Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the war in his country could only end at the negotiating table, and signaled talks with Russia could begin soon. However, an adviser to Zelensky said diplomacy was counterproductive for Kiev.
During a Ukrainian television appearance on Saturday, Zelensky laid out a path to resolve the war by talking with Russia. "There are things that can only be reached at the negotiating table." He added, the war "will be bloody, there will be fighting but will only definitively end through diplomacy."
Zelensky was vague about the potential talks but indicated they could occur at the highest level. "Discussions between Ukraine and Russia will undoubtedly take place…Under what format I don’t know – with intermediaries, without them, in a broader group, at the presidential level," the leader said. He conditioned the talks on the good treatment of captured Ukrainian cities and POWs.
Dialogue between Kiev and Moscow has been on hold for a month. The Kremlin blames Ukraine for the lack of diplomatic progress. Last week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko claimed Kiev has not responded to Moscow’s proposals and left the negotiation table. “No, negotiations are not taking place. Ukraine has actually withdrawn from the negotiation process,” Rudenko said.
While Zelensky was offering a new round of diplomacy, a top adviser and member of the negotiation team threw cold water on the idea. Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak argued making compromises with Russia would backfire. “The war will not stop (after any concessions). It will just be put on pause for some time. After a while, with renewed intensity, the Russians will build up their weapons, manpower…And they’ll start a new offensive, even more bloody and large-scale,” he told Reuters on Saturday.
Directly contradicting Zelensky, he said talks would not begin until Russian forces completely withdrew from Ukraine. Podolyak said, “The (Russian) forces must leave the country and after that the resumption of the peace process will be possible."
Several NATO states have discouraged Ukraine from making an agreement with Russia. During his visit to Kiev, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson instructed Zelensky not to negotiate with Russia. Johnson "urged against any negotiations with Russia on terms that gave credence to the Kremlin’s false narrative for the invasion but stressed that this was a decision for the Ukrainian government," according to Johnson’s office.
Washington has also abandoned the diplomatic path with Moscow. Since President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has not spoken with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The US has shipped billions in increasingly advanced military equipment to Kiev.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
Putin’s folly will be remembered as a blunder comparable to the US invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam or the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. My prediction is that Putin has bought Russia a long war of attrition that they can’t win. I expect there will be a long war of attrition where the Russians will eventually wear down the Ukrainian military. I actually thought that would have happened by now. The defeat of the Ukrainian military will be followed by a protracted urban guerrilla war that will eventually engender the Russian mothers to demand an end to the war, much like the Soviet war in Afghanistan. But the Russian defeat will take years to play out.
I had no sympathy for the Ukrainian government before Russia invaded. But the Russian invasion was an act of aggression that transcended the root cause of the war. 14,000 people including civilians and combatants on both sides were killed in 8 years of war in the Donbas. Multiples of that figure have been killed in the first three months of Putin’s war. The irony is that as a resultof Putin’s folly NATO is expanding, the Russian military is being degraded and rather than having a security threat on Russia’s southern border, Russia will be fighting an actual war against a NATO proxy for many years to come.
As for De-Nazification, the Russian invasion has created a national resistance movement where the Nazis are expanding. The Russian victory at Azovstal will be remembered like Santa Ana’s victory at the Alamo. that turned a bunch of slave trading thugs into heroes. Putin has done the save with the Azov Battalion. I expect he will try them for war crimes which will only enhance their status as heroes and martyrs and build the Nazi movement in the Ukraine.
Putin was in a difficult position in February. He should have backed an indigenous opposition to the Ukrainian government and worked with China on a carrot and stick approach to pressuring Kyiv to commit to neutrality and autonomy followed by a plebiscite in the Donbas.
“The irony is that as a result of Putin’s folly NATO is expanding”
Yes, and the alternative was what? The surrounding of Russia ends? Russia’s grievances are heard? The Donbas region’s agreed upon autonomy honored? And if Russia didn’t capitulate to every demand of the “west”, there wouldn’t have been NATO expansion anyway without the invasion? Putin’s “folly” was the result the west wanted and their constant instigating made their self fulfilling prophesy come to fruition.
“Yes, and the alternative was what?”
