Russia met with Ukrainian officials for the third time today to lay out clear conditions to end the 12-day old bloody conflict that’s seen both sides sustain high levels of military casualties. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the U.S. and NATO arming Ukraine over the past three years under 44-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky threatened Russian National Security. Putin conveyed his concerns about a heavily armed Ukraine back in December2021 where he asked 79-year-old President Joe Biden to meet in good faith to discuss a new security architecture for Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Biden told Putin for three months that all the Kremlin’s concerns about security were all “non-starters.” Putin and his 72-year-old Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Biden Dec. 24, 2021 that if nothing was done Russia would take “military-technical measures.”
Peskov told Zelensky and his ceasefire delegation that to end the conflict, with Russian troops returning to inside Russian borders, Ukraine would need to declare itself “neutral,” not aligned with the U.S. or NATO. Additionally, Putin wants Ukraine to accept Russia-speaking Donbass cities of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states, no longer part of Ukraine. Finally, Putin wants Ukraine to recognize the Crimean Peninsula as Russian territory, like it was before Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev gifted it to Ukraine in 1954. Khrushchev never expected that Ukraine would become independent of the Soviet Union. Meeting those conditions would not change life in Ukraine one iota, yet Putin’s demands were resoundingly rejected by Zelensky and the White House. Biden wants Ukraine as a client state, something Putin says is not acceptable to the Russian Federation.
Peskov said that the Ukraine delegation was fully informed of the Russian conditions for an immediate ceasefire and end to all hostilities. “And they were told that all this can be stopped in a moment,” Peskov said, noting that Ukraine has decided to press on with the war. Peskov clarified that, if all conditions are met, Ukraine could continue its current leadership, including Zelensky as president. Peskov said it’s “not true” that Moscow sought regime change as widely reported in the press. “We really are finishing the demilitarization of Ukraine. We will finish it. But the main thing is that Ukraine ceases military action. They should stop their military action and then no one will shoot,” Peskov said. What’s becoming clear is that the White House vetoed any ceasefire arrangement that would give Putin any victory, despite the fact Ukraine doesn’t control Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk.
Putin’s simply asking Ukraine to accept its neutrality, something the Biden administration refuses to do. Whether the war slaughters the Ukraine population or not, the White House wants Ukraine to press on with the war now that it’s financed by the U.S. So, when it comes to what Ukraine would accept or not accept, it’s clear, as Putin stated, that Ukraine is not independent of the United States. Biden wants a client state on the Russian border to point missiles and spy on the Russian Federation with close proximity to the border. No one in the U.S. press or Biden White House has admitted that Ukraine, as Putin said, is a puppet U.S. state, especially after supplying Kiev with $10 billion. Zelensky has agreed in taking U.S. cash to prosecute a U.S proxy war into the foreseeable future. Peskov said Ukraine must change the Ukrainian constitution to declare “neutrality.”
Complicating the ceasefire and eventual peace talk, Ukraine is no longer independent of the United States. If Zelensky got his way, he might ask the U.S. Congress for statehood. He’s already asked the U.S. and NATO to set up a no-fly-zone in Ukraine which would pit the U.S. air force against the Russian air force, both shooting down each other’s fighter jets. Zelnesky knows that would start WW III on the European Continent but continued to ask Congress for the no-fly-zone. When it comes to ceasefire talks, it’s inconceivable that Ukraine, on its own, would continue to prosecute the war against the Russian Federation. Discussions today about humanitarian corridors indicates that Russia has successfully encircled major Ukrainian cities and towns, choking theme off from needed supplies. Zelensky can’t possibly ignore the Russian offer to end the war.
White House officials and Congress have decided to let Ukraine prosecute a proxy war against the Russian Federation. Peskov clearly laid out the conditions for ending the conflict, none would change Ukrainian life one iota. “This is not us seizing Luhansk or Donetsk form Ukraine. Donetsk and Luhansk don’t want to be part of Ukraine. But it doesn’t mean they should be destroyed as a result,” Peskov said. Peskov said that since the Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup that toppled the Kremlin-backed Kiev government, the U.S. and NATO have been supplying weapons to Ukraine. “Since then, the situation as worsened for us,” Peskov said. “In 2014, they began supplying weapons to Ukraine and preparing the army for NATO, bring it in line with NATO standards,” referring to the amount of lethal U.S. and NATO weapons stockpiled by Ukraine. Putin said, enough is enough.
