Knowing well in advance that Russia would reject it, the U.S. and Ukraine announced with fanfare that its ceasefire deal was in “Russia’s court” in what was an exercise of pure public relations, writes Joe Lauria.

The prospects are not good as it seems the negotiations have already failed. Putin was excluded from participation in the agreement that Trump is threatening to shove down Putin’s throat with threats.

Ukraine will have less Russian land than it hoped to trade for peace

We now have a chance to seize the opportunity that we failed to seize after the end of the Cold War.

Ukrainian nationalism rears its ugly head, again.

Bypassing Russia is bad diplomacy

At the height of the campaign, Ukrainian forces controlled some 500 square miles of Russian territory. Now they hold just a small sliver of land along the border.

The unbearable burden of stealing. Private cemeteries for his business enemies. A raiding security firm called “GOD”. Dnipro mayor’s leaked thoughts on Russia in first days of war. Kolomoisky vs Biden

Russia’s position on the battlefield is getting better and better, but the US still insists on Moscow forfeiting its advantage to negotiate an end to the entire conflict. Why does Trump think this approach could work and what are the Russian calculations to not flatly reject this idea? To discuss these points, I’m talking again to Dr. Nicolai Petro, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island and the author of the magnificent book „The Tragedy of Ukraine: What Classical Greek Tragedy can teach us about conflict resolution“.

Supporters of the U.S.-NATO proxy war in Ukraine employ a range of dubious justifications. One is a refurbished version of the old domino theory used during the Cold War – if the United States and its allies don’t help Ukraine expel Russian occupation forces, the victorious Kremlin will then launch offensives against other European countries and eventually dominate the Continent. Another popular rationale is that what might appear to be a mundane struggle between two authoritarian regimes is actually an existential conflict between democracy and autocracy, with Ukraine representing the former and Russia the latter.