Peter J. Worswick
Executive English & Communication Coach | Helping Senior Professionals Communicate with Clarity, Confidence and Executive Presence | 30+ Years International Business Experience | 20+ Years Working In and With Ukraine
PJW International
United Kingdom
June 10, 2026
Peace is not what Putin is working towards. It never was.
And I think people who know Ukraine understand that instinctively, even if much of the policy conversation still struggles to accept it.
Twelve years into Russia’s war on Ukraine, from Crimea in 2014 to the full-scale invasion in 2022, the dominant Western assumption is still that the Kremlin is looking for a way to end the war on acceptable terms. The evidence suggests otherwise, and Ukraine is paying the price.
The war is not a problem Putin is trying to solve. For him, and for the people immediately around him, it is a structure that is working. Research consistently shows that wartime autocrats rarely lose power. That is not an incidental fact, it is the central one.
But it goes further. The longer the war continues, the more power and wealth become concentrated inside the same political and economic networks that depend on the system Putin has built. Since 2022, an estimated $14 billion in private and Western assets have been redistributed by the Russian state, largely into the hands of people already inside the system.
Peace changes those rules. For those at the top, peace is not an opportunity. It is a threat.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has not simply held on. It has transformed. It has governed, rebuilt and innovated under fire, every single day. The people I know there are not waiting for the West to decide their fate. They never were.
But they are watching. And they are noting that the EU has now reached its 20th sanctions package but is only just beginning to discuss whether Russians who fought in the war should be banned from entering Europe.
Twelve years on. After hundreds of drone and missile strikes on civilian areas. After thousands of Ukrainian deaths. That restraint is hard to explain to someone who hasn’t been following this war closely.
Western policy keeps defaulting to the idea that enough pressure will eventually produce a rational response from Moscow. But escalation has become the Kremlin’s tool for managing its own system, not a reaction to external costs.
The one thing that will genuinely change Kremlin behaviour is a credible threat of military defeat, because that is the only scenario that makes the war costly for the people inside the system who currently profit from it.
Ukraine has been asking for that level of support for years. The issue for Europe is not whether it has the tools. It is whether, even now, it has understood what it is dealing with.
Comment from :
Thank you, Peter, for such an insightful post. My hope is that the European allies come to understand what they are dealing with, because Ukraine clearly already does. That is why Ukraine’s strategy is effectively to deny the Russians logistics and reinforcements. The point is to strangle the enemy forces.
Thank you @Peter J Worswick for yet another scintillating take on where we are, and aren’t! Your very last paragraph is the most chilling!
The military defeat of Russia 🇷🇺 is coming together well and will be an enormous shock to the Aggressors wherever they may be located.
Special Tribunal re: war crimes
https://pc93.substack.com/p/re-special-tribunal-re-war-crimes?r=55nkvn
The battle against war crimes does not end even if or when the crimes stop..
……………
“Russia spits in our faces” and the UN pretends it’s “just rain” – UN envoy reports May deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since 2022
UN data presented to the Security Council shows May was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians in over two years, as Ukraine accused Russia of denying responsibility and the UN of failing to respond adequately.
09/06/2026
Andrii Melnyk, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN. Photo: Suspilne
May was the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine since April 2022, according to the United Nations, which presented updated casualty data to the UN Security Council during an emergency meeting requested by Kyiv, Suspilne reported.
Latvian UN envoy Sanita Pavļuta-Deslandes said preliminary figures show a sharp rise in civilian harm, warning that the final statistics for May are expected to be even higher.
She said attacks during the month included strikes on civilian gatherings, including a funeral in Sumy, which she cited as an example of Russia targeting “so-called legitimate objectives,” according to Suspilne.
She also noted that in the first quarter of 2026 alone, 190 attacks were recorded on medical facilities, including maternity hospitals, while more than 200 educational institutions were damaged or destroyed. The number of injured children increased by 49%, according to UN data cited at the session.
The Security Council meeting came on June 8 following a wave of Russian strikes across Ukraine.
Ukraine accuses Russia of systematic deception at UN
Ukraine’s permanent representative to the UN, Andrii Melnyk, used the session to sharply criticize Russia’s role at the United Nations, arguing that Moscow continues to deny responsibility while undermining international reporting on the war.
“Russia spits in our faces with lies, and we pretend it is just rain,” Melnyk said during the meeting, according to Suspilne.
He suggested that Russia should consider leaving the UN if it rejects its own obligations under international law and dismisses UN investigative findings.
Melnyk also called for Russia to be excluded from UN peacekeeping operations, pointing to its inclusion in UN listings related to sexual violence in conflict and repeated findings on violations involving children and armed conflict.
He urged member states to take action on these findings, saying Russia’s participation in UN structures undermines the credibility of the system itself.
The meeting highlighted growing tensions inside the Security Council as Russia continues to face accusations of escalating strikes on civilian infrastructure while maintaining its role as a permanent member of the body.
I linked Peter’s brilliant opinion piece with the EP news piece for a reason :
To highlight the futility of seeking a peace deal with putler.
He will stop being a war-mongering, child-murdering nazi when he is dead.
When will “ordinary” ruZZians cease being genocide-loving, Ukraine-hating Nazis?
Probably never. But a crushing military defeat and a total economic meltdown would certainly help.
No negotiations are currently possible or even feasible.
As Sir Bill Browder says : “Putin has no reverse gear.”
Krasnov just wants Ukraine to surrender, so he can start doing business with the child-murderer and the Europeans just won’t make any decisions that would help end the war : such as carpet bombing occupier positions until the orcs are dead or back in their shithole.
Russian troops withdraw from Kinburn Spit as Ukrainian strikes cripple supplies, signaling possible repeat of Kherson retreat
Wednesday, June 10, 2026
https://www.uawire.org/russian-troops-withdraw-from-kinburn-spit-as-ukrainian-strikes-cripple-supplies-signaling-possible-repeat-of-kherson-retreat
Wonderful to have that (almost) confirmed.
That is what has got to happen continually right across the frontline.