Ukraine’s Answer Might Be Kosovo

Foreign Policy ^ | 01/29/2026 | Paul Hockenos

[SeekAndFind]

After nearly a year of chaotic, stop-and-start efforts to broker a cease-fire in Ukraine, the Trump administration remains deeply involved in talks to stop the war. Unsurprisingly, the most vexing topic remains territorial concessions—in Trump-speak, “land swaps.” And until now, diplomats have not come up with anything likely to solve it.

The discrepancy between the original pro-Russian 28-point plan that surfaced in November 2025 and the reworked Ukrainian-U.S.-European version speaks volumes about how far Ukraine and Russia remain from each another. The 28-point plan calls for international recognition of all currently Russian-held territory as well as marking the entirety of the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts as Russian. The plan amounts to a surrender ultimatum for Ukrainian forces, and it positions Russia perfectly to eventually re-start its campaign in a better position.

The 20-point counterproposal calls for fighting to be halted at current battle lines, which will become the lines of contact. It refuses to recognize any of the Russian gains in eastern Ukraine or Crimea as legal. Ukraine says it can accept Washington’s proposed demilitarized zones and a free economic zone in the part of the Donetsk region that it controls, but it also wants Russian-held territory of equivalent size to be included, too.

The void between these proposals is where U.S. international affairs analyst and former negotiator in the Balkans Edward P. Joseph has jumped in. In a recent journal article, Joseph proposes using the template of U.N .Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1244, which was adopted in June 1999 and affirmed the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) but called for “substantial autonomy and meaningful self-administration for Kosovo.” After a unanimous vote in the UNSC, Kosovo was emptied of Serbian and Kosovar Albanian militaries and placed under an interim U.N. administration...

[SeekAndFind]

Nearly 27 years later, Kosovo remains a protectorate of the U.N.—although one in which elected Kosovar officials govern broadly and police themselves. Joseph argues that the logic of Resolution 1244’s postponement of the legal question of sovereignty—namely, who owns Kosovo—is the key to the relative peace that has prevailed there since 1999. The Kosovar Albanians govern themselves in a system that they have declared is an independent state, but that neither Serbia nor Russia (as well as five EU members and other countries) do. Serbia continues to consider Kosovo part of its federation, as stipulated under 1244. Importantly, Russia, as a member of the UNSC, stands behind 1244 and insists that it be respected to the letter.

[delta7]

Best solution: Carve Ukraine up into its historic, ethnic roots, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, etc. The West forced that on Yugoslavia, by force. It worked then, it would work now.

[Mount Athos]

This article does not make any sense at all to me

[TexasGator]

“The West forced that on Yugoslavia, by force. It worked then, it would work now.”

---

On 25 June 1991, Slovenia and Croatia became the first republics to declare independence from Yugoslavia. The federal customs officers in Slovenia on the border crossings with Italy, Austria, and Hungary simply changed uniforms since most of them were local Slovenes.

Wiki

[Candor7]

Just a lot of gibberish.

[Tom Tetroxide]

“Kosovo”
by Bob Rivers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJNN38S3D7M

[McGruff]

"I did not have sex with that country"

[sauropod]

.

[alexander_busek]

Best solution: Carve Ukraine up into its historic, ethnic roots, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, etc. The West forced that on Yugoslavia, by force. It worked then, it would work now.

And carve up Russia while you're at it!

Regards,

[AZJeep]

Maybe, the same could be applied to Russia too.
Karelia, Mordovia, Bashkiria, Dagestan, Mari, Tatarstan, Ingushetia, Ossetia, Karachay-Cherkessia, Tuva, Yakutia, Buryatia, areas inhabited by Ukrainians, ...

[Steven Tyler]

Mebe because a Globalist on shrooms wrote the piece....

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

What an interesting article, nibbling around the "regent" role of the West in dealing with geopolitical issues. Paul Hockenos is a Skidmore and Freie Universität Berlin graduate in political science, and has been published by the NYTimes, CNN and Newsweek, as well as Foreign Policy. His own site repeats he's "award winning" and offers a one-day course to better one's writing for only 1.099 €....

Eight hours of highly interactive classroom sessions using PowerPoint, your texts, and handouts

To read the Foreign Policy article and about "Trump-speak," the web site wants you to sign up. A mere $8.33 a month as best offer.

A UN protectorate is a phrase which should be part of a comedy monologue, not some political science graduate's political prose. Which is why Hockenos is busy peddling his English language services in Berlin. We were legal residents there for decades. I've been to the American Academy and not run across him. A fun bit about the Freie Universität Berlin which granted Hockenos his political science bona fides is abbreviated FU Berlin.

Back to the thread's theme -- this same Hockenos penned another article for FP --

Eight hours of highly interactive classroom sessions using PowerPoint, your texts, and handouts FP, 18 November 2025. FP, 18 November 2025.

In it he writes about the "corruption scandal engulfing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government" being "quickly eclipsed the uplifting cheer issuing from the European Union's recent commendations for Ukraine's progress toward joining the bloc."

Remember that coverage of the corruption? Missing of late, Interesting.

[PIF]

Nearly 27 years later, Kosovo remains a protectorate of the U.N. and a province of muslim only Albania