The New York Times reported that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been planning on peace talks with Russia in Qatar for weeks as part of a “risky bet” that he could bolster his regime’s negotiating position by inflicting defeats on Moscow. “To engage Russia in a fair negotiation process, the Russians need to face tactical defeats on the battlefield,” the Times quotes Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior Kiev presidential advisor, saying in an interview on Aug. 6, the day the Kursk incursion started. “As these defeats pile up, social unrest will start to stir within Russia.”