Zelensky: Only diplomacy can end conflict with Russia | TOI/AFP - May 21, 2022 |
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that only a diplomatic breakthrough rather than an outright military victory could end Russia's war on his country, as Moscow cut gas supplies to Finland.
'It will be bloody'
Against this backdrop, Zelensky told Ukrainian television the war would end "through diplomacy."
The conflict, he warned, "will be bloody, there will be fighting but will only definitively end through diplomacy" -- promising only that the result would be "fair" for Ukraine.
"Discussions between Ukraine and Russia will decidedly take place. Under what format I don't know -- with intermediaries, without them, in a broader group, at presidential level."
President Biden on Staying the Course in Ukraine | May 31, 2022 |
My principle throughout this crisis has been "Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine." I will not pressure the Ukrainian government -- in private or public -- to make any territorial concessions. It would be wrong and contrary to well-settled principles to do so.
Ukraine's talks with Russia are not stalled because Ukraine has turned its back on diplomacy. They are stalled because Russia continues to wage a war to take control of as much of Ukraine as it can. The United States will continue to work to strengthen Ukraine and support its efforts to achieve a negotiated end to the conflict.
Zelensky says Ukraine will not give up territory for peace with Russia: 'This is our land' | CNN - July 7, 2022 |
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that Ukraine is unwilling to cede any of its land to Russia, standing firm that a concession of Ukrainian territory won't be part of any diplomatic negotiations to end the war.
"Ukrainians are not ready to give away their land, to accept that these territories belong to Russia. This is our land," Zelensky said in an exclusive interview aired on CNN's "The Situation Room."
"We always talk about that, and we are intending to prove it," he added.
Zelensky spoke to CNN at the same time as one of his top Western allies, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, announced he would be resigning.
Speaking in Ukrainian via a translator, Zelensky said he was confident that Britain's policy toward Ukraine "will not be changing" even if the country's leadership is in tumult.
"He resigned not because he was in Ukraine. I think on the contrary, what Johnson has been doing for Ukraine was helping us a great deal. I consider him a friend of Ukraine, but I think his society also supported Ukraine in Europe. That's why I think the UK, it's on the side of good, on the side of Ukraine," Zelensky said.
Defining and Achieving Success in Ukraine | Sept. 30, 2022 |
Top U.S. General Urges Diplomacy in Ukraine While Biden Advisers Resist | NY Times - Nov. 6, 2022 |
WASHINGTON -- A disagreement has emerged at the highest levels of the United States government over whether to press Ukraine to seek a diplomatic end to its war with Russia, with America's top general urging negotiations while other advisers to President Biden argue that it is too soon.
Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has made the case in internal meetings that the Ukrainians have achieved about as
The Confidential Negotiations with Russia | Nov. 8, 2022 |
A sample of the MSM following official bull$hit from unofficial sources inside US government ...
The Risks of Negotiating an End to the War in Ukraine | Carnegie Europe - Dec. 6, 2022 |
Only the combination of military assistance and reconstruction efforts now will one day put Ukraine in the position to decide if and when it wants to negotiate.
While there is still widespread support for Ukraine in its defense against Russia's aggression across most Western capitals, the idea of a negotiated end to this war has cropped up repeatedly. And it has been taking on a new momentum.
The difference is that this time the vague idea of negotiations has been aired by U.S. state officials, including National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on a recent trip to Kyiv.
While U.S. President Joe Biden has been eager to emphasize publicly that the time is not ripe for negotiations, French President Emmanuel Macron has fueled new doubts over the United States' and the EU's commitments to Ukraine.
Upon his December 2 return from his visit to Washington, Macron spoke not only about the need for negotiations but also for concrete security guarantees for Russia within a future European security order. Macron explicitly referred to NATO's eastward enlargement as being unacceptable for Russia.
This statement has set off alarm bells in other Western capitals, including in Berlin--usually a close ally of Paris. Macron seems to have forgotten that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had put Ukraine's neutrality up for negotiation just weeks after Russia's full-scale invasion began.
Ukraine Diplomatic Flurry Centers on War, Not Peace | WSJ - Dec. 22, 2022 |
What is Zelenskyy's 10-point peace plan? | WION - Dec. 28, 2022 |
The Ukrainian president has been promoting his formula for peace with US President Biden and urging world leaders to hold a global peace summit based on it.
What does the proposal miss?
A report by The i, a British national newspaper, said that while the analysts have called the list "maximalist" and unrealistic, it also offers better scope for negotiations moving forward. Notably, while Ukraine has emphasised on "territorial integrity", it fails to mention Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
Here are the highlights of his plan and reactions to it: ...
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that chances for any peace talks are small any time soon.
"I do believe that the military confrontation will go on, and I think we'll have still to wait for a moment in which serious negotiations for peace will be possible," he said in late December.
Avoiding a Long War - U.S. Policy and the Trajectory of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict | RAND Corp. - Jan. 2023 |
Some analysts make the case that the war is heading toward an outcome that would benefit the United States and Ukraine. Ukraine had battlefield momentum as of December 2022 and could conceivably fight until it succeeds in pushing the Russian military out of the country.
Proponents of this view argue that the risks of Russian nuclear use or a war with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will remain manageable. Once it is forced out of Ukraine, a chastened Russia would have little choice but to leave its neighbor in peace--and even pay reparations for the damage it caused. However, studies of past conflicts and a close look at the course of this one suggest that this optimistic scenario is improbable.
In this Perspective, therefore, we explore possible trajectories that the Russia-Ukraine war could take and how they might affect U.S. interests. We also consider what the United States could do to influence the course of the conflict.
An important caveat: This Perspective focuses on U.S. interests, which much as they could reasonably expect on the battlefield before winter sets in and so they should try to cement their gains at the bargaining table, according to officials informed about the discussions.
White House says not 'nudging' Zelensky to negotiate, after Milley said Ukraine has upper hand to enter talks
But other senior officials have resisted the idea, maintaining that neither side is ready to negotiate and that any pause in the fighting would only give President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia a chance to regroup.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said: "The prime minister spoke to President Zelenskyy this evening, ahead of the one-year anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Friday the 24th.
"The prime minister updated on his visit to the Munich Security Conference, and said he had used the event to call on allies to accelerate their support to help Ukraine progress military gains in the coming weeks and months.
"Now was the time for Ukraine to seize the opportunity to make real progress on the battlefield and further demonstrate to Putin that Ukraine would ultimately win, the leaders agreed."
Borrell sanctions have had too little economic impact on Russia
Latest news ...
Zelensky has ruled out giving up any of his country's territory in a potential peace deal with Russia
Ukraine updates: West not plotting to attack Russia, Biden says | Al Jazeera |
32 Sec. of Biden's historic speech in Warsaw
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