As I said above: Putin should have backed an indigenous opposition to the Ukrainian government and worked with China on a carrot and stick approach to pressuring Kyiv to commit to neutrality and autonomy followed by a plebiscite in the Donbas.
China was Ukraine’s biggest trade partner and had lots of leverage with Ukraine.
I wish Putin had called Xi for advice in February. The Chinese understand the value of peace and patience. They think long term and avoid making hasty decisions that have disastrous consequences.
Putin was in a very difficult situation as a result of NATO’s relentless expansion. But the war in Ukraine made Russia’s strategic situation worse in every way and created a humanitarian catastrophe.
Putin should have bribed Cuba and Mexico to let him set up nukes aimed at the U.S.
Are you anti-war or anti-American? Imperialist wars are bad whether the aggressor is the US/NATO or Russia.
As for nukes in Cuba or Mexico, the US is already living under the threat of Russian submarine launched nukes off the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts that can reach any major American target quicker than any missiles launched from Cuba or Mexico.
Yes, and Russia is living under the threat of NATO nukes placed in Poland and Romania that can take out their cities in less than five minutes. What is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander don’t you think?
Literally every city on earth is under threat of nukes they could take out their cities in five minutes. What makes Russia special?
Mary, according to Wikipedia there are no nukes in Poland or Romania. Do you have a source for your statement above?
The US has nukes deployed in Turkey, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany. UK and France have nukes deployed on their own territory. Please check your facts.
You hit the nail on the head. There’s plenty of war supporters here; witness the numerous comments attempting to justify Putin’s war on every post.
“China was Ukraine’s biggest trade partner and had lots of leverage with Ukraine.”
Did they have leverage with the US and NATO? That’s who they would have had to use it on, not Ukraine.
Russia is fighting an imperialist war. Why should we support them?
US/NATO are worse imperialists. US UK and France were worse imperialists than Germany or the USSR. And the Germans in Silesia were being persecuted. Did that justify Hitler and Stalin’s invasion of Poland?
Russia is the historical oppressor of the Ukrainian people. No good can come out of a Russian invasion. Lenin understood. Stalin and Putin didn’t. Putin’s war is wrong.
You can tell me about history over and over and I still won’t think it’s relevant to today. This is about a 30 year history. From the instant the cold war was “won”. It was inevitable. If Russia hadn’t invaded, we wouldn’t be talking in 20 years from now about the peacefulness in that region unless Russia’s concerns were addressed at some point. The invasion didn’t change that.
Because they LIKE Russia, rather inexplicably. It’s basically what all of their “anti-war” doublespeak and excuses boil down to … Russia can wage war, Russia can act as an imperialist power, but nobody else can. THEN it’s bad.
There may be some Putin cultists posting here. But most of the folks are genuinely anti-war. They don’t all particularly like Russia. But they righteously hate US/NATO. The problem is that it is easy for people to look at reality as two sided. If the US/NATO is the greatest evil in the world., then US/NATO’s enemies must be bad. Reality is more nuanced. It’s had to understand how Putin was courageously opposing US/NATO aggression on February 23rd and then he became the aggressor on February 24th. The path to the dark side is easy. Like Palpatine, Putin’s fight against US/NATO oppression led him to become Darth Vlad. And now Russia is doing exactly what US/NATO wanted them to do.
Oh, I think there are more than “some” Putin cultists. I see a ton of defending Russia with zero room for opposition, and little to no criticism of Russia’s own alleged atrocities, human rights violations, massive restrictions on free speech, etc.
I’m not wildly pro Ukraine, but the nonstop portrayal of all Ukrainians as “Nazis” who deserve to be wiped out here is genuinely disturbing. I even saw one poster say that the only good Ukrainian was a dead Ukrainian. (That comment was deleted, though by the poster or the mods, I don’t know.)
The US is ready for war with China. They are broadcasting plans like a gameshow.
This sees Russia’s situation only half a step ahead, and not at all for alternatives it had or might yet have.
Nice to see someone here talking some sense. Azov IS an issue, but they are a tiny percentage of the population, and in the most recent Ukrainian election, far-right politicians got just 2 percent of the vote; far less than in some other European nations, and no one is invading THEM on a pretext of “de-Nazification.” All Putin is doing is stirring up additional animosity and pushing angry, displaced people further toward radical ideologies.
