Senior Research Fellow and Director at Afrasid Thembisa Fakude says he can’t see Russian President Vladimir Putin backing down in the war against Ukraine.

Fakude’s statement comes amid Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying that the peace talks in Istanbul have concluded, revealing that Ukraine and Russia plan on exchanging more prisoners of war.

Zelenskyy attended a meeting consisting of central European and Nordic states in Vilniu, capital of Lithuania, whilst the talks were under way.

He added that there should be more pressure to ensure a solution to end the war.

Fakude says, “I think what we are likely to see is an escalation. Vladimir Putin is certainly going to escalate. We have seen Russian bombarding several installations in Ukraine. I don’t see this stopping any time soon. We just need to brace ourselves for an escalation. And I don’t see Putin backing down nor agreeing to a ceasefire at the moment.”

In the event that Russia-Ukraine talks fail, we are likely to see tensions escalate: Thembisa Fakude: