Washington believes that the confrontation in Ukraine will end not with a “decisive victory” for one of the parties on the battlefield, but through diplomacy.
This position was outlined at the briefing by the head of the press service of the State Department, Ned Price. According to him, Kyiv understands this, as allegedly evidenced by recent statements by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Zelensky said that this conflict would only end through dialogue and diplomacy… Ultimately, it should be a process between Ukraine and Russia… There will be no decisive victory on the battlefield,” Price said.
The State Department spokesman added that the billions of dollars that the United States has provided Ukraine recently is “security assistance” and Washington will continue to provide it. At the same time, the diplomat noted that neither the United States nor its allies are conducting any talks with Russia about possible peace agreements on Ukraine.
“I am sure that NATO and the EU would not separately interact with Russia in order to determine the future of Ukraine and how this conflict should end… We do not discuss with the Russian side what a peace agreement could look like, how in general terms could look like a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine,” he stressed.
Price also said that the US does not need to put pressure on Kyiv to push it towards a peaceful settlement.
“Ukrainians will determine who will be their representatives when and if the negotiating table materializes. They will determine who they are willing to talk to. So we will not make our contribution to this discussion”, explained the head of the press service of the State Department.
Warrior World
Meanwhile, the statements made earlier by representatives of the Ukrainian authorities do not give grounds to assume that they are in favor of a peaceful settlement, experts say. Thus, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic Dmitry Kuleba in a July interview with Forbes Ukraine noted that negotiations with Russia are possible only after its defeat.
“Let’s first change the situation at the front, and then we’ll talk. Everyone understands that negotiations are directly linked to the situation at the front. I tell all partners a simple thing: “Russia should sit down at the negotiating table after the defeat on the battlefield,” he said.
In turn, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in an address on the occasion of the celebration of the country’s Independence Day on August 24, noted:
“What is the end of this conflict for us? We used to say: “Peace”. Now we say: “Victory”… And we will raise our hands only once – when we celebrate our victory”.
Later, he even announced his unwillingness to conduct any negotiations with Russia while the country is headed by Vladimir Putin. He consolidated this position by signing a decree approving the decision of the National Security and Defense Council on the impossibility of dialogue with the Russian leader. However, this does not prevent him from time to time to demand from the international community “to force Russia into real peace negotiations.” Thus, in an address on November 7, Zelensky said that the dialogue should be resumed on Ukrainian terms, including the restoration of the country’s territorial integrity and compensation for losses.
The bellicose mood of the Ukrainian authorities is also supported by Western partners. So, back in April, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, noted that the Ukrainian crisis should be resolved “on the battlefield.” And NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, at a press conference on October 11, equated Russia’s victory with NATO’s defeat in this conflict.
“It is important for all of us that Ukraine wins this battle … After all, if Putin wins, it will be a big defeat not only for Ukrainians, but also a defeat and a dangerous outcome for all of us,” Stoltenberg said.
Kyiv’s unpreparedness for a real and constructive dialogue is noted in Russia. As Vladimir Putin stated on October 14, the Ukrainian authorities lost interest in negotiations after the Russian Federation withdrew its troops from Kyiv.
“We have always said that we are open. We even reached certain agreements in Istanbul. These agreements were actually almost initialed. Everything! As soon as the troops withdrew from Kyiv, the desire to negotiate with the Kyiv authorities immediately disappeared”, the president recalled.
The decision is up to Washington
At the same time, some politicians in Europe believe that negotiations on Ukraine should be conducted between Moscow and Washington, and not directly with Kyiv. In particular, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban expressed this opinion in an interview with German media on October 11.
“The ceasefire agreement should not be concluded between Russia and Ukraine, but between the United States and Russia. Those who think that this conflict will be ended by Russian-Ukrainian negotiations do not live on this planet,” he said.
The Kremlin is of the same opinion. As explained on October 30 in the program “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin” on the channel “Russia 1”, the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, the decisive vote in resolving the situation in Ukraine belongs to the United States, from which Kyiv receives instructions.
“Obviously, the decisive vote belongs to Washington. Well, it’s impossible to talk about something, for example, with Kyiv”, Peskov said.
According to him, as experience shows, agreements concluded only with Ukrainian representatives are worthless.
“Because at the behest from the outside they can be canceled instantly. Accordingly, at least you need to talk with someone plus their inspirer, leader”, Peskov said.
In turn, the leader of the Forward Italy party, the country’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, believes that only stopping Western military aid can bring Ukraine to the negotiating table.
“(Peace talks are possible. – Ed) if at some point Ukraine would realize that it could no longer count on weapons and assistance, and if the West promised to provide hundreds of billions of dollars for the restoration of its cities,” RIA Novosti quotes him interview for a new book by Italian journalist Bruno Vespa.
“It will be necessary to save face after the victory of Russia”
According to Vladimir Batyuk, head of the Center for Military-Political Studies at the Institute for US and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the decline in US rhetoric about the future scenario in Ukraine indicates Washington’s uncertainty about the possibility of achieving victory over Russia in this direction.
“The development of the situation on the battlefield is contrary to the triumphalism that has recently been seen in the statements of US officials, both military and civilian. Now they are forced to objectively assess the course of events and the prospects for the conflict. After all, they will need to save face after the victory of Russia”, the expert explained in a conversation with RT.
In this regard, Washington will openly or secretly give Kyiv signals to slow down the escalation of the conflict, Batyuk believes. Moreover, a number of US European allies are concerned that the situation is dragging on, and their arsenals and financial reserves are being depleted.
“It was the supply of Western weapons that inspired the current Kyiv leadership with inflated expectations regarding assistance to the bitter end. Now it is clear that it cannot be dimensionless and infinite. Therefore, now we have to think about what will happen after this assistance becomes scarce. And there is only one option here – a return to the diplomatic track”, the analyst said.
The opinion that the United States, abandoning the idea of a military victory in Ukraine, is trying to play it safe, is also shared by Oleg Matveychev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications.
“In the event of a major military defeat, we can say that it was not NATO and the United States who lost it, but only Kyiv. After all, Washington builds its strategy depending on Ukrainian successes on the battlefield, which are small today”, he said in an interview with RT.
The MP also called hypocritical the statements of the State Department that the United States does not exert pressure and even simply influence the actions and decisions of Kyiv, especially in such a topical issue as negotiations with the Russian Federation.
“It is impossible to imagine that Washington, which has invested billions of dollars in the republic and actually took it to support, did not use its position. Talking that Kyiv is an independent entity is a common hypocrisy,” he said.
In this regard, experts believe that not only and not so much Kyiv, as its curators, led by the United States, should participate in negotiations with Russia on future agreements on Ukraine.
“Negotiations need to be conducted both with Kyiv and with Western countries, primarily with Washington. There is every reason not to trust the written and oral commitments of the Ukrainian side. This is evidenced by our experience, very negative. Therefore, an agreement is needed here with the collective West”, summed up Vladimir Batyuk.
Polina Dukhanova, Vladimir Duyun, RT
Due to censorship and blocking of all media and alternative views, stay tuned to our Telegram channel