It is a shame that most commentators on this list don’t understand the scars centuries of Russian oppression have left on the Ukrainian psyche. As for de-Nazification, imagine if Britain invaded the United States in 1859 to end slavery! Frederick Douglass,Charles Summner , Abe Lincoln and Ulysees Grant would have united with Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Sam Houston and Stephen Douglas in a patriotic war of national resistance that would have defeated the British and continued slavery a lot longer.
Putin has taken a bunch of neo Nazi led thugs and elevated them to the status of national heroes. Russia’s victory at Azovstal reminds me of Santa Ana’s victory over the slave traders defending the Alamo. I expect that the Russians will compound their mistakes by trying the Azovstal defenders as war criminals thereby raising their status as Ukrainian partriotic heroes and martyrs.
For the record, I am also against the war crimes trials Ukraine is showcasing. Although there are exceptions in very long wars, belligerents should avoid trying POW’s for war crimes while hostilities are ongoing.
Oh BS. The US was already in Ukraine for years turning them off Russia and Russia was supporting the separatists. Your analogy is ridiculous.
They have had an enormous amount of power and influence. They weren’t some tiny incidental group. But it’s more likely that Putin invaded because of the increased shelling and Zelensky’s declaration of war to take back Crimea along with the threat of Ukraine joining NATO rather than a denazification mission. On the other hand, the US is full of Sh!t when they claim they are fighting for freedom and democracy in Ukraine. This is an all out proxy war, and the Ukrainians are pawns and victims.
NATO is not “expanding”.
Ask Erdogan.
Most analysts believe that Edrogan will eventually agree to let Finland and Sweden in after he extracts a price – like expulsion of the PKK and Turkey’s acceptance into the EU. But the important thing is that Putin’s war pushed Sweden and Finland to abandon their 77 years of neutrality and they remain committed to that course. Even if Edrogan continues to object they will still enter into alliance with the US, UK and other NATO members outside of NATO.
Hell. When Switzerland reconsiders its neutrality …. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61320132
Excellent article. A Russian diplomat working for the UN in Geneva resigned yesterday to protest the war. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/23/russian-diplomat-to-the-un-in-geneva-resigns-over-war-in-ukraine
Some of the war mongering comments on this site are getting awfully strange. Like justifying and even advocating nuclear first strikes if Russia loses in Ukraine. In the 1960’s I supported the VC. But if they lost, I would never defend a clear first strike by the USSR. In fact, I think the North Vietnamese and VC leaders would not have wanted that.
I saw that! Must have taken incredible bravery on his part. I hope his family is OK.
And yes, there ARE a lot of warmongers here. They’re just not the usual run-of-the-mill pro-US warmongers.
So I take it you would like peace negotiations with Ukraine accepting some concessions to get there, as well as Russia?
Every new war brings some pro-war people out of the supposedly anti-war closet. This one is no exception.
For that matter, in some cases every new action within an existing war outs some pro-war types.
That’s particularly true of the Arab-Israeli conflict, where we have a few that are anti-war any time the victims are Palestinian Arabs, Syria, etc. but immediately wax enthusiastically pro-war at the actuality, or even prospect, of Israel taking a hit.
I am anti-imperialist, not strictly anti-war. I support most wars of national liberation, including the Palestinian war against Zionist colonialism. With respect to nation states only self defense or intervention to stop an actual or imminent genocide. Indigenous people have the right to wage wars of national liberation against colonial or occupying powers but I adhere to the principles of the traditional Non-alignment and Pan Africanist movements that oppose tribal or ethnic wars of secession unless the secession is a response to actual or imminent genocide. And I support the right of all people to overthrow any oppressive government by violent means if there is no other reasonable way to redress the people’s grievances.
Hell. When Switzerland reconsiders its neutrality …. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61320132
The Nazis were already recruiting during the 8 year civil war.
I have been saying this since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Putin’s hypocrisy on ‘De Nazification’ is BS. He has a significantly bigger Neo Nazi threat at home.
https://us.yahoo.com/news/putins-nazify-claims-ukraine-obscure-080014913.html
“In fact, while extremist groups in Russia have expressed a range of views about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, his biggest Nazi problem may be at home where some far-right hate groups sympathize with Ukrainians and threats to their independence, and are having trouble squaring the reality of Putin’s assault on Ukraine with their racist beliefs.”
That was a bad article you linked to, which started off with the premise that because Zelensky is Jewish and lost people during the Holocaust, there can be no Nazis in Ukraine. That’s like saying the US had a Black president, therefore there is no racism.
There are tons of articles which demonstrate the influence and power of the far right /Nazis in Ukraine.
Why is this being moderated?
“That’s like saying the US had a Black president, therefore there is no racism.”
Just ask Lindsey.
Perhaps you should have read past the first paragraph, then
Perhaps I did and it was bad based on the premise to begin with.
It’s not the premise of the article, it’s stating a fact. But you clearly don’t know that, not having read the article
It’s not a fact. Claiming that it’s incomprehensible that there would be Nazis with a Jewish leader is propaganda. And bad propaganda at that.
That’s literally not what the article’s premise was. And it is a fact that Zelensky is Jewish and that he lost family in the Holocaust. Not sure if you’re being deliberately obtuse, but it’s quite entertaining.
It literally was. It’s trying to assert that there really aren’t Nazis in Ukraine but there are Nazis in Russia. Except that one of the Nazis in Ukraine, the leader of a battalion threatened to kill Zelensky if he adhered to the Minsk II agreement. No nazis in Russia are threatening or telling Putin what he can /can’t do. If you are being intellectually honest you will agree that the far right nazis in Ukraine have wielded an enormous amount of power through the military regardless of there being a Jewish leader. And BTW, Putin managed to make Zelensky popular. The country hated him at 28% approval until the invasion.
Okay, now I KNOW you didn’t read it. You’re funny.
I read 3/4 before dying of boredom.
Okay you tell me what it’s supposed to mean then. I just looked again, I’m still getting the same impression. Russia bad, Ukraine good, Nazis are bad in Russia blah blah blah.
What I posted was not from your article but the history. Which you are resistant to.
“Negotiations,” ie Ukrainian and Western concession to, and recognition, of reality, will occur when Washington says so, and not sooner.
As I see it, the Establishment is currently divided, with the Pentagon, and the traditional continental European NATO members, and now the NY Times, calling for sanity, while the State Dept, CIA, and the WaPo, and the UK, Canada and the “front line” NATO states, remain in the illusory, “Russia is losing and will be defeated” camp. With the White House, up to and including Biden himself, still favoring the second camp.
If and when the balance tips in Washington, and the White House (which, along with the State Dept and the CIA, pretty much ginned up this war, in concert with the Ukranian neo nazis), changes its tune, then, and only then, will negotiations will be held in earnest. Zelensky will either take the deal, or it will be made over his head. Possibly, Zelensky will lose his head either way.
I saw the NYT editorial as a shocked re-think of what they have gotten us into. Sudden realization.
Far too late.
So if the war will end only through negotiations why is Zelensky throwing more and more of his men into the death chamber of cannon fodder?
I’m thinking they are looking for an assassination opportunity? “At the highest levels”.
Maybe they’re trying to prevent more rape and murder? Just a guess. https://www.npr.org/2022/04/30/1093339262/ukraine-russia-rape-war-crimes
I do not watch or support the Democrat mouth piece NPR that rapes American taxpayers to exist only to parrot the Democrat lies.
You’ll find similar stories on a dozen other sites, pick one.
So we have a choice of propaganda outlets, how nice. You do know that the US admitted to putting out bad intel to mess with Putin’s head, right? That’s called disinformation and the Russians don’t corner the market on it. In fact the US is a leader in that. “WMDs in Iraq, We’re winning the war in Afghanistan”…the list goes on and on.
There are actual humanitarian organizations confirming this, but just news outlets. But I guess they’re all making it up too?
Depends on who they interview would be my guess.
I’m sure there are war crimes. And likely war crimes all around.
