On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the idea of a truce with Russia during the upcoming Paris Olympics, which will be held from July 26 to August 11.
French President Emmanuel Macron proposed a truce in a recent call with Zelensky. “Let’s be honest … Emmanuel, I don’t believe it,” Zelensky said he told the French president, according to AFP.
“Who can guarantee that Russia will not use this time to bring its forces to our territory?” he said. “We are against any truce that plays into the hands of the enemy.”
Zelensky rejected the idea of a truce as Russia is making gains in a new offensive it launched in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv oblast and elsewhere along the eastern front. He claimed that a truce would give Russia an “advantage” and said there would be a “risk that they will bring heavy equipment to our territory and no one will be able to stop them.”
However, a truce would also give Ukraine time to build up its defenses and for more Western weapons to be shipped to the country. Zelensky has blamed Russia’s success in Kharkiv on delays in military aid from the US, although soldiers say Ukraine failed to build proper defensive lines.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he discussed the idea of an Olympic truce with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He said he agreed with the principles of a truce and the Olympic games in general but then criticized Olympic authorities for not allowing Russian athletes to compete under their flag or use the Russian national anthem.
“The principles of Olympism, including the Olympic truce, are very much correct,” Putin said, according to the Russian news agency TASS. “However, the issue at hand is that international sports officials are breaching these principles today and violate the core nature of the Olympic Charter. They keep politicizing sports themselves and this is inadmissible.”
These people are all insane, petulant children.
It is us, not him. He is between a rock (Neo-NAZIs) and a hard place (U.S. of Atrocities). Twice, we scuttled peace. Twice. Now, Russia is pushed to the point of conducting nuclear war drills.
But he signed on and is a whiney baby.
A number of things will be changing by August, like maybe the end of Ukraine… the end of Israel by the Samson Option. The Olympics will be the least of our concerns.
Putin has announced truces for Russian Orthodox Christmas, ignored by Ukraine. In the beginning of the war to defend Donbass he ordered Russian troops to avoid hitting civilian buildings as much as possible, and even in some respects avoid hitting Ukrainian soldiers. But the Ukrainians always moved their artillery to the city streets so that when the artillery was shelled, they could show pictures and claim “Russia is hitting buildings.” (Which is what Ukraine did in shelling the city of Donetsk ever since 2014, and throughout this war, shelling it with U.S. artillery.)
The Russians hardly need a truce to move troops into Ukraine, Zelensky is full of B.S. He just wants an excuse for keeping up his act where the Russians cannot be talked to or treated like human beings.
As for the Kharkov region, Russia moved in there because Kiev’s spy chief Budanov has sent his favorite units to attack the Russian villages and has shelled the city of Belgorod, even just recently. The Russians take the villages from which the shelling has taken place. Not that the media will ever mention that.
To refuse to negotiate when you are obviously on the back foot is a sign you have been living in your delusions. Perhaps he thinks by being so obstinate, he will help drive his puppet protectors into the thick to fight his battle for him. It’s too bad he doesn’t see, cutting and running now would prevent “Putin’ s Euro ambitions” from getting any fancier.
It is not him. It is US. We want this. The MIC wants this. The donor class wants this.
“Who can guarantee that Russia will not use this time to bring its forces to our territory?” he said. “We are against any truce that plays into the hands of the enemy.”
Is Zelensky really that stupid? Does he think Ukraine is in a favorable position? And couldn’t he put an end to any truce that was being violated?
However, a truce would also give Ukraine time to build up its defenses and for more Western weapons to be shipped to the country. Zelensky has blamed Russia’s success in Kharkiv on delays in military aid from the US, although soldiers say Ukraine failed to build proper defensive lines.
See Volod, Dave gets it.
Anyone remember Misk I and II? Merkel let the cat out of the bag when she said there were delay acts to allow Kiev to re-arm.
Tomorrow, 21th of May, Zelensky is not anymore the Ukrainian President. He will be like any other Ukrainian citizen and his regime no longer is the legitimate representation of Ukraine. His regime will not be a party for the Russians to be able to negotiate with on anything.
By the way, Putin not only critized the politicization the Olympic games by the IOC but also the corruption of the Olympic principles or more general idealistic ideas of what sports competition should be about (the word ‘should’ indicates that this is not a factual, but a moral claim) through the very cynical prioritization of financial interests over all other: – “Everything is now built on earning money from sponsors, from big news companies for broadcasting. It’s a whole enterprise aimed at profiting from sports competitions. However, the principle of Olympism is about other values, it is about humanitarian principles.”
A UN investigation claims that there have been about 25 million border crossings out of Ukraine since the beginning of the war mostly into Poland. At the beginning of the war, Ukraine had about 44 million inhabitants. There are only 19 million left?
Every time someone leaves Ukraine, that’s a “border crossing out of Ukraine” whether they return or not.
But is it a net outflow or are all of these Ukrainians returning?
There are considerable numbers of Ukrainians who have left Ukraine since the start of the war who are content to stay abroad, if not forever, then at least until the war is done. No rush to defend Ukraine but a rush to get out of Ukraine has been the general and pronounced trend. Now people are dying in their efforts to leave. Ukraine has become like East Germany. Its border guards are shooting people trying to escape. What does that say about today’s Ukraine?
There’s certainly a net outflow. But that net outflow can’t be calculated from departures alone.
According the Russian SVR: “The level of support for Vladimir Zelensky has dropped to 17% and keeps decreasing. Over 70% of the public distrusts all Ukrainian media, while some 90% would like to leave the country [emphasis added],” the statement said. “Even among the troops, who are being subjected to constant ideological conditioning, Zelensky’s popularity stands below 20%.” See: https://www.rt.com/russia/597913-zelensky-approval-rating-svr/
Even if these numbers are not totally accurate they do limn the situation pretty well. Now with the new legal measures in place to “mobilize” men into the Ukrainian army, the desire to escape Ukraine has only increased. Ukraine has become a nightmare for its people.
How can you count them when they do not take the usual roads?
Quite a few young men are attempting to avoid conscription. Remember our lads heading the Canada?
I remember when Carter had the U.S. boycott the 1980 Olympics to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. That invasion was prompted by the U.S. arming the jihadists, hence creating Al-queda, then assisting them in invading the Soviet Union. Brzezinzki chortled about creating the Soviet Union’s Vietnam. Asked about the jihadists, he said so what aboaut a “few aggitated Arabs”. What goes around comes around. Ahead was 9/11, and, years in Afghanistan, killing hundreds of thousands of Afghan civilians, only to lose to the Taliban. The young men and women who prepared 4 years for that Olympic Game could not have been happy with Carter.
The Zelboy is right… Putin will turn Ukraine into a Landlocked State during the summer Olympics…!
Is there no one here who will rid me of this troublesome comedian?
i think that probably Russia has already completed exactly what they said they would do, which was to secure Crimea & Donbass and to eliminate all of the illegal bioweapon labs that uncle sam had set up in Ukraine. my guess is that Russia has no interest in taking over the rest of Ukraine against their will.