The stony-faced Russian “peace” negotiators in Istanbul yesterday handed, in effect, a surrender document to the Ukrainian delegation as their terms for peace and a ceasefire. It amounted to almost the complete subjugation of the Ukrainian population, the loss of 4 oblasts in totality, and of course giving up any claim to to the territory of Crimea.
It also required the demobilisation of the Ukraine military, cutting all ties with the West and Europe, and basically returning to the position Ukraine held in the Soviet Union as a satellite state of Moscow.
This is, of course, what Putin declared his 3-week Special Military Operation was meant to achieve in February 2022. Having failed to do this by military force, why the Russians believe they can now negotiate this state of affairs must be even beyond the most “thick-skinned-ostrich” type leader in the West. But it will certainly not outwit the Ukrainian president.
No doubt smarting from the audacious Ukrainian strike deep into Russia on Sunday – which has destroyed a third of the jets which constantly attack hospitals and schools across Ukraine, and also carries Putin’s much flaunted tactical nuclear weapons – maybe the Russian military machine is running out of road?
Russia has suffered one million casualties. The price of oil, which sustains Putin’s war machine, is falling through the floor. It is becoming apparent that the Russian army is reaching its culminating point; and Putin be reaching his in the Kremlin, if rumours and the growing discontent amongst the rank and file in the Russian hinterland are to be believed.
The complete disdain of the Russian negotiators for their Ukraine counterparts is summed up by the Russian team leader at one moment in the hour-long talks accusing the Ukrainians of “putting on a show” after they handed over a list of hundreds of Ukrainian children they wanted to be returned from Russia.
“Do not put on a show for European tender-hearted aunties who do not have children themselves,” he said, according to a quote shared with the Telegraph by a member of the negotiating team. Not only do the Russians take president Trump for a fool, but apparently the “pathetic” Europeans too.
If confirmation is needed that Putin has no interest in peace, unless it involves the complete capitulation of the Ukraine population and the absorption of Ukraine into the Russian Federation, then the Russian peace document “chucked” at the Ukrainian negotiators is it.
President Trump and Western leaders must act to ensure that Ukraine can prevail, and its destruction of $7 billion of Russian military hardware at the weekend must give us confidence that if we give Zelensky the tools his military and secret service can finish the job.
The UK’s SDR announcement yesterday may deter future Russian aggression in 5 year’s time, but that will be of little use if we must join the battle with Putin sooner. And it will also be pointless if we allow Ukraine to fall to Moscow, which is only the start point of the Russian leader’s desire to reinstate the Soviet Union’s western borders.
The stony-faced Russian “peace” negotiators in Istanbul yesterday handed, in effect, a surrender document to the Ukrainian delegation as their terms for peace and a ceasefire. It amounted to almost the complete subjugation of the Ukrainian population, the loss of 4 oblasts in totality, and of course giving up any claim to to the territory of Crimea.
It also required the demobilisation of the Ukraine military, cutting all ties with the West and Europe, and basically returning to the position Ukraine held in the Soviet Union as a satellite state of Moscow.
This is, of course, what Putin declared his 3-week Special Military Operation was meant to achieve in February 2022. Having failed to do this by military force, why the Russians believe they can now negotiate this state of affairs must be even beyond the most “thick-skinned-ostrich” type leader in the West. But it will certainly not outwit the Ukrainian president.
No doubt smarting from the audacious Ukrainian strike deep into Russia on Sunday – which has destroyed a third of the jets which constantly attack hospitals and schools across Ukraine, and also carries Putin’s much flaunted tactical nuclear weapons – maybe the Russian military machine is running out of road?
Russia has suffered one million casualties. The price of oil, which sustains Putin’s war machine, is falling through the floor. It is becoming apparent that the Russian army is reaching its culminating point; and Putin be reaching his in the Kremlin, if rumours and the growing discontent amongst the rank and file in the Russian hinterland are to be believed.
The complete disdain of the Russian negotiators for their Ukraine counterparts is summed up by the Russian team leader at one moment in the hour-long talks accusing the Ukrainians of “putting on a show” after they handed over a list of hundreds of Ukrainian children they wanted to be returned from Russia.
“Do not put on a show for European tender-hearted aunties who do not have children themselves,” he said, according to a quote shared with the Telegraph by a member of the negotiating team. Not only do the Russians take president Trump for a fool, but apparently the “pathetic” Europeans too.
If confirmation is needed that Putin has no interest in peace, unless it involves the complete capitulation of the Ukraine population and the absorption of Ukraine into the Russian Federation, then the Russian peace document “chucked” at the Ukrainian negotiators is it.
President Trump and Western leaders must act to ensure that Ukraine can prevail, and its destruction of $7 billion of Russian military hardware at the weekend must give us confidence that if we give Zelensky the tools his military and secret service can finish the job.
The UK’s SDR announcement yesterday may deter future Russian aggression in 5 year’s time, but that will be of little use if we must join the battle with Putin sooner. And it will also be pointless if we allow Ukraine to fall to Moscow, which is only the start point of the Russian leader’s desire to reinstate the Soviet Union’s western borders.