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Will Russia-Ukraine War End with Diplomacy or on Battlefield? John Mearsheimer vs. Denys Pilash

2025-08-19 News & Politics
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Support our work: https://democracynow.org/donate/sm-desc-yt President Trump says he is working on a "deal" to end the Russia-Ukraine war by hosting a series of meetings between the U.S., European Union, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky. Putin is insisting Russia keep areas of Ukraine that it has seized, including the long-contested Donbas region, while Zelensky is asking the U.S. for security guarantees to prevent future invasion by its powerful neighbor. We host a conversation with two political scientists, University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer and Ukrainian democratic socialist Denys Pilash, about the likely outcome of the talks and the roots of the conflict. Mearsheimer says "the sides remain so far apart" when it comes to the possibility of a ceasefire during peace negotiations that "the best outcome would be to settle this war now." Pilash, on the other hand, says there are still measures that can be taken to pressure Russia to agree to a ceasefire and to secure more favorable postwar terms for Ukraine. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET. Subscribe to our Daily Email Digest: https://democracynow.org/subscribe

Top Comments (10)

@K4n01 2025-08-19

Mearsheimer seems to be the only one in the room that "gets it". The other guy is only venting frustration.

640 69 replies
@bobcharles7716 2025-08-19

Since 2008 or so, Mearsheimer has predicted ACCURATELY everything that was going to happen in Ukraine. People should keep that in mind when listening to this.

582 64 replies
@vulgarisopinio 2025-08-19

Such an uneven discussion - wisdom against emotional superficiality.

419 23 replies
@mohamedabukar9954 2025-08-19

Remember the 2022 peace summit in Turkie between Russia and Ukraine agreements before Boris Johnson, then the PM of UK scraped the agreements to the dust(garbage bin)

201 26 replies
@kingofdrama3236 2025-08-19

Terrible moderation. Mearsheiner got less than a 1/4 of speaking time.

183 22 replies
@roddingreville2798 2025-08-20

Someone should explain to Denys that the victor sets the terms not the losing team.

110 15 replies
@scottedelen 2025-08-19

0:17 Amy, who is not quoting anyone else directly here, calls it "Russia's War". Then we proceed to get about four minutes of the Ukrainian propogandist talking to every one minute of Mearsheimer. WTF? There are many other much better venues to listen to Mearsheimer than this. Kinda reminded me of the now famous "debate" that Amy "moderated" between Norm Finkelstein and Alan Dershowitz in which we basically listened to Dershowitz for the vast majority of the time. In both cases the person who said less "won".

102 8 replies
@Mansoor-ze3lz 2025-08-20

That's a showcase of a person who argues with knowledge against a person who denies reality and argues with emotions.

73 1 replies
@MAHDl2028 2025-08-21

John is right. The collective west wants war till the end.

2
@walhallberserker610 2025-08-21

Emotion vs. Realism

2

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