Mariupol—Civilians denounce the crimes of the fighters of the neo-nazi Azov Regiment
https://mronline.org/2022/03/28/mariupol-civilians-denounce-the-crimes-of-the-fighters-of-the-neo-nazi-azov-regiment/
So we have a choice of propaganda outlets, how nice. You do know that the US admitted to putting out bad intel to mess with Putin’s head, right? That’s called disinformation and the Russians don’t corner the market on it. In fact the US is a leader in that. “WMDs in Iraq, We’re winning the war in Afghanistan”…the list goes on and on.
The Nazis say the Russians are rapists, the Russians say the Nazis are rapists. This isn’t very original, it is WWII war propaganda revived.
So you don’t think women were raped in WWII and it was just propaganda? Very progressive of you.
Hawks and doves in the Ukrainian government? Normal.
More like, What drugs are they on? “Negotiations will begin when all Russian troops have evacuated.!?” Is it possible the Ukies think the Russians will leave without any agreements being reached… Don’t they have any realistic diplomats or leaders besides their comedian president? I guess they think everything is a joke as their country is being castrated??? Being tough takes much more than talking tough. I guess it is why Biden and the Clown President get on so well. Both of them think that talking tough will convince your enemies you must be tough to talk so tough. The problem with that thinking is it has a way of tempting them to find how tough the talker actually is by calling their bravado. In this case not even a paper tiger, buy a shadow tiger. Only works on those afraid of shadows. And one could conclude that this whole war is a result of them not taking the Russians, their concerns, and their military seriously.
No drugs other than the euphoria elites get fighting wars with others’ blood and treasure.
Full Russian retreat from the northern front, partial Russian rollback on the eastern front (Kharkiv) and full Russian expulsion from Mykolaiv on the southern front, has greatly emboldened Kiev and the neocons.
They think the Russians will be broken in the Donbass. Win or lose a second Ukrainian army trained on newer NATO weapons will be ready in a few months to take on an exhausted Russian force.
Now that the Ukronazi troops are defeated, what makes you think Washington will be any more successful with regular people type non-fanatic conscripts than it was in Iraq or Afghanistan, … especially when winter comes?
TBH, I’m not convinced the new Ukrainian forces will be ready for anything but photo ops with their newer equipment.
However, there are still plenty of fanatical Western-trained Ukrainian neo-Nazis around to um, guide them.
They weren’t all at Azovstal nor is Azov the only neo-Nazi formation in the Ukrainian security forces.
Maybe they’ll learn more neo-Nazi-ing from the Russians! https://twitter.com/aquadreamr/status/1528464219829686272
Neo-Nazism in Russia emerged in the 1990s, around the same time NATO Deep intel forces gained influence over Russian society.
They now seem ultimately linked to the anti-Putin Atlanticist Europhile faction of Russian elite politics.
Its doubtful the Ukrainian sect could or would want to learn anything from the Russian sect. They are more likely to want to kill each other over issues of ethnocentrism and degrees of white purity given any chance to do so.
National socialism tends to emphasize the ‘national’ bit too much which rules out getting along for very long.
WEF Globalist Socialism does far better at fostering pan-Nazism, subverting cues for national identity fervor into global identity fervor and removing some of the more overtly racist cues.
Awww, now who’s moving goalposts?!
You should stick to commenting over at Breitbart. Your Putin worship must be a hit there
As a libertarian I can’t ‘worship’ any political leader including Putin. He’s is, or was, a pretty good foreign and world statesman.
… Your precise post:
“Maybe they’ll [Ukronazis] learn more neo-Nazi-ing from the Russians!”
Its followed by a blank; was there an inappropriate link there as well?
The question of where Russian neo-Nazism comes from and how Nazism has evolved in modern geopolitics is completely relevant to any question of whether Russian and Ukrainian Nazis could get along.
Globalist Socialism is pan-Nazism. National Nazisms would always be fatally divided by toxic nationalism whatever their idiotlogical commitment to a shared brand socialism.
Putin seems to be the only world leader calling out neo-Nazism.
You seem to have leader worship tendencies, apparent in your fear of ‘Putin worship’. Who is your ‘Great Leader’ that you would prefer everyone worship?
Yes. Russia is a paradise of diversity and tolerance lol.
https://hir.harvard.edu/white-nationalism-in-the-united-states-and-russia-transnational-ties-domestic-impact/
White nationalism is a Europe First thing and leading soft-power export to any nation with a susceptible white population.
