Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that peace talks with Ukraine were at a “dead end” and vowed to continue the war in Ukraine until Russia’s goals were complete.
Russia and Ukrainian officials last held in-person talks in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 29. The two sides have held negotiations via video link since, but according to Bloomberg, there’s been no public confirmation of talks this week.
According to Russia’s Tass news agency, Putin accused Ukraine of driving the negotiations to a dead end by deviating from agreements reached in Istanbul. Ukraine proposed a draft peace deal during the Istanbul talks that included Kyiv giving up on plans to join NATO, although the Ukrainians want security guarantees from some NATO countries.
Russia also wants Ukraine to recognize Crimea as Russian territory and recognize the independence of the breakaway republics in the eastern Donbas region. In an interview that aired Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he will “definitely” not recognize Crimea as Russian.
For their part, the US and other Western powers that are arming Ukraine don’t appear to be interested in pushing for a diplomatic solution. The Washington Post reported last week that for some in NATO, “it’s better for the Ukrainians to keep fighting, and dying, than to achieve a peace that comes too early or at too high a cost to Kyiv and the rest of Europe.”
In his comments on Tuesday, Putin insisted that Russia’s offensive in Ukraine was going according to plan. In recent weeks, Russia has completely withdrawn from northern areas near Kyiv and said it is now focused on “liberating” the Donbas. Putin said the war would “continue until its full completion and the fulfillment of the tasks that have been set.”
Putin also discussed the Western sanctions campaign against Russia, which he called a “blitzkrieg.” He said that the sanctions have “achieved certain results” and noted that Russia “had to increase the interest rate of the central bank to 20%,” but said the rate has gone down in recent days.
As was the talks with US/ NATO that preceded this war. A formality for the protocols but dead in the water nevertheless. West has made up its mind and is dead set on a war with Russia. A decision they’re gonna regret many times over.
Just listened to another Scott Ritter interview tonight. He believes the Donbass Ukrainian army will be destroyed over the next couple weeks to a month. Given the 60-100,000 troops there, even killing 2,000 a day which is quite possible (I think Ukraine lost 1,000 the other day, plus 1,000 Marines surrendered in Mariupol), it will take at least a month in my view. But it is inevitable. The Russian will pick a target, grind it to dust, rinse and repeat until there is nothing left of the Ukraine army in Donbass. As Ritter says, this will not be the city fighting of Mariupol or other cities, or the light forces used so far, this will be good old artillery first, then armor next in classic Russian doctrine. People are about to see what Russia can do when it really gets rolling.
I also think Zelensky just gave away his last chance at minimizing civilian casualties. Everyone should get out of Donbass that doesn’t want to die.
As was the talks with US/ NATO that preceded this war. A formality for the protocols but dead in the water nevertheless. West has made up its mind and is dead set on a war with Russia. A decision they’re gonna regret many times over.
And so unnecessary. It is almost as if having a mature relationship of give and take, respectfull relatiinship aming adults is not acceptable. The only acceptable relatiinship is the ine of the superior and inferior. It is so deluded, so misguided. And sad for American future.
But Asia, Middle East, Africa, central and South America must stay firm un not getting sycked into the conflict. In fact, they should eliminate the subject banned from discussion, and visiting diplomats from the West should be advised to not raise it. Otherwise, the toxicity of war will spill over into national, regional politics. By declaring neutrality in this conflict between NATO and Russia, they should strive to advance trade and normal relations. West aims to destabilize trade, and cripple econimic development. And benefit from others getting themselves bogged down in tensions.
It’ll be hard to regret anything when one is dead.
As near as I can gather from computer sites, conversations, and zero corporate news;
Liberal progressives want war more than anything they have ever wanted before.
A lot of them believed the Russia Gate nonsense and have hated Russia ever since.
It goes a lot farther back than the “Russiagate” scam.
The reason that scam worked so well was that it drew on more than 70 years (with a short, partial break during World War Two) of the US establishment currying Russophobia. Russiagate was just, if you will, a booster shot for something that was fading a bit but definitely still around.
Phase 1 of this war was a grand disaster for Putin which eventually turned into a plus for him. The original objective was to take Kyiv and install a Russian-friendly government. As we have learned in Iraq and Afghanistan that would have required many soldiers and equipment to protect that government in a very dangerous environment.
Now Phase 2 has begun which is not in favor of the Ukrainians. The Russian efforts expended on Kyiv can now be redirected towards the Black Sea strip. It is a given that Putin/Russia will never return the Crimea to Ukraine without a protracted and certainly deadly fight. The objective of Phase 2 is to create a permanent land corridor to the Crimea and to create an ending of the war in which Ukraine will have to sign a bad agreement.
I have long argued that the Ukraine-Russian wrangle was not so much about NATO in Ukraine but about NATO in a Ukrainian Crimea where NATO would have access to Sevastopol, a prime naval base in the Black Sea.
The Ukrainians fought valiantly for their capital city. Will they have the same courage to die for the Crimea?
This is absolutely senseless.
Taking Kiev would result in lots of destroyed buildings and dead civilians for Zelensky to film for his media allies in the U.S. Since he has given the order to move artillery and other defenses away from fortified positions and into the city streets, for this purpose.
The Russians can move around at will. The Ukrainian regime can never stand against them in the field. Russians now focus on what they can maintain after the war, which is Russian lands in the east. All of Donbass, not just the free part that has been held by the resistance. All of Donbass includes the coastal Mariupol. I would prefer they also take Russian Odessa from the globalists, but Putin will likely hold back to avoid civilian casualties.
As for Crimea, it has always been Russian. Only “Ukrainian” on Soviet administrative paper. It was been Russian longer than California has been American. The real Ukraine doesn’t extend as far east as these Soviet borders do. The Crimean Russians voted overwhelmingly to join Russia in the 1990s, but Yeltsin and his four … shall we say, “Harvard advisers,” refused. After the 2014 coup they voted again.
Does anyone seriously think the Crimeans would like to be ruled from Kiev? Note that Washington never makes that claim. They know it would be false. Crimea is far richer, and has far more potential when it’s not sanctioned, than Ukraine, the most corrupt “European” country. Where the economy hit rock bottom in the years after the 2014 coup.
There is a popular, modern hotel in Crimea, the large Mriya Resort. It could receive visitors from all over Europe if allowed to. So naturally Washington sanctioned it. Yes, they sanctioned a hotel.