As previously posted here, the Kremlin's opening position on cease-fire negotiations was the posting of Russian troops on the Ukraine-Poland border. Riiiiiiight.
The best deals are ones that:
A) are negotiated out of sight with all parties having a de facto gag order
B) both sides walk away thinking they got robbed
it's pretty simple, the Russians have long viewed the NATO/Ukraine issue, the overthrow of Ukraine's govt in 2014 and the anti-Russian/US puppet govt that followed, and the fighting in the Donbas which started in 2014 (it didn't start today) as existential. It all means a
HELL OF A LOT more to them than it does to the US- a declining imperial superpower which is halfway around the world on the other end of the planet 10,000 miles away from either of these countries. Russia shares an incredibly important and strategic impossible to defend land border of oh only, 1,400-1,500 miles with Ukraine- Ukraine was a part of Russia/USSR for a very long time before the fall of the USSR, Russia shares a commonality/history with Ukraine and the people of Ukraine dating back to the Kievan Rus' federation, anywhere from 20-25% of Ukraine's population is ethnically Russian, most of the population of the country speaks Russian as a 1st or 2nd language, and the two countries share deep cultural, economic, and even familial ties with one another and have for
centuries. So yeah....Ukraine is pretty god damn important for a shitload of reasons to them- and literally not important to the US at all. Like whatsoever at all. Even Obama admitted this back in an interview in The Atlantic when he was pressed on why he refused to send lethal arms to Ukraine- despite his cabinet and the entire war machine in DC pushing him to do so. As much as I disliked the guy- it's sad to say- he was probably the last intelligent President we've had, and the scary thing is it'll probably be awhile before we have one even half as sharp. Russians will double down and dig in, they are not giving up on Ukraine just because the Americans are backing up the brinks truck to Ukraine- it's far too important to them.
All the US is doing by continuing to fund a proxy war to the tune of tens of billions of dollars, revive a WWII era lend-lease arms program, train Ukrainian special forces, and having direct involvement in targeting and missile strikes on Russia is doing is ensuring this war will never end anytime soon, ensuring there will be more death and destruction, and that Ukraine will continue to get absolutely leveled to the ground. And for what?
US and it's lapdog bitch boy joke of a country UK have been blocking any possible pathway for negotiations and potential peace, and now the US has Ukraine's head full having them change the stated war aims and talking about retaking Crimea.
This will lead nowhere but to Putin becoming more powerful inside of Russia and Ukraine being absolutely and completely leveled and blown to pieces and hundreds of thousands more dead and every city in that country looking like Detroit.