Russia is no different, and white nationalists consider Putin’s Russia to be ‘anti-white’.
Same old story, Putin is evil, especially to the genuinely evil, and they’ll play any angle to get rid of the old guy.
That has nothing to do with whether there are Nazis in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian “government” (actually, a coalition of crooks and oligarchs, no “better” than Russia’s) has no intention of “ending” the war, because when it ends the money train from the west stops. A good share of the “support” being shoveled in hand over fist by the fools in the USA and EU is being siphoned off by these parasites. That the Ukrainian people, and their infrastructure, are paying the price means nothing to these charlatans. They have no intention of “living” in post war Ukraine; they’ll take their stolen billions and move to Switzerland.
I’m not so sure about Ukrainian oligarchs. They are not ideologues, their nation is their pocket book. When their factories are destroyed in Ukraine, they can’t make any money. Since independence, these oligarchs have been pretty pragmatic, changing their support from party to another, depending on who they think has a better chance of winning. They are probably willing to support Russia if there is something in it for them.
I’m not sure “siphoned” is the right word. I’d say “cut”.
Too, too bad that ZelBoy and his handlers (Amerikkka and NATO) didn’t think of this prior to the war. Putin’s demands were reasonable but Amerikkka was determined to get their proxy war with Russia at any price.
Further NATO expansion ain’t about to happen per Turkiye.
Putin will get what he requested in the first place; otherwise, no quarter. The fact that ZelBoy is calling to end the war seems indicative that things aren’t going so well on his side.
Russia will decide when it ends and no one else.
That’s true.
The choice Putin has is whether to accept that Crimea/Donbas will remain “frozen conflicts” in perpetuity, or whether he abandons them to the Ukrainians. The latter is probably not on the table.
Frozen conflicts mean in the case of Donbas a growing guerrilla resistance that will require a permanent active Russian occupation. Armies of occupation find it hard to make friends and easy to make enemies. Where the indigenous resistance has popular support repressing the resistance movement strengthens the resistance. Eventually the occupiers leave. Donbas is not Crimea. Over 60% of population of Donbas are ethnic Ukrainians. In the end the Russian mothers will demand an end to the war, like they did in Afghanistan.
That is the US/Ukraine hope. It is their idea of a win.
The Russians have their own ideas of a win.
Its surprising there are Russian POWs on the Ukraine side to be exchanged.
The early war was marred by apparent competition between ‘elite’ Ukrainian units to see who was baddest on Russians prisoners.
Enough torture/execution videos were made, to leak from the dark web into regular internet circulation before being to candid with the camera was reigned in.
https://southfront.org/shocking-evidence-of-ukrainian-regimes-essence-video-21/ (Ukn War crimes)
Weren’t you just suggesting I was posting “atrocity porn” by linking a video of a Russian soldier espousing white nationalism?! This is rich. Pot, meet kettle.
So that’s what that was? No wonder the link didn’t show. Propagandizing for Nazism isn’t going to fly here.
Nearly everyone in the world following NATO’s Ukraine War has seen the video I linked to, and a description of content preceded the link, unlike yours, which only implied something really bad.
So this Russian soldier espousing white nationalism – was he a POW or speaking freely for himself?
So that’s what that was? No wonder the link didn’t show. Propagandizing for Nazism isn’t going to fly here.
Nearly everyone in the world following NATO’s Ukraine War has seen the video I linked to, and a description of content preceded the link, unlike yours, which only implied something really bad.
So this Russian soldier espousing white nationalism – was he a POW or speaking freely for himself?
Yes, Russian propaganda is the only kind allowed here!! But if you’d bothered reading my earlier response, you’d have seen the entire text. And he was speaking very freely.
Or do you honestly believe there are no white nationalists in Russia?
It would not be surprising at all to find some Russian soldiers to be white supremacists.
The movement dropped the tainted word ‘supremacism’ to the more polite word ‘nationalism’ back in the late 1980s or 1990s, but the essential definition remains the same.
Neo-Nazism was rife in Russian fringe culture during the hard years of the 1990s through the early millennium.
The hook was white supremacism, with the inferiority of the Slavic breed omitted. Traditional Western European/American white supremacism, had no use for slavs.
