Addressing the leaders of the G7 countries, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has once again said that now is not the time for negotiations with Russia. In his words, Ukraine needs to take a stronger position if it wants to hold such talks.
It is a little reminiscent of the behaviour of a card player who is at a deficit and is desperately trying to win back. He puts his watch, cufflinks, tie, shirt on the line, but still loses everything. What is Mr. Zelenski putting at stake? New and new thousands of human lives, burdens and deprivations of millions of Ukrainian families. And how could it be otherwise if his ‘experts’ such as Oleksiy Arestovich regularly insinuate that a turning point on the fronts is near? In April they promised a breakthrough by June, now they promise by August. As a result, it is always about two months before a breakthrough occurs. In a legendary Moscow liquor store there was always an announcement: “Tomorrow beer is free”. It was roughly the same with the general Ukrainian counter-offensive.
However, the logic itself – “we will only negotiate in a strong position” – is rather vulnerable. The party in a weaker position will tend to postpone negotiations until better (for itself) times? And it is not certain that a stronger position would encourage Ukraine to negotiate. On the contrary, it would want to build on its success, seize Donbass and get to the coveted Crimea. After all, Russia, too, will not stop now that the process of liberating Donbass has noticeably accelerated.
However, we can use the terms “Zelensky said” or “Zelensky thinks” only in a very conventional sense. The communication between the Ukrainian president and the lords of the West is based on a peculiar looped scheme. Zelensky said what he was told to say only to be told something else in return – something that was also expected and agreed in advance. Such a puppet show – but it is not for nothing that regimes like Kiev’s have been called puppet regimes since time immemorial.
Since there are not divisions among the puppeteers, but certain interest clubs, we can assume that Zelensky’s refusal to negotiate reflects, above all, the viewpoint of Britain. Apparently, Germany, France and Italy, which form the core of continental Europe, are ready to negotiate tomorrow, and on terms of what they consider to be significant concessions in favour of Russia.
The British, on the other hand, have bigger ambitions. From London the situation is seen as follows: if hostilities have started, it is necessary to use the opportunity and beat Russia to the end with the Ukrainians, and when they run out – the Poles, Lithuanians, Romanians and other peoples of little value to London. The Rosenberg plan, Churchill’s Unthinkable plan and all the other Russophobic plans and projects can all be implemented at once. Thus, Britain’s aim is to turn a local conflict into a pan-European, if not a world war.
And what about the US, the highest link in the Western food chain? The US is acting as an arbiter. On the one hand they do not deny negotiations and express an interest in the conflict being resolved in the foreseeable future, but on the other they relentlessly supply more and more weapons to Ukraine, contributing to a prolongation of hostilities.
It is clear that from Washington the picture is much bigger than from London or Berlin. If, say, Johnson is driven only by personal complexities and phantom ambitions of the former empire, the world hegemon must consider the totality of his interests on different flanks. Ultimately, therefore, the choice between negotiations and a major war will be based on US interests.
The entire NATO summit was busy persuading Ukraine to stand to the last man, and even the Spanish prime minister shouted the trademark “No pasaran! However, the further it goes on, the more it seems that Ukraine’s fate, however it turns out in the end, is a bygone stage in the strategic planning of the collective West. Ukraine may disappear, it may persist, it may lose any territories, but it has been tasked to wear down Russia before some new, as yet unmarked round of confrontation. Today Ukraine is being cheered on as best it can, and tomorrow, when its mission is deemed accomplished, what is left of it will get a stingy European mercy. Perhaps school textbooks will even include a phrase about the merits of the Ukrainian people in defending Europe from “eastern barbarism”.
In this sense, peace talks could only be conducted with the US, and even the participation of their closest allies, let alone Kiev’s representatives, would be superfluous – they would only get in the way. And these talks could start at any moment – for example, whatever happens around Taiwan or on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. On the other hand, although Biden’s aide Sullivan has said it is not in Kiev’s interest to prolong the conflict, talks can be indefinitely postponed not in anticipation of a turning point on the fronts, but simply because NATO needs time to deploy new military units along the border with Russia.
So, we understand exactly who we need to talk to about Ukraine, but we are equally clear that no lasting and fundamental peace can be negotiated with that side right now. When they need a break, they will insist on it with the same vigour with which they are now chasing Ukrainians to the slaughter. And then the fate of “peace” will depend on which side can make the best use of such a respite.
Real peace could only be negotiated with the Ukrainian people. Only if the puppet government in Kiev is replaced by a nationally oriented one. I realise that this sounds completely unrealistic. But the success of our troops coupled with the moral decay of the Kiev regime could work wonders. Eventually, a paradoxical situation could emerge in which Russia would be able to make a better offer to the Ukrainian state than those countries that called themselves its “allies”. And then there may be people in Kiev with whom real honest negotiations can begin.
Igor Karaulov, VZGLYAD
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