In Ukraine, peace talks no longer taboo as Russia’s war rages on

A recent poll suggests 44 percent of Ukrainians – the highest level since the conflict began – feel the time has come to engage in dialogue with the enemy.

Kyiv, Ukraine – For Oleksandr Antybysh, peace negotiations with Russia should be based on several conditions.

“A return to Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders, a ban for Russia to conduct military drills no closer than 300km [186 miles] from Ukraine’s borders”, the bearded serviceman said as he counted out the conditions on his fingers.

Antybysh, who co-heads a volunteer group that makes gadgets for speedy gun loading in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, also told Al Jazeera he wants to see the “full reparation of all losses, material and moral, that have to be calculated by an international commission”.

But as Moscow slowly and bloodily advances in Ukraine’s southeast and Kyiv wages a daring incursion into western Russia, the prospects of such conditions seem distant.

Russia is currently throwing thousands of barely trained servicemen onto the front lines to push through Ukrainian defences and is pummelling besieged towns and villages with glide bombs,