US Signals It’s Discouraging Zelensky from Making Concessions to Russia That Could End the Fighting

The State Department says the war is 'bigger' than Russia and Ukraine and is about universal 'principles'

A war for “core values” to the last Ukrainian — why not?

Source: Antiwar.com

On Monday, the State Department signaled that the US is discouraging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from making concessions to Russia in negotiations that are aimed at ending the fighting in Ukraine.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said Zelensky has “made it very clear that he is open to a diplomatic solution that does not compromise the core principles at the heart of the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.”

When asked to elaborate on his point, Price said that the war is “bigger” than Russia and Ukraine. “The key point is that there are principles that are at stake here that have universal applicability everywhere,” he said.

Price said Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to violate “core principles,” including “the principle that each and every country has a sovereign right to determine its own foreign policy, has a sovereign right to determine for itself with whom it will choose to associate in terms of its alliances, its partnerships, and what orientation it wishes to direct its gaze.”

Putin has made clear that one of his main motivations for the invasion is Ukraine’s alignment with NATO. Leading up to the invasion, he asked the US for a guarantee that Ukraine won’t ever join the military alliance, but the US refused to make the promise even though President Biden publicly admitted Kyiv wouldn’t be granted a membership anytime soon.

Even Zelensky has said that he was told Ukraine wouldn’t be a NATO member. “I requested them personally to say directly that we are going to accept you into NATO in a year or two or five, just say it directly and clearly, or just say no,” he said in an interview with CNN on Sunday. “And the response was very clear, you’re not going to be a NATO member, but publicly, the doors will remain open.”

Instead of pushing Zelensky to declare neutrality, the US continues to arm Ukraine. When asked if the US is counseling Zelensky on the negotiations with Russia, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that the US is in touch with Ukrainian officials every day. But she said the role the US can play the most “effectively” in the process is to send more weapons into the warzone.

“The role that we feel we can play most effectively is by continuing to provide a broad range of security assistance, military assistance to them as well as economic and humanitarian assistance to strengthen their hand in these negotiations,” Psaki told reporters. Last week, President Biden announced a new $800 billion weapons package for Ukraine, which includes shoulder-fired anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles and armed drones.

The US is also leading a Western sanctions campaign against Russia that Psaki and Price said helps Ukraine’s leverage in the talks with Russia. Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia stopping its invasion wouldn’t be enough for the sanctions to be lifted. He told NPR that it would take an “irreversible” Russian troop withdrawal for Moscow to receive sanctions relief.

Ukrainian and Russian officials have been holding intense negotiations via video link, which continued on Monday. Zelensky and other officials have made it clear that they are willing to discuss neutrality, although they do want security guarantees from the West.

When it comes to Russia’s other demands, the Ukrainians are more stubborn. Russia wants Ukraine to recognize Crimea as Russian and recognize the independence of the Donbas republics. An aide to Zelensky told Politico on Monday that a deal on neutrality would be “easy,” but any talk of Ukraine giving up territory is “not going to go anywhere.”

9 Comments
  1. Richard says

    Great

    1. Mandi Sullivan says

      I think that there is an insider at the New York Times which is why they are validating the Hunter Biden laptop as being authentic.
      Why else would they do this? They don’t care about honesty, and they want to do whatever they can to protect their messiah Joe Biden.
      But it seems that the evidence on the laptop is just too damning and I think that they know that the government is coming for Hunter.
      In fact, the attorney for Hunter’s baby mama said that he fully expects him to be indicted. It makes sense that he would honestly, especially after his buddy Devon Archer was sentenced to prison time.
      reported,

      Clint Lancaster, the attorney for the mother, Lunden Alexis Roberts, also told CNBC that he previously handed over “a significant amount of Hunter’s financial records” to federal investigators to comply with a subpoena for those files.
      Lancaster said he and Roberts were interviewed by an assistant U.S. attorney, an FBI agent and an IRS agent — “one that carries a badge and gun” — more than a year ago about Biden in Little Rock, Ark., where Lancaster practices law.

      “I expect him to be indicted,” the lawyer said about Biden. “Just based on what I saw in his financial records, I would be surprised if he’s not indicted.”

      Despite that expectation, Lancaster said that both he and his client Roberts “don’t want Hunter to go to jail.”
      “It’s not my goal, much to the unhappiness of many people in the Republican Party,” said Lancaster, a supporter of former President Donald Trump who in late 2020 worked on a legal challenge to results that showed Biden had won the state of Wisconsin that year.
      Now, I think that Hunter will ultimately get let off the hook just like Hillary did, but the Biden name will finally be tarnished.

  2. William White says

    What a TURD! The US fighting to the last Ukrainian, the Gaul, the absolute lies, the Americans are sickening.

    1. Steve Kastl says

      These war criminals need public executions by hanging before they use nuclear weapons and cause extinction. Does any Pentagon prostitute care?

  3. guest says

    “The Russian side reaffirms its support for the One-China principle, confirms that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and opposes any forms of independence of Taiwan.”

    If China decided to incorporate Taiwan into Mother China, would Trump-voters and Putin-groupies say that Xi is fighting the new world order, and it is high time that the nazis in Taiwan are exterminated ?

    1. Juan says

      Self determination is king. ukronazis have been denying that to almost half the population of that artificial, fictitious country. Had the chance to abide by Minsk, that ship has sailed.

  4. Pablo says

    The US War Machine got humiliated in Afghanistan. They couldn’t defeat an Enemy that had NO air force, no armor, no artillery and no Unit cohesion. Russia has all of those. And the US War Machine knows it. The Chinese used to call the US a “Paper Tiger”. Good description. The US War Machine is becoming Powerless; they just don’t want anyone to notice that fact.

    1. anon says

      Yes… the Russians have scared the shit out of the yankees… their combat effectiveness, tactics and precision, as well as a more traditional though costly use of assets has been a hard lesson for the Anglo-Zionists.. particularly when they targeted NATO assets with pinpoint precision.. presumably when the Russians roll out the new toys they will be the most effective military in the world..

      Iregardless of the overall and somewhat suspect nature of the situation in the Ukraine..

      where the Russians truly stand has yet to be ascertained..

  5. anon says

    Has anyone noticed that little purple hued disembodied hand in front of ‘Ned’…well that hand belongs to the puppeteer… all yankee apparatchiks have one of these ‘little hands’… the orange golum Donny he had two.. little hands..

    but unfortunately for ‘Ned’ (or perhaps fortunately) it has slipped out of his orifice…

    in fact quite a few yankee politicos will be out of orifice soon…

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