On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the “necessary conditions” for peace talks with Ukraine could arise and acknowledged Kyiv was not ready for negotiations at this time.
“We reached an agreement with them in Istanbul, but they’ve thrown all of that into the bin,” Putin said at a press conference in Sochi, according to Newsweek, referring to peace talks that were held in Istanbul at the end of March. “And now they’re refusing to discuss anything with us.”
In response to Russia’s annexation of the territory it controls in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree ruling out peace talks with Russia as long as Putin is president. The US has ruled out the idea of pushing Ukraine to the negotiating table and says it’s up to Zelensky when talks will begin.
Putin said Russia is willing to wait until talks can happen. “How can we talk about possible agreements if the other side has no desire to even talk to us? Well, we can wait,” he said. “Maybe some necessary conditions will eventually arise; we have made our good will known.”
While the US and Ukraine have rejected the idea of diplomacy, over the past month, Russian officials have repeatedly stated that they’re open to talks. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said over the weekend that Moscow is “always ready to listen to our Western colleagues if they make another request to organize a conversation.”
Dan Rice, an American serving as an advisor to the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, recently said that he believes Russia is trying to force negotiations to the “2014 lines,” the positions before the February 24th invasion. But Rice said Ukraine doesn’t want that, and Ukrainian officials have made clear they want to expel Russia from Crimea, which Moscow has controlled since 2014.
Talking is better than not talking… I hope that the necessary conditions arise to make that happen, though Crimea could be the sticky wicket… My concern is that possibilities may continue to deteriorate. It’s always better for nuclear countries to keep the phone lines open, as well as the path to peace…
As far as I am aware, the lines have been open on the Russian side since two months prior to the invasion near Kiev.
Open but Russian demands are the same and won’t change.
When one side seems aggressive and unfair in the demands they make, it is always worth looking at the broader context of what motivates them, as it is often because the apparent aggressor themselves feel victimized, which is why diplomacy is needed to avoid unnecessary conflict & find mutually acceptable outcomes.
Russia’s demand that Ukraine not join a hostile alliance against them might seem unreasonable towards Ukraine, but in the context of NATO & the West’s many aggressive wars and unambiguous history of hostility to Russia, it is unsurprising that the demand was made.
It is worth noting that Ukraine itself joined in the US led war against Iraq of 2003. This was based upon the claim that Iraq posed a threat to other countries, and thus was analogous to Russia’s demands for Ukraine’s neutrality.
There will be no talking. Many more Ukraine citizens and soldiers to be killed, and, much more $$$ to be made by the MIC.
At least, not before the elections.
“Maybe some necessary conditions will eventually arise” in the middle of the winter, after all Ukrainian electricity generation is switched off.
Despite the lip service, nobody in Washington even cares what Zelensky thinks… and he knows it. The only thing he can do is throw a wrench int the works.
Kyev is on life support. Without western aid, Zelensky cannot put an army in the field or pay to keep the lights on even when the grid is working. A third of the population has moved to other countries. Those who remain are weighing the cost of staying without basic services against the cost of moving.
Although the grain deal seems to have been resuscitated, Russia is gradually increasing the cost that western taxpayers will have to pay to keep the government of Ukraine from collapsing, and some of those taxpayers are already disgusted with their own governments over the self-inflicted economic contraction that is already present in Europe and just around the corner in the US.
Ukraine costs dear to NATO. Particular to European members. American strategists made a big miscalculation investing in Ukraine as into anti-Russian project. It only pushed Russia closer to China. Besides, the reunification of Donbass and Crimea with Russia, made Russia stronger than it was before 2014.
Zelansky signs a decree. Gotta love the interpretation of Ukrainian democracy. Western leaders are clearly envious.
Democracy ended in Ukraine when the government was violently overthrown with the obvious support of the US. It is forbidden to say that Crimea and the Donbass seceded at that instant of their own accord. But that IS what happened. Russia played the role of a facilitator, not an instigator.
One of these days, Zelensky is going to realize that, in addition to losing the hearts and minds of Crimea and the Donbass, almost a third of the remaining population has fled to other countries. The longer this goes on, the less likely it becomes that they will come back.
This is a case of who is the bigger idiot or fool,Zelensky or Biden. I figure it is a tie.
Putin better hurries up and present a peace plan acceptable to Ukraine.
His fresh troops are starting mass mutinies.
https://youtu.be/M61owWbbgWs
Rupert Murdoch? Bwahahahahahaha.
I guess trolling stretches the war a slight bit? Of course it makes the warmongers look even more dumber afterwards but that’s never stopped the next one.
Then the ‘More Dumber’ part makes you a warmonger.
You need some AI.
the fact that Ukraine think’s they’re ever ever getting Crimea back shows just how delusional they are.
Not a chance. Ukraine might secretly wish it could get a re-do of the start of this war. Russia went big instead of just fighting alongside separatists because Ukraine had wrecked the hopes for Minsk 2, and the EU abandoned it.
Now they don’t have the option to just go back to what they lost when they decided on confrontation instead.
“Dan Rice, an American serving as an advisor to the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, recently said that he believes Russia is trying to force negotiations to the “2014 lines,” the positions before the February 24th invasion.”
Yes, that would be their original offer. But original offers usually don’t stay on the table long. Especially if you can’t get anyone to sit down at the table with you. Plus, original offers can generally be negotiated down but again, you need someone on the other side of the table to be sitting down with you. So, whatever he knows about the “2014 lines” he didn’t learn about it at the negotiating table.
“Dan Rice, an American serving as an advisor to the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces”
Why is an American advising the Ukrainian military? Of course, we know that this is a proxy war started by senile angry Joey Biden and his shadow government of unelected NEOCON warmongers!
“Why is an American advising the Ukrainian military?”
Presumably for the same reason a Prussian (Baron von Steuben) and a Frenchman (Marquis de Lafayette) advised the US military. Some people go to other countries because war is what they do.
That was sarcasm!
“From each according to his ability”.
As far as I am concerned all of the deaths and refugees plus the crippling of Ukraine is on Biden and his warmongering cabinet and the MIC ,gullible press.
This is going to get grim this winter and when there’s been enough death and suffering it’ll end, hopefully in a nonnuclear fashion. And it’s “they’re open to talks”. The apocalypse can at least have proper spelling. …… OK, that’s better. At last I’ve made a difference.
But Putin is a bad man right? Biden is a good man right?