Zelensky: We Need to Face 'Realities,' Want Lives Back
Ukrainian leader should stop listening to Washington and negotiate
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So, the big question on everyone’s mind today: Will Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky negotiate with Russia to end Moscow’s bloody offensive in its much-smaller neighbor?
President Joe Biden, the White House, and chicken-hawk like Sens. Chuck Schumer, Little Lindsey Graham, and Mitch McConnell have expressed their desire to keep the war going. They, no doubt, see this as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to defeat Russian President Vladimir Putin. No amount of weapons, financing, or Ukrainian blood is enough.
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We’ve pointed out that Henry Kissinger and Noam Chomsky have both urged Zelensky to negotiate, and Reuters reported that Zelensky said earlier this week that he would be willing to meet with Putin (only) to discuss how to end the war.
“The president of the Russian Federation decides it all,” Zelensky said. “If we are talking about ending this war without him personally, that decision cannot be taken.”
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Zelensky, on Friday, told an Indonesian think that “we have to face the realities of what we are living through.”
“What do we want from this meeting... We want our lives back... We want to reclaim the life of a sovereign country within its own territory,” he said, according to NDTV.com
Zelensky has said earlier that Russian troops must leave the country before there can be any talk of a negotiate peace, which many see as an unfeasible position.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, called Zelensky's demand idiotic “and unfeasible in principle,” Newsweek reported.
“Anticipating his inevitable defeat, Ukrainian President Zelensky found a convenient way out of the impasse,” Medvedev said. “No country, no problem. His actions and statements prove that now he is ready to put almost everything on the altar of his political ambitions.”
The Associated Press reported: Zelensky’s criticism of the West has mounted in recent days as the European Union moves slowly towards a possible Russian oil embargo and as thousands of Russian forces try to encircle two key eastern cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.
Russia’s lead negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, told TASS Sunday that Moscow is willing to resume negotiations, but Kyiv must make the first step.
“For our part, we are ready to continue the dialogue. But I will emphasize once again: the ball for the continuation of peace talks is in Ukraine’s court. Freezing the talks is entirely Ukraine's initiative,” Medinsky said.
TRENDPOST: The Western media’s reporting on the Russian invasion has been one-sided with no nuance. Russia bad, Ukrainians hero.
The Trends Journal has been completely opposed to the war, but it was not “unprovoked.” Totally ignored, as we have greatly detailed over the decades, is the United States and NATO actions that were, to Russia, moves of aggression.
Long forgotten was the U.S. and NATO’S pledge not to expand into Eastern Europe following the deal made during the 1990 negotiations between the West and the Soviet Union over German unification.
Therefore, in the view of Russia, it is taking self-defense actions to protect itself from NATO’s eastward march.
As detailed in The Los Angeles Times back in May of 2016, while the U.S. and NATO deny that no such agreement was struck, “...hundreds of memos, meeting minutes and transcripts from U.S. archives indicate otherwise.”
The article states:
“According to transcripts of meetings in Moscow on Feb. 9, then-Secretary of State James Baker suggested that in exchange for cooperation with Germany, the U.S. could make ‘iron-clad guarantees’ that NATO would not expand ‘one inch eastward.’ Less than a week later, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to begin reunification talks.
“No formal deal was struck, but from all the evidence, the quid pro quo was clear: Gorbachev acceded to Germany’s western alignment and the U.S. would limit NATO’s expansion.”
ICYMI