Words are weapons — Russian diplomacy is just another front in its war on Ukraine

Henry Kissinger once wrote that a statesman’s hardest burden is making decisions without enough time or information, where every mistake is irreversible.

I learned that truth not only on the battlefield but also at the negotiating table.

After decades in uniform, I enrolled in 2019 at the Ostroh Academy to study international relations. I thought it would be a break from war, but instead I discovered another battlefield — diplomacy — where words are weapons and resolve is the front line.

Strong flanks matter in statecraft as much as in warfare. When they collapse, the enemy will move to explore the opening.

As Ukraine defends its existence, we face an opponent who sees diplomacy not as dialogue but as a natural extension of its war effort.

Russia’s negotiators, like its generals, fight to exhaust, confuse and divide.

Their aim is not peace but delay; not compromise in pursuit of accord but conquest through deception.

Ukraine has fought for survival for 11 years. Yet even now, some in the West urge us to negotiate with the people who came to kill us.

They forget two simple truths.

First, what is at stake is not just Ukraine’s fate but Europe’s security.

Second, any “peace” with Moscow that rewards aggression is an invitation to further wars.

The Kremlin speaks of negotiations only when it feels pressure and only to buy time. Peace on Russian terms is not peace — it is surrender.

That is why calls to rush into a comprehensive peace deal are dangerously premature.

Real peace cannot be achieved by signing papers while Russian missiles are murdering civilians.

It will take time, strength and an unshakable understanding of with whom we are dealing.

Russia’s so-called diplomacy is a lethal weapon system inherited from the USSR. It was designed not to solve conflicts but to manipulate them. To understand it, one must study its architects.

Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet foreign minister for more than 40 years, mastered the art of negotiation as psychological combat. Western diplomats nicknamed him “Mr. No” for good reason.

His mission was to stall, exhaust and dominate the conversation until the other side yielded. Every pause was tactical. Every speech a test of endurance.

That tradition continues today in the person of Sergei Lavrov.

Watch him in any international forum: long monologues, selective quotations, endless digressions meant to blur facts and drain attention.

This is the “tactic of exhaustion.” The goal is to make discussion so confusing that truth loses meaning and moral clarity fades.

Lavrov, like Gromyko before him, embodies the Soviet legacy of negotiation as theater — a performance of power meant to delay accountability.

Kissinger observed that Soviet diplomacy combined maximum demands with minimum concessions.

The purpose was never to reach agreement but to legitimize the Kremlin’s gains and demand more.

Modern Russia has adapted this to the age of propaganda.

Disinformation plays the role ideology once did. The same habits persist: deny, delay and deceive until fatigue sets in abroad and cynicism grows at home.

Every encounter with Russian officials follows a familiar pattern.

First, they flood the table with falsehoods and extraneous details, forcing opponents to spend hours correcting lies.

Second, they invoke moral relativism — accusing the opponent of exactly what they bring to the table: colonialism, hypocrisy or double standards.

Third, they present aggression as reaction, occupation as protection and genocide as self-defense.

It is a cynical inversion of values, calculated to paralyze democratic societies.

Understanding this method is vital not only for Ukrainian diplomats but for all who engage Moscow.

Negotiating with Russia is not a conversation; it is a contest of will.

The Russians test endurance, exploit empathy and interpret every gesture of goodwill as weakness.

The only language the Kremlin respects is consistency backed by power.

For Ukraine, diplomacy during wartime has become as crucial as military strategy.

Since the full-scale invasion’s first days, Ukrainian officers and diplomats have worked side by side to secure support, weapons and sanctions.

On the battlefield, clarity of mission determines victory. At the table, clarity of principle does. Both require stamina, discipline and unity.

That is why Ukraine must train its negotiators with the same rigor as its soldiers.

Preparation, psychological resilience and knowledge of the opponent’s methods are essential.

We must anticipate manipulation, resist fatigue and keep the initiative.

As in combat, we cannot allow Russia to dictate the tempo or the terms.

Our job is to expose Moscow’s lies, not accommodate them.

This requires understanding not only what Russia says but how it speaks.

The “Gromyko method” relies on endless verbiage to disguise aggression as reason.

The modern Russian approach adds post-truth propaganda to the mix.

The West must stop mistaking this for genuine negotiation.

Every hour spent debating with Russian envoys who have no mandate for compromise is an hour stolen from defending freedom.

History offers lessons.

In 1973, after years of attritional talks, the Vietnam peace accords were signed. The negotiations lasted five years — 68 meetings between Henry Kissinger and his North Vietnamese counterpart.

Peace came only when the military balance changed on the ground, not because the talks themselves produced it.

The lesson is clear: Diplomacy succeeds only when backed by strength.

Today, Russia’s foreign ministry acts as an extension of its war machine.

It buys time for rearmament, spreads lies to fracture alliances and uses international institutions as shields for aggression.

Moscow’s envoys block resolutions, dilute sanctions and pose as mediators while their army targets civilians.

Ukraine does not reject peace. We reject capitulation disguised as peace.

A just settlement must restore our territorial integrity, ensure accountability for war crimes and guarantee that no aggressor will ever again threaten Europe from Moscow.

Anything less would betray not only Ukrainians but the principles that keep the free world safe and free.

Ukraine will fight on every front — military, political and diplomatic — until justice and security are restored.

We will not let exhaustion replace conviction or allow lies to erode truth.

Our strength lies not only in our soldiers but in our clarity of purpose: peace through victory, not illusion.

Valerii Zaluzhnyi is Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom and former Armed Forces of Ukraine commander-in-chief.