Sergey Shoigu, the head of Russia’s Security Council, warned Tuesday that the longer the war in Ukraine goes on, the higher the cost will be for Ukraine to achieve peace.
“Each day it waits to make this decision [to settle the conflict] results in the loss of control over another part of the territories that Ukrainians claim to be theirs and, most importantly, the loss of thousands of lives,” Shoigu said, according to Tass.
In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a public peace offer for a deal that would require Ukraine to be neutral, the lifting of Western sanctions, and Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the four regions annexed by Moscow: Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.
At the time, Putin warned if Ukraine rejected the proposal, the terms would change. Kyiv quickly rejected the offer, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has stuck to the demands of his “peace formula,” which requires Russia to withdraw from all the territory it has captured.
Zelensky previously ruled out peace talks with Moscow but appears to have softened his stance, as he has said Russia should attend the next international summit on the war that he’s planning to organize. The Kremlin has said it’s open to talks, but no concrete plans have been set.
Shoigu said Ukrainian leadership’s illusions “that the Europeans will hold another grand peace summit for Ukraine, where all its domestic problems will be miraculously resolved, are costing the Ukrainian people dearly.”
Shoigu added, “Ukraine’s window of opportunity is closing. The choice is up to the Ukrainian people.”
Throughout the war, the only time a real peace deal was on the table was back in March and April of 2022. But the US and NATO discouraged Ukraine from signing an agreement and promised to support its fight against Russia.
Of course U.S. would like to have this war as long as possible and as bloody as possibly. Still it is important to understand why Ukraine follows Americans so blindly and why the far-right ideas are so welcome in western Ukraine. The brainwashing does work but it is not just that. It is also caused by epic failure of communist regime in USSR. People not only in western Ukraine but also in all USSR by the end of 1980th became pro-western because by the time it was too obvious that the life in The West is much better than in USSR. The lies of the communist elites and the mismanagement of the economy was too awful. Then a lot of people started to think that the copying of the western political model will solve all their problems. It explains why the public opinion was so tolerant to criminal privatization of the national wealth in early 1990th and why the pro-western oligarchy system was so easily installed. Once it was installed and the country got under full control of pro-western oligarchs and western secret services, it wasn't difficult to set west-Ukrainians against Russians and start a civil war.
Actually, THIS is why Ukrainians wanted the "Western political model":
https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2024/03/19/ranked-the-20-happiest-countries-in-the-world-in-2024/
It does not seem to have to do much with the Western political model or it must be that there has to be a sufficient amount of socialism baked into the system, if we look at the persisent winners of that competition.
For Ukraine that pretty much spells doom. Also the defending the democracy thing seems to show a pretty weak correlation with this new overarching goal. Although, in 2014 with the overthrow of the democratically elected Yanukovich government, the Ukrainians experienced a nosedive in their overall happiness. They went to 132th out of 155 in 2017 from an already quite miserable 111th of 158 in 2015, first year of publication. Then in all honesty they did become much happier, the climbed back all the way 110th out 149 in 2021. And now from 2022 onward you'd expect them to rise that ladder with breakneck speed as they become really Western, free and democratic as we are told, on the verge of holding victory parades in Crimea. Well, indeed, 92th of 137 in 2023. The mood is definetely in upswing. Then alas a little disappointment as a result of the festivities having to be postponed a bit, 105th of 143 in 2024. But yes, the Ukrainians are definitely getting happier. You'd almost wish Madeleine Albright were still here to assure the Ukrainians that it's worth it.
European Western democracies have a lot of socialism built in and, yes, that does factor into their happiness. That was what the Ukrainians were looking for when they began the Maiden protests. After Yanukovich used his secret police to violently put down those same protests, the crowds made him flee to Russia — which meant he abdicated his office.
If/when the Ukrainians win a victory and restore their country, thy will move toward greater happiness.
Your credulity regarding Zelensky's make-believe about being interested in peace is startling.
First, he has no autonomy in this–and do you honestly believe the US is going to let go of its proxy war while it can still bleed Russia at least a little? Second, Zelensky's essential function for the last several years has been to sell his countrymen to the United States as its disposable mercenary army. Why would you think that will stop? Third, the sole purpose of his prating here is to keep the US proxy war in Ukraine as quiet as possible through the US election.
The US security state loves the idea of the war stalling out with a rough DMZ from behind which Ukraine's neo-Nazis can continue to launch terror attacks against civilians, and military and terror attacks against such as Crimea, leaving Russia to either try to take and hold the entirety of Ukraine (probably impossible and in any case with its own attendant, massive problems), or to settle for the plague of an endless guerilla war.
Knowing the U.S. as you do, when it sees those two main paths ahead, do you really think it's going to suddenly allow its puppet to begin groping after peace?