Putin quashed Russian neo-Nazis and white supremacism and tried to rehabilitate lost youth through more positive nationalist programs.
This has led to Putin at once being denounced by white nationalists as being anti-white, and Russophobes as being a Nazi enabler.
The latter point has been especially played up to try and debunk the Russian denazification rationale for intervening Ukraine.
The argument that Russia has Nazis so Russia can’t denazify Ukraine is as superficial and hollow as the argument that Ukraine doesn’t have a Nazi problem because they elected President Zelenski.
The facts are that Russia has run a very successful denazification program, and its been tough for their sponsors to cash in on them. Ukraine fell to neo-Nazism.
A recent attempt to foster Nazi terrorism from Ukraine was thwarted by the Russian FSB.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/russia-arrests-16-neo-nazi-24007848
Nazism has no natural roots in Russia to succeed as a populist force.
Unfortunately racism, will always exist at a low level in Russia as it does everywhere else in the world.
Ukraine and NATO chose to re-empower neo-Nazism and everything it stands for, though. Russia and Putin didn’t do that.
My full reply is with the censor, but Russia has the same legacy racism of old Europe. Of course there will be white nationalist Russians.
The term ‘white nationalism’, though, is from Western European/American racist lore, not Russian.
‘White supremacism’ had too much baggage so the term ‘white nationalism’ was popularized in the late 1980s or 1990s, especially by Kevin Alfred Strom.
Putin ran a very effective denazification program in Russia to deal with the ideological incursion.
Hey Vlod, Russia is never leaving. Your “country” will be destroyed and dissected and there’s no leather pants dance you can do to change that.
Washington is calling the shots here, not Zelensky, not Podolyak, not Rudenko
Calling it a ‘war’ is probably not a great place to start with a ‘negotiation’….
I think “war” is realistic.
The “only way” is that “we win” is not realistic. Zelinsky is dreaming on this.
The “war” started in 2014. The special operation just took the war into another phase.
Zelinsky hopes for this. It is his best case now.
Actually, Russia sees those people as Nazis and war criminals, and is likely to treat them as such.
Worse, Russia is being left with no off ramp but total destruction of Ukraine. So they will. They can. Left no choice, it is the only outcome.
Hence the talk of Putin’s death or regime change. Well, that is in fact talk of nuclear war, without saying the words.
What’s there to talk about? These Ukies stonewalled for 8 years already. Now Russia can take what it will.
LB:
At some point an effort at some kind of diplomacy must resume, don’t you think?
Is unconditional surrender considered diplomacy?
LB:
You are feisty! lol
I’m sure Western spin masters will be able to spin an “unconditional surrender” into a “resounding victory for Ukraine.”
The problem still remains how is Russia going to make RestUkraine accept neutrality and disarmament without returning any territory? Returning territory would like result in a massacre of Russian speakers.
Threat of future devastating attacks. Ukraine’s word means nothing anyways.
Watch this debate between Walt and Mearsheimer and McFaul and Sikorski.
I tried to watch it, but knowing the role Sikorski played in the Maidan coup, the mere sight of the man makes me physically sick.
Sikorski is also married to Ann Applebaum.
From what I can tell, Ukraine will never acknowledge that Crimea and the Donbass are no longer Ukraine. Russia knows that this is not something that can be negotiated. So, they are defining the next meaningful round of negotiations “on the ground.”
When Ukraine and Russia are ready for “meaningful” discussions, the only topic will be Ukraine’s neutrality. Russia knows that NATO wants to bankrupt Russia by prolonging a war of attrition as long as possible. NATO must at least suspect that Russia can stop that game on the ground in western Ukraine just as effectively as it is now stopping the game in eastern Ukraine. Both sides have incentive to negotiate. I can’t see how any of Zelensky’s opinions will matter to either side. But, he still has the power to serve the interests of Ukraine at the negotiating table. Accepting neutrality is a small price to pay if the alternative is turning Kiev into the next Mariupol.
As we don’t write in Українська або руазька мова & Chas Freeman (see Antiwar blog) “explains how today’s misinformation maelstrom surrounding the media and politicians’ portrayal of the Ukraine-Russian war is “the most intense information war humanity has ever seen,” with Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro, how can anyone complain about what you can tell? You are trying your best as many others.
Nato has known all along that Ukraine cannot win the war against Russia. The West still used Ukraine to trigger the war in order to weaken Russia. The West is full of hubris. Western leaders still believe that they can make the “international community” isolate Russia economically. They are still not quite coming to grips with the fact that the economic war will hurt Europe more than Russia. Russia will come out of this stronger. The West has fallen into the trap it set for Russia in Ukraine.
Even if Western leaders start to see that their game is up, they can’t make a U-turn for fear of their lies being revealed. So, they have no choice but to keep on lying and sleepwalks into their own demise.
The Ukrainian people got trapped in a bait-and-switch. They are not ‘Ukies’ and Russian conscripts are not ‘orcs’. The EU is in no hurry to accept them. Its Ukrainian & Slavic infrastructure that is currently being destroyed. The LPR & DPR was a portion of two oblasts. Today :”Zelensky Promises Reciprocal Rights for Poles in Ukraine”. What if the headline of 2014, Maiden was ” Poroshenko Promises Reciprocal Rights for Russian Speakers in Ukraine”. I am antiwar in a time of war as I was for the OSCE when escalationIsts would not observe the line-of-control with a precious ceasefire.
Hey look, more news AW isn’t covering! https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/23/warmongering-lies-and-hatred-russian-diplomat-in-geneva-resigns-over-ukraine-invasion
“A veteran Russian diplomat in Geneva has resigned over his country’s invasion of Ukraine in a rare political protest from within the Russian foreign policy establishment.
Boris Bondarev, a counsellor at the Russian permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva, wrote in a public statement: ‘Never have I been so ashamed of my country.’ …
‘The decision was very simple,’ said Bondarev. “When you see that your country is doing the worst things and being a civil servant you’re somehow related to that, it’s your decision just to terminate your connection with the government. We all must be responsible. And I don’t want to have any responsibility for what I don’t approve of.”
It’s a bit anarchistic, isn’t it?
Our news writers tend to post in the afternoons and evenings, so it may just be that the site “isn’t covering” it YET.
I mean, this site has a pretty strong tendency to ignore any stories or viewpoints that reflect negatively on Russia … so I won’t hold my breath.
I support the policy of afternoon and evening updates. So much fake news out there it allows some time to check the validity of it.
He wrote it himself in a public statement. Not too hard to fact-check.
Verifying his position etc, looking into his stature in Russia and asking him if he still supports his own comments is important. It’s called fact-checking.
Verifying his position etc, looking into his stature in Russia and asking him if he still supports his own comments is important. It’s called fact-checking.
I apologize. I thought we were talking about the real site, not the site in your imagination.
I’ve seen like two ever that were even neutral, and even those ended up with tons of angry comments from people outraged you would even publish it.
In other news, I’m not surprised that your own comments here are about as “professional” as this site.
It’s interesting how Western/Ukrainian sources say the opposite of what they mean:
Zelensky suggests that the Russians might harm Ukrainian POWs while knowing full well that the Azov Nazis have tortured and killed Russian POWs.
Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said that the Russians would use any negotiated peace to rearm and attack Ukraine later while knowing full well that the West has asked for a ceasefire to rearm Ukraine with Nato weapons so as to prolonge the war.
Boris Johnson urged Ukraine to keep on fighting and avoid any settlement that could “give credence to the Kremlin’s false narrative” while knowing full well that once the fighting stop the West’s preposterous lies will be revealed.
Westerners are world champions at lying, but they aren’t very good when it comes to winning wars.
A complete surrender normally provides the basis for “negotiations.” That’s because Ukraine is losing badly and at risk of losing thousands of citizens to their own mortar shelling and the VSU being decimated for refusing to surrender.
Ukraine can’t supply enough seasoned and motivated citizens as fodder nor supply them with weapons training and food that can thwart Russia’s ability to destroy both at what I would term, blinding speed, by comparison.
The EU and US interests center around expropriating property through these lend lease agreements in return for supplying defective weapons, knowing full well who the victor will be (Russia).
Reminds me of the Confederacy near the end of the Civil War: troops consisting of old men and little boys.
ZelBoy is preventing any men up to the age of SIXTY from evacuating.