T, Belman. I recently posted Armistice or annihilation—Ukraine’s end game which contained an interview of Mansur. I exchanged some emails with him about it as I knew him from his participation in my conference in 2017 on the Jordan Option. His talk is contained in Salim Mansur: “Jordan is Palestine”.
I don’t see an armistice taking hold until Russia consolidates it hold on Crimea and the four provinces or until the West concedes them.
By Salim Mansur
I mostly agree with Peloni that the collective West led by the U.S. is, as Putin and the leadership in Moscow have repeatedly said, “not-agreement capable.” In other words, there is no basis any more for Moscow to trust any Western/American leader, and especially those presently ruling, with whom they can negotiate an agreement that will be honoured in the West. The Minsk Agreements (I and II) erased all trust in Moscow of the post-1992 leadership in the collective West.
My argument for an Armistice is to draw attention to the historical precedent of how WWI was brought to an end. Germany did not surrender on the battlefield, and that history should be a necessary part of the collective memory of the people both in the West and the East, even though there is a collective amnesia raging presently in the West. If German leaders in October 1918 had some sort of crystal ball foreknowledge of what eventually would be thrust upon Germany following the Armistice by the weight of the Americans forces landed in Europe in the Treaty of Paris (Versailles) 1919, possibly Germany would have continued the war to a conclusion, a military defeat for sure but also many more deaths on the Allied side and likely the theory of “stabbed in the back” would not have had any credibility as it did in the brief life of Weimar republic and then the rise of Nazi Germany.
The one-sided vengeful Treaty of Paris was immediately denounced by many on the Allied side, such as John Maynard Keynes in his prophetic book on “The Economic Consequences of the Peace” and, ironically, that Treaty laid the grounds for the eventual collective suicide of Europe in WW2. But that Armistice was not responsible for the subsequent folly of the Western powers; the Armistice, which the Germans agreed to, was to end the mutual slaughter of Europeans and work out an agreement, knowing the tremendous cost of failure that the Great War had proven, in which no one European power alone could be held singularly responsible for the war and made to pay the reparation as what occurred in the making of the Treaty of Paris.
The precedent of the Armistice in the present situation in the Ukraine war is to halt the shooting before the most likely scenario, if the shooting is not stopped then the war will ratchet up beyond the high-end conventional warfare to the likely use of nuclear weapons. This is a war that Russia cannot lose and the collective West cannot win when on both sides we have nuclear weapon states. This is not the time to engage in any further discussion, while the shooting is going on, on the rights and wrongs of the parties involved. There will be ample time if people want to get into this discussion once the shooting is stopped and negotiated settlement is reached to the satisfaction of Moscow and the collective West, and in this settlement Ukraine will have no say in this matter since it has been all along and very willingly a sacrificial pawn of Washington/Brussels axis to entrap Russia and precipitate regime change in Moscow.
I agree that any offer of Armistice coming from the collective West will not be received seriously by Moscow. The latest word out is that William Burns, the CIA Director, sent an opening offer to Moscow that Washington is agreeable to partition Ukraine, handing 20 percent of the territory which would be practically all of the Donbass region to Russia, for ceasefire and an end to the war. Similar offer was sent by Tony Blinken, Sec. of State, through the Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry to Moscow, during Blinken’s recent visit to Cairo. And again, the offer was not taken seriously by Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister.
But an Armistice is the only move available to stop the shooting before the shooting cascades into a wider European war, as the Poles are itching for as well as the warmongering Brits with their goofy pitbull Boris Johnson in his full nutty display. Therefore, the call for Armistice has to come from a third party, not the collective West, and such a party will have the credibility and influence in both Moscow and Washington. The American neocons with their talk of the rule-based order has poisoned the role of the UN insofar as Moscow goes, even though eventually the UN will have to seal the final settlement of the war and the status of Ukraine, whatever remains of it once the shooting stops. In this context, a leading member or members of the emergent BRICS nation that Moscow and Washington could respect can play the role of mediator(s) pushing for an Armistice and then proposing a place to host the negotiations to follow. I may imagine a number of countries, singly or together, could step up given the urgency of the situation to mediate an Armistice and then suggest a meeting place for delegates from Moscow and Washington/Brussels to meet. India comes immediