Agreeing to a second round of talks, both Ukraine and Russian sent delegations to near the Belarus border to resume discussions on what, if anything, can be done to stop the carnage and destruction from the Ukraine War. Leading the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky must figure how to enter ceasefire talks requiring some tough negotiation. Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodomyr Zelensky said there would be no discussions until Russia removed its troops from Ukraine territory. Somehow, cooler heads prevailed sending a delegation. No one from the Ukraine side named the point person to the peace delegation, though it could be 40-year-old Russian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. “Now it’s official. The second round of talks between Ukraine and the occupier will take place today,” said a personal aid to Zelensky, not knowing what to expect.
At the first meeting, the Ukrainian and Russian delegations were not willing to make the sacrifices necessary for an immediate ceasefire. Russian President Vladimir Putin figureds that more fighting around Ukraine might soften up the Ukrainian bargaining position, after rejecting all of Putin’s initial peace proposals. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov raised the stakes, putting Ukraine and the Western Alliance on notice that Moscow activated its strategic nuclear forces. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia consider all countries applying sanctions to Russa as “de facto unfriendly,” certainly the U.S. falls in that category. At this stage of talks, Ukraine has so much hostility over Russian actions they’re not receptive to hashing out the parameters of a possible ceasefire. Putin expects major security concessions from Ukraine, something Zelensky isn’t prepared to do.
President Joe Biden, 79, failed to deal with Putin’s security demands, that included a ban on Ukraine’s NATO membership and a new security architecture for Easter Europe, where Russia thinks NATO has encroached on Russian territory. Biden ignored Putin’s requests for serious dialogue for two months before the Feb. 24 Ukraine war started. Biden told Putin over two-month period, even after Putin and his 72-year-old Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said if the security requests were not heeded, Russia would take “military-technical measures,” namely, go to war to disarm Ukraine. Whether the U.S.. EU or NATO think Putin’s demands were justified or not, they should have taken him seriously before Putin took desperate measures. Now that the war started, it’s up to the U.S., EU and NATO to apply maximum pressure on Ukraine to sit down with Russia and negotiate a ceasefire.
Putin proposed that Ukraine offer Russia a legal right the Crimean Peninsula it now occupies after a 2014 CIA-backed coup toppled the Kremlin-backed Kiev government of Viktor Yanukovych. No one in the West admits that the Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup caused the current crisis. Ukraine had every right to revolution, led by Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko, but it came with extreme costs. Breaking away completely with the Russian Federation, formerly the Soviet Union, was not going to be easy. Klitschko didn’t consider what Putin would do with his Sevastopol naval base, home to Russia’s warm water Black Sea fleet. Klitschko should have offered Putin a 99-year-lease or thought the consequences out more clearly. Today’s hostilities are directly related to Ukraine’s Feb. 22, 2014 coup forcing Putin to seize Crimea.
Ukraine’s 44- year-old President Vladimir Zelensky rejected Putin’s demand to have Ukraine deed the Crimean Peninsula to the Russian Federation. Zelensky knows that Putin won’t give up the Crimean Peninsula anytime soon. All the West’s sanctions are designed to weaken the Russian government to the point of economic collapse or revolution. Whether the West’s calculation is right is anyone’s guess. Ukraine is faced with a determined Putin, seeking major concessions from Ukraine in terms of security guarantees, including Putin’s demand for legal ownership of the Crimean Peninisula. So far, Zelensky and his leadership have rejected Putin’s terms as complete “non-starters.” Today’s second attempt a a ceasefire or eventual peace talks don’t seem to have made much progress. Zelensky thinks with more U.S. and NATO arms he can drive Putin out of Ukraine.
Time is not on Ukraine’s side the longer the conflict goes because of the degree of destruction to Ukraine’s infrastructure and human toll. Already 1 million Ukrainians have fled the country, knowing the conflict could go on for a while, especially if the Ukrainian military continues its “fight-to-the-death” plan. Zelensky and his 30-year-old Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba need to consider the continued damage to Ukraine and its people. Meeting today for the second round of talks, both sides don’t sound like they’re ready to negotiate. Cease talks should be the top priority of Zelensky and Kuleba, not whether they can outlast Putin and win the war. Unless there’s an unexpected turn of events, like Putin’s assassination or arrest, the Ukraine war will rage on spreading widespread destruction and carnage. Zelensky should take ceasefire and peace talks seriously.
