It has been four long years of the Russia-Ukraine war. If this conflict were a child, it would be getting ready for its first day of school. Instead, it is still sitting in the middle of Europe, breaking things and costing a fortune. But don’t worry, the US diplomatic mission has arrived. Well, they haven’t actually arrived at a solution, but they have arrived at the airport. Our friends from Washington are currently packing their leather bags and boarding private jets to promote the newest US peace plan. They have a plan. They always have a plan. This time, they are calling it a ‘flurry of activity.’ In normal language, that means they are going to a lot of meetings where the catering is better than the actual geopolitical strategy.

I find it truly moving, in a tragic sort of way, that it took four years to get this ‘momentum’ for international diplomacy going. Usually, when something has momentum, it moves quickly. If you are four years late to the fire, you aren’t bringing momentum; you are bringing a shovel to dig through the ashes of the Ukraine ceasefire negotiations. But this is how the world works now. We watch the theater of the absurd from our front-row seats, and the actors expect us to clap because they finally decided to show up for the second act. The news says these envoys are traveling the globe to push a White House peace proposal. It’s a classic move. When you don’t know how to fix a problem at home, you go on a world tour. It makes you look very busy and very important.

Let’s look at the word ‘potential.’ The diplomats are talking about a ‘potential deal.’ In the world of high-level politics, ‘potential’ is a magic word. It means absolutely nothing, but it sounds like hope. I have the ‘potential’ to be happy, but I’m still writing this while looking at a gray sky and drinking bitter coffee. A potential deal is just a way to keep the cameras rolling. It keeps the diplomats in five-star hotels and the defense companies in business. If they actually signed a deal, they would have to go home and deal with their own boring problems. Nobody wants that.

As a European, I have a special kind of exhaustion for this. We have seen this play many times. The U.S. comes in with a grand plan, shakes a few hands, and then flies away while the rest of us are left with the bill and the mess. They love to be the director of the movie. They want the dramatic music and the hero’s welcome. But the reality is much more boring. The reality is a group of people in suits sitting in a room in Geneva or Brussels, arguing over where to put a comma in a document that no one will actually follow. It is bureaucratic performance art, and we are the unwilling audience.

Why 2026? Why now? Perhaps because the people in power realized that the public is getting bored. You can’t keep a war on the front page forever. You need a new story. The ‘Peace Plan’ is the perfect sequel. It allows everyone to pretend they are the good guys. Russia can pretend it’s being reasonable, Ukraine can pretend it’s being heard, and the U.S. can pretend it’s leading the world. It’s a circle of make-believe that costs billions of dollars. If these people put half as much effort into actually helping people as they do into planning their travel schedules, we might actually get somewhere.

But we won't. We will just get more meetings. We will get more ‘flurries.’ I can see the future, and it looks like a lot of men in blue suits standing in front of flags. They will look very serious. They will use words like ‘framework’ and ‘cooperation.’ They will promise that they are closer than ever to a breakthrough. And then, they will fly to the next city for a better lunch. It is a cycle of incompetence that would be funny if it weren't so expensive and predictable. I told you this would happen. I told you they would wait until the world was tired before they started their little parade. And here we are, watching the jets take off while the world stays exactly the same. It’s enough to make a person stop reading the news entirely, but then who would be here to tell you how truly ridiculous it all is?

References & Fact-Check: - Associated Press/ABC News: Envoys travel the globe to push a US plan for ending Russia's war in Ukraine (https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/envoys-travel-globe-push-us-plan-ending-russias-129495824) - Department of State: International Geopolitical Strategy and Ukraine Security Frameworks.