Unwilling to engage in negotiations with Russia, president’s a candidate for a coup d’etat
Kherson Train Station facade after four UK Patriot operators were reported killed along with 60 other soldiers and police when Russian rockets slammed into the depot on December 27. Photo: Ukraine National Police
While this is portrayed as the “long held” policy of President Biden, the truth is it is just the reverse: It has been the Biden administration that has blocked all attempts to broker a peace deal with Russia.
Biden and company have embraced Zelensky for the same reason: Zelensky, who more than a year ago was open to a deal with the Russians, fell into line with Biden’s national security team and even got the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, to pass a law making it unlawful for him to deal with the Russians while the war was going on.
The United States and its NATO allies have poured massive amounts of military hardware and ammunition into Ukraine, have provided the backbone for Ukrainian strategic intelligence, trained Ukrainian troops, and have put advisers in the field, some of whom have been killed in action. If the reports are true about the Russian Iskander strike on Kherson on December 27th, four UK Patriot operators were killed along with 60 other soldiers and police when Russian rockets slammed into the Kherson train depot.
On the battlefield the Ukrainian army is facing defeats. Setbacks are seen nearly everywhere along the line of contact. The Russians have forced the Ukrainians out of Marinka, a strategic Donbas village, and are clearing the villages around Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Bradley Square in Zaphorize, and elsewhere.
Valery Zaluzhny, overall commander of Ukraine’s military, expects that the town of Avdiivka will fall in the next few months. In fact the Ukrainians either will have to pull out sooner or end up on a suicide mission trying to hold out against devastating attacks.
On the political front cracks are getting wider. Ylulia Timoshenko served as Ukraine’s prime minister two times and is now a serving member in Ukraine’s Parliament under the banner of the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) political party. She is a supporter of Ukraine’s membership in the EU and NATO. Timoshenko says that the country is at a dead end and is facing defeat.
The details of the peace deal presented today by US special envoy Steve Witkoff are consistent with the report in the Financial Times discussed in my previous article and with Larry Sparano in the posted interview. Putin will halt the Russian advance prior to driving Ukrainian soldiers out of all of the territory that has been reincorporated into Russia. It appears to be the case that the borders between Russia and Ukraine will be the current front line, so Putin is withdrawing Russia’s claim to the Russian territories still under Ukrainian occupation.
Russia and the US seem near a Ukraine peace deal. Kyiv’s role may be moot.
President Donald Trump’s hopes of securing a quick Ukraine peace deal hang in the balance after Washington’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, held his fourth Kremlin meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday.
