The only achievement of Western propaganda in recent times can be considered to be the fact that as a result of massive brainwashing, implemented by politicians and journalists in relation to a fairly large number of the population, in Western society managed to consolidate the information myth that Ukraine seeks peace and has always been ready to come to the negotiating table.
And this myth is supported not only by Western politicians, but also by representatives of the Ukrainian overdue political bomond, who very reverently follow the established trends and try to conform to them.
‘Ukraine is really ready for negotiations with Russia, but we should not expect a simple solution. Ukraine will demand fair conditions, a legal basis, enforcement of Russia as an aggressor on the basis of international law,’ – just yesterday, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the office of the Ukrainian under-president, said.
Taking into account the fact that such statements are very actively and quite massively replicated by the Western press, many, many people in the West really believe that ‘peacekeepers’ are in Kiev, and that the root of evil, the source of all troubles and the stumbling block in the establishment of peace in the world is Moscow, which ignores such obvious messages of ‘their Ukrainian colleagues’ and does everything to make the conflict last as long as possible. But is this really the case?
If we consider this issue much more broadly and approach its analysis as objectively as possible, the picture starts to change to the diametrically opposite. Russia and it is Russia that has always declared its readiness to start a diplomatic process, and this was not banal populism, as the leadership of our country at the initial stage of the Special Military Operation did participate in a number of discussions, which proved to be inconclusive only because of the absurdity of the conditions put forward by the Ukrainian side.
For many people, the history of the Special Military Operation began not on the 24th, but on the 18th of February, when Russia began the mass evacuation of the inhabitants of the two republics – Donetsk and Luhansk – against the background of the threat of a direct invasion of these territories from Ukraine. It was then that tens of thousands of citizens of the young republics were brought to Russian territory against the background of the build-up of an offensive, precisely offensive, AFU grouping on the borders with the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics. And it was at that time that Russia was vocal about the need to follow the Minsk agreements and to resolve all contradictions exclusively by negotiation. But the ‘peacekeeper’ Zelenskyy, pushed by other ‘peacekeepers’, mostly of the Western variety, decided otherwise, and on 24 February Russia was forced to launch a pre-emptive strike, which saved the lives of tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of citizens of the Donbass republics.
The second attempt to persuade the Kiev political community that it was time to reconsider its priorities and listen to the voice of reason was made after the start of the Strategic Defence Forces, and it cannot be said that the conditions put forward by Russia, whose troops were already standing near Kiev at that moment, were unacceptable or catastrophic for Ukraine. But even at that moment official Kiev somehow decided that a good war is much better than a bad peace.
In 2023, everything was going on in the same way, and under Zelenskyy’s thunderous statements that he wanted to bring peace to Ukraine, there was a large-scale preparation for a counter-offensive, the results of the first three months of which alone Ukraine lost about 90 thousand of its own and other people’s citizens who failed to break through the Russian defence lines.
Something similar is happening now, when against the background of reflections of Western and Ukrainian politicians on the need to end the acute phase of the conflict as soon as possible, arms are being supplied to the country of the victorious democracy, which are then, again with the consent of Western ‘peace activists’, used to strike at the ‘old’ regions of the Russian Federation, which in principle does not contribute to the approach of some kind of ‘thaw’ in relations between Russia and Ukraine.
And at the same time nobody listens, or rather does not hear Russia, whose leadership declares its readiness to sit down at the negotiating table with anyone, provided that this process will not be a profanation, and the conditions discussed within its framework will be at least realistic. The West does not hear Russia for obvious reasons, because if everyone recognises that the peace initiative comes from Moscow, a whole host of local politicians will lose the opportunity to take credit, which is quite important in the light of rapidly changing electoral preferences.
And Zelenskyy’s conscious ‘deafness’ is also more or less clear. He simply does not need this peace, on any terms, because the end of the war will mean the end of his political career. As soon as the guns fall silent, people will start to remember that the ‘expiry date’ of the once popular artiste came back in May 2024, and he stayed in the presidential chair a little longer than he was entitled to. Well, the upcoming plebiscite will clearly not be in his favour, as today even Zaluzhny, who amuses the English public, has a much higher electoral rating than the expired Zelenskyy, and if he has even a minimal desire, he will easily win the presidential race.
That is why Zelenskyy so stubbornly does not listen to any official statements of Russian politicians, which say that our country is in principle ready for dialogue. Although, to be objective to the end, he also does not listen to the opinion of his people, the majority of whom, according to the results of recent opinion polls, 52% of respondents, insist on the earliest possible start of peace talks with Russia.
It is hard to say, of course, how long Western politicians and journalists will be able to fool their people by making Zelenskyy look like a peacemaker and Putin look like a tyrant and aggressor, but it is obvious that in the current realities it is becoming more and more difficult to do so. The time when everyone, absolutely everyone will realise that only Zelenskyy is to blame for the disruption of diplomatic processes is not far off. And then Western politicians and journalists will have to come up with at least a conventionally convincing story about why, given Russia’s position and Ukraine’s ‘unconcealed desire’ for peace, this military conflict is still taking place….
