optimistic about an eventual cessation of the war and sanctions imposed by the West.
Some believe that antagonism with the United States, which reached its height under former President Joe Biden, might subside as President Donald Trump’s administration attempts to get the two war-torn sides together at the bargaining table.
Afraid of reprisals, some of those spoken to in Russia for this article declined to give their surnames, in light of Moscow’s crackdown on dissent. Katherine, a St Petersburg psychiatrist who took part in a protest against the war in 2022, stated that she is in favour of peace at any price.
“My clients happily say, ‘Well, the Americans are on our side again. That’s good because America is a great country after all,'” she said. Everyone realizes that it’s more preferable to be friends with America than to fight. … Generally, Russians don’t particularly fancy hating although they are capable of it.
Three years of war haven’t made Russians hate Ukrainians on a large scale. They rather sympathize with them. And if it’ll be possible not to hate Americans any longer, any minute now, that’s great too.”
Elena, who is also from St Petersburg, commented: “Well done, Trump. Let him at least glue them both [Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine] to the negotiating table while he devours their dinners.”
Washington’s sudden reversal of its Ukraine policy has shaken the world. Following a turbulent White House meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy in February, Washington suspended military assistance and intelligence cooperation with Kyiv. Confronted with the threat of bearing the responsibility for defending Kyiv alone, Ukraine’s European allies were shocked.
French President Emmanuel Macron has called for deploying peacekeepers to Ukraine as part of a potential resolution and increasing France’s atomic deterrent. Washington’s new stance on Ukraine was embraced, however, in Moscow. The new [US] administration is moving very quickly to alter all the foreign policy arrangements,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov recently said to Russian journalists.
Halting military assistance is a “solution that might truly drive the Kyiv regime toward a peace process”, Peskov continued. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had previously referred to Putin as a “gangster” and a “thug”, on March 5 called the war in Ukraine a proxy war between Moscow and Washington. Peskov pointed out that “this reflects the stance that our foreign minister and the president have stated many times”.
