Viktor Shlinchak, the head of the board of the Institute of World Policy, stated this on Espreso TV."In the U.S., in the White House, in the State Department, they actually don't understand that Putin is not even fighting for 20% of Ukrainian territories, not for 20% of the Donetsk region. He is fighting for a sphere of influence. He is fighting for the ability to influence subsequent global processes, processes related to Europe, through Ukraine. And, in fact, this is precisely Putin's strategic goal: to move to such a dialogue with the U.S. and China, where he is the third pole of the world. Therefore, this whole story with Rubio's speech shows a current misunderstanding of what Putin actually seeks. A misunderstanding of the very philosophy of this war. And I will remind you that it is definitely not about territory, or not so much about territory, let's put it this way, as it is on a mental level, on the level of a great clash of two civilizational worlds. We identify ourselves with Europe," he said.Viktor Shlinchak also noted that Ukraine understands that 'we are part of Europe,' while Russia is dragging our country back into the past it wants to sell as the future. And it started doing this long ago."Let's start with the fact that the idea of a customs union existed, then the idea of implementing the so-called 'Russian world,' whose ideologues were Dugin and a whole company of Russian philosophers. All of this, in fact, is understudied by Americans, all of this is not properly assessed. And if, even from an American point of view, Ukraine can cede 20% of the territory of the Donetsk region, they believe that this will stop the war. But it won't stop the war. This will only ignite the war even more, because Putin will understand that he received no punishment for the aggression. And on the contrary, he gained some territorial acquisitions and can go further. This is a very idealistic picture. Just as idealistic is the picture when Americans, including at informal meetings, talk about how we will soon tear Russia away from China. Well, this is another misunderstanding of Russia," he believes.U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that currently, the main subject of disagreement in the negotiations is allegedly the 20% of the Donetsk region that remains under Kyiv's control.