On Wednesday, Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky called for new Western sanctions on Russia as tensions remain high in the region over accusations that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine, a charge Moscow strongly denies.
The US has threatened to hit Russia with harsh sanctions if it invades Ukraine, but Zelensky wants sanctions now.
“For us, it is important to have sanctions applied before, rather than after, the conflict would happen, because if they were applied after the conflict would happen, this would basically make them meaningless,” he told reporters in Brussels.
EU leaders are meeting on Thursday to discuss the Ukraine situation and weigh potential responses. Bloomberg reported that leading EU nations are resisting a push to prepare new sanctions on Russia. Sources told Bloomberg that Germany, France, Italy, and Spain want to focus instead on talking to Moscow.
Zelensky said he would like talks with Russia but still prefers new sanctions. The Ukrainian leader said Moscow was not willing to come to the table with Kyiv, but the Russians have been eager to negotiate with Washington. On Wednesday, Russia submitted new proposals for security guarantees to US officials in a bid to ease tensions.
Then there’s this:
France and Germany seek fresh peace talks with Russia
https://www.metro.us/france-and-germany-seek/
Once again, we see the basic duplicity of the West on this issue. There are no “peace talks” with Russia for a very simple reason: Russia is not a party to the Minsk Package of Measures. Russia helped negotiate that agreement in the Normandy Format, but is not a party to the agreement. The agreement was enshrined by a UNSCR which means it is now international law that Ukraine is committed to implementing (but isn’t).
All the talk about reviving the Normandy Format is simply to try to find a way for Ukraine to evade its requirements under Minsk. The fact that Ukraine and the West are insisting on a new “peace” summit demonstrates that they recognize that Ukraine is incapable of implementing the Minsk agreement because of its internal political tensions within its parliament.
Zelensky is doomed if he tries to implement Minsk and doomed if he doesn’t pursue a war against the Donbass region. Once the oil transit fees get cut off next year, he’s doomed again.
This is why it’s almost inevitable that there will be a war between Ukraine and Russia. If Zelensky tries to avoid one, he will be kicked out and his replacement will be even less cordial to Russia.
The only way to avoid war is for the US and the EU to force Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the contact line and possibly get the UN to send peacekeepers into the contact line. The latter might be difficult and I’m not sure Russia would agree as it would depend on the composition of the peace-keeping force being from neutral nations.
Frankly, I don’t see any chance of the US and EU going this route. Both of those parties see an agenda for sacrificing Ukraine in a war with Russia in order to achieve a negative geopolitical result for Russia. Neither of them cares a whit whether Ukraine survives as a viable state as long as they get their licks in at Russia.
“France and Germany seek fresh peace talks with Russia ”
Why don’t they do what they agreed to do in 2015 and make Ukraine speak and get some fair result for Donbass ?
Instead of pretending they can fight Russia knowing they will lose, why does Kiev not face the truth and try negotiations????
As I’ve been saying, the reason is simple: They are sacrificing Ukraine in order to gain some supposed propaganda or geopolitical win against Russia in terms of how the world reacts to Russia’s destruction of Ukraine.
The CIA and the neocons hate Russia. If they can sacrifice a loser country like Ukraine in the process, they couldn’t care less. They tried to use Ukraine to get the Russian Black Sea naval base in 2014. Putin nixed that. They tried for six years to get the West to damage Russia economically. They failed there, too. So now they’re falling back on Plan B: do as much damage to Russia in world opinion, the EU, harder sanctions, etc.
But the real point is that they would do this regardless of whether it works out for them. Like the scorpion in the fairy tale, it’s in their nature.
The warmongers say that sanctions on Russia and even more lethal weapons for our nazis and promises of even more nato expansion eastward are the only things that might prevent Russia from invading Ukraine “again”, when actually these are the only things that would provoke Russia to invade. When force fails, do it more.
Zelensky has less than 20% support and many not be there for long.
Precisely why he will start the war. He’s out next year when the transit fees get cut off, and he’s out if he tries to implement Minsk. The only he could possibly survive his opponents is starting the war, regardless of the outcome. And he’s being encouraged by the CIA and the neocons to do just that, regardless of anything Biden may say. Maybe the CIA told him that if he starts the war, they’ll get him out of the country and protect him. Who knows?
“For us, it is important to have sanctions applied before, rather than after, the conflict would happen, because if they were applied after the conflict would happen, this would basically make them meaningless,” he told reporters in Brussels.
And this guy is their president? What an idiot.
He’s an actor, and not a good one.