LOS ANGELES.–Setting conditions for ending the Ukraine War, 72-year-old President Vladimir Putin asked for nothing outrageous, essentially the deal he offered 47-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in March 2022, only two weeks after the Feb. 24, 2022 invasion. Putin asked Zelensky for Russian sovereignty over Crimea, and independence for Donetsk and Luhansk. It went without saying that NATO membership would be unacceptable. Since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991, Secretary of State James Baker promised that NATO would respect Russia’s national security and not encroach on Russian territory. So, the idea of Zelensky demanding NATO membership was against promise made to Russia at the time the Soviet Union dismantled. Now Putin has added only two territories seized during three years of bloody, trench warfare, losing thousands of Ukranian and Russian troops
Putin said that he would deal for peace if Zelensky accepted Ukraine would drop its demand for NATO membership and cede Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the two areas seize in the last three years of war. When you consider Putin’s offer, it’s more than generous, forcing the U.S. .and Ukraine to give up its ambition of vanquishing the Russian military. Former President Joe Biden, 82, and Zelensky spelled out their ambition to degrade the Russian military to the point it could no longer wage war. Biden’s former Defense Secretary specified that as the official policy of the United States at a speech in Ramstein, Germany April 30, 2022. Biden and Austin essentially declared war on the Russian Federation. As the Ukraine War progressed, it became clear to the Kremlin it was Washington waging war against the Kremlin, not just a conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
Over the last three years, Zelensky stuck to his 10-point peace plan making unrealistic demands, including prosecuting Putin for war crimes. Zelensky opted for war with the Kremlin with Biden’s backing, supplying arms-and-cash to pay for Ukraine’s bankrupt government and war with the Kremlin. Had Zelensky accepted Putin’s offer in March 2022, he would have spared Ukraine widespread destruction, death and loss of sovereign territory. Putin only asked that he retain territory he possessed before the war in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk. Zelensky moved the goal post as the war raged on, demanding that Russian troops leave every inch of Ukrainian territory. Once Zelensky felt sufficiently armed with U.S. and NATO weapons in 2023, he launched a counteroffensive designed to push Russia out of Ukraine. By the end of 2023, Zelensky faced more extensive destruction and loss of sovereign territory.
Putin laid out a “political solution as we envisage it cannot be achieved otherwise that through the full implementation of what was pronounced by Putin when he spoke to the Russian Foreign Ministry in June,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergi Ryabkov. “This is where we are sooner, Britain and others understand it, the better would be and the closer this desired political solution will be for everyone,” Ryabkov. When Trump’s Ukraine team hears the conditions, the more they’ll see that Putin isn’t asking very much to end the war. Ukraine gets to retain its Kiev sovereignty, with the exception of losing Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhizhia, all territories annexed by Russia in three years of war. Zelenky lost his right to set conditions for a political settlement once he lost the war in 2023. When Zelensky’s counteroffensive failed, he had essentially lost the war.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, 75, restated terms of any political settlement. “Not the interest of others, in the context of agreement on all-encompassing security system in which no one is hurt,” Lavrov said. Lavrov said any settlement on “full and irreversible removal of the conflicts fundamental reasons,” including Zelensky’s demand to join NATO. When it comes to Trump negotiating the ceasefire and peace deal, U.S. allies must accept that they can no longer supply Ukraine arms with which to continue the war. When Lavrov says irreversible, he wants a U.S., EU and NATO commitment to keep Ukraine out of the Western Alliance, now or in the future. Zelensky says no country should dictate Ukraine’s future security arrangements knowing what it’s been through over the last three years. Zelensky wants security guarantees but that no the way a ceasefire and peace talks work.
Under Biden regime, the U.S. was essentially at war with the Kremlin over Ukraine. Trump wants to return to normal diplomatic relations with Russia, requiring the war to end but also for the U.S. to commit to improving diplomatic relations. “Without solving the problems which were the root cause of what is happening, it will not be possible to reach an agreement,” Ryabkov said. “So variations and half-measures are not the path we are prepared to go along,” meaning no NATO membership but also no more arming Ukraine. Putin made his move to invade precisely because Biden kept arming Ukraine over Kremlin objections. Trump should have no problem meeting Putin’s requirements to end the Ukraine War. Trump wants to restore normal diplomatic relations, including arms control talks. Putin wants assurances that Ukraine won’t breach any peace deal.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
