No time to let up

In the face of stiff Ukrainian resistance – bolstered by timely and massive shipments of Western arms – Russia has retreated from Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, and it now seems to be aiming to take, at most, the entirety of a single Ukrainian province, Luhansk oblast.

Now is not the time, therefore, to go for a negotiated cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia, as France, Germany and

Italy have proposed in recent days. Their desire to shorten this destructive war – and thus limit the damage both to Ukraine and to their own hard-pressed economies – is understandable.

Their promises not to impose terms on Kyiv are undoubtedly wellintentioned. Still, the risks of relaxing the pressure on Putin before he is thoroughly beaten, and maybe not even then, are too high.

That much became clear in the May 10 congressional testimony of Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, who told lawmakers that Putin ‘‘is preparing for a prolonged conflict during which he still intends to achieve goals beyond the Donbas’’.

He ‘‘is probably counting on US and [European Union] resolve to weaken as food shortages, inflation, and energy prices get worse’’, Haines said. Nato leaders must give Putin no reason to believe that such a strategy will work.

This opinion is not necessarily shared by Stuff newspapers.