Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has conceded that Ukraine does not have the ability to drive Russian forces out of the territory Russia has captured since the 2022 invasion, as well as Crimea, which Russia has controlled since 2014.
“We cannot give up our territories. The Ukrainian constitution forbids us to do so. De facto, these territories are now controlled by the Russians. We do not have the strength to recover them,” Zelensky told the French newspaper Le Parisien.
“We can only count on diplomatic pressure from the international community to force Putin to sit down at the negotiating table,” the Ukrainian leader added.
Zelensky has long maintained that his war goals include driving Russian troops out of Russian-controlled Ukraine, which includes about 80% of the eastern Donbas region and parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. A “peace formula” pushed by Zelensky called for a full Russian withdrawal before peace talks could even happen.
A potential peace deal that was on the table in March and April of 2022 would have involved a Russian withdrawal from the territory it had captured following the invasion in exchange for Ukrainian neutrality. But the deal was discouraged by the US and its allies and fell apart. Later that year, Moscow formally annexed Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, and it now considers all of the oblasts, even the Ukrainian-controlled areas, a part of Russia.
Back in June, Russian President Vladimir Putin laid out Moscow’s conditions for peace, which included a Ukrainian withdrawal from the oblasts he considers part of Russia.
Then why keep killing young Ukrainians and Russians in a senseless meat grinder getting nowhere. Negotiate now before Trump makes you negotiate. Might get to have EU and US troops in a post war agreement.
We ought collect the peace without the EU, NATO, or US "pecaekeepers."
That only sounds like more escalation.
But Ukraine ought be in the EU, only, not NATO.
Anything else is rank hypocrisy.
And yet, only "if they clean up their act" and stop being a laundry room for we$tern weapon$ mfr'$.
My view: Ukraine AND Russia in the EU.
Ukraine in EU? No way. There are ukrainian Nazis, and they have influence; and statues, street names and memorials of several Nazis of the past are all over the country; and according to the Law On the legal status and commemoration of the fighters for the independence of Ukraine in the 20th century it is forbidden to insult them:
Article 6. Liability for Violation of Legislation on the Status of Fighters for the Independence of Ukraine in the 20th Century
1. Citizens of Ukraine, foreigners, and stateless persons who publicly show contempt for the persons specified in Article 1 of this Law, impede the exercise of the rights of fighters for the independence of Ukraine in the 20th century, shall be liable in accordance with the legislation.
2. Public denial of the legitimacy of the struggle for the independence of Ukraine in the 20th century, as well as the presence in public space of the names of objects of toponymy of settlements, as well as monuments and memorial signs dedicated to persons associated with the persecution of participants in the struggle for the independence of Ukraine in the 20th century, is recognized as an insult to the memory of fighters for the independence of Ukraine in the 20th century, a humiliation of the dignity of the Ukrainian people and is unlawful.
And there is more. As long as that state of affairs persists, I am against Ukraine in the EU. First change.
How about Russia? Haven't thought about that.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GXE_n2q08Yw
The crooked dictator says something different each week.
The world would face a world war before Russia gives up its rightfully taken territory.
Z often speak in favor of that world war.
The man is only showing how thick his skull is, that he's taken this long to overcome a brain fart.
That is an admission of "we have lost". It will be no NATO vs. (perhaps) polls in the occupied zones. What else can you extract from Putin?
Also: there must be general elections in Ukraine to know how much support you still have for continuing this slaughter.
What "diplomatic pressure" is the man talking about? There are no diplomats in the West – at all – and there are none outside the West inclined to diplomatically 'force' Russia to abide by Zelensky's demands.
Also on the Ukrainian side there is no one to negotiate with and nothing to negotiate about. Zelensky is not, or not acknowledged as, the legitimate president of Ukraine and if he was he is forbidden by Ukrainian law that he signed into existence to talk to Russia anyway. If Ukrainian law is just to be abided arbitrarily by Zelensky then why not the Ukrainian consitution? Is the Universe constructed in such a way as to relegate this to the realm of the impossible?
Russia has by now iterated countless times that they will not accept anything other than a solution to the conflict, not a freezing of it. One could be pardoned for thinking they actually mean it. And it looks to me like the choice for Ukraine is to be either part of that solution or not be part of anything at all. If up to Zelensky most likely the latter.
Zelensky is a creature of NeoConNazi Washington. The war was never with Ukraine, or NATO, but NeoConNazi Washington, the great practioner of the Straussian Noble Lie, and so their diplomacy is always (as has been abundantly demonstrated) a fraud. Russia needs to adopt, therefore, the appropriate counter-posture. And it will not end until the NeoConNazis are routed.
Ukraine is losing. The loss of ground is slow, but it is still losing. When you are losing, a cease fire in place makes sense.
Zelensky is intentionally genociding his fellow Ukrainians.
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2024/12/nima-and-me.html#disqus_thread
The Europeans and Americans are top-level propaganda artists as guest Andrei Martyanov opines.
When Russia launches Oreshnik missile strikes against critical, non-military targets throughout NATO member countries, the European press will attribute the damage to active earthquake fault lines.
As in America, anything is possible in Europe.