Analysis: The Peace That Got Away
The Ukraine War has been dragging on for over a year, and peace is still a distant dream. The time to demand negotiations is now.
Russia says it will achieve all its objectives, and Ukraine says it will oust every last Russian troop from the country.
It’s April 2022 all over again.
Judge Andrew Napolitano spoke with Gerald Celente on Tuesday about the Ukraine War and said — even though war has not been declared between the U.S. and Russia — it’s hard to identify what’s happening on the ground as anything less.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “obviously knows that American boys are shooting American ammunition from American weaponry at Russian boys...If that's not war I don't know what it...it just hasn't been declared,” Napolitano said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by phone and said he sought peace in Ukraine. China said in a readout that Beijing would “neither watch the fire from the other side, nor add fuel to the fire, let alone take advantage of the crisis to profit,” a thinly veiled swipe at the U.S. war machine.
NOTICE: 2023 PEACE AND FREEDOM RALLY May 27th on the Four Courners of Freedom, John and Crown St. in Kingston, N.Y. Starting at 2 pm. SPEAKERS: Judge Andrew Napolitano, Gary Null, John Whitehead, Frank Morano, and Gerald Celente
Western countries has essentially rejected China’s peace proposal because they say the deal heavily favors Russia and would essentially allow Moscow to keep its land gains. Russia said it supports foreign contact with Kyiv that seeks a peaceful resolution, but clarified that the conflict will end after “the accomplishment of all Russia’s goals,” according to RT, the Russian news outlet.
Oleksiy Reznikov, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, said the country is in a marathon, not a sprint.
YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN: UK SAYS UKRAINE MUST CLEAN UP DEPLETED URANIUM SHELLS
“This means that you have to accumulate energy and resources for 42 kilometers, keep your pace, spend it wisely, and then, when there are 195 meters left, break through. To be the first to touch the ribbon or at least be among the winners," he said, according to Ukrinform.
The Associated Press noted that a Chinese statement released on Wednesday cited “mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity” as a foundation of relations with Kyiv.
President Joe Biden told ABC News in an interview last month that the “idea that China is going to be negotiating the outcome of a war that’s a totally unjust war for Ukraine is just not rational.”
“Putin’s applauding it, so how could it be any good?” Biden said. “I’ve seen nothing in the plan that would indicate that there is something that would be beneficial to anyone other than Russia, if the Chinese plan were followed.”
Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told reporters that Russian and Chinese visions for a path to peace were “broadly in tune,” according to FirstPost.com.
She blamed Kyiv for the eventual breakdown of negotiations last spring, the report said.
Fiona Hill, senior fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, and Angela Stent, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings, penned an article in Foreign Affairs that mentions a possible peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia in the early days of the war.
The two, who are deeply connected to the political establishment in Washington, cited “multiple former senior U.S. officials” who told them that it seemed Kyiv and Moscow “have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim settlement: Russia would withdraw to its position on February 23, when it controlled part of the Donbas region and all of Crimea, and in exchange, Ukraine would promise not to seek NATO membership and instead receive security guarantees from a number of countries.”
The two said Russia changed its position on the matter in July, and the new objective is not a settlement, but rather “Ukrainian capitulation.”
Ukrainska Pravda, a pro-Western newspaper, reported that the peace talks came to a halt after Johnson’s visit. The article stated that “the Russian side…was actually ready for the Zelensky-Putin meeting.”
The report said Johnson arrived in Ukraine “almost without warning” and had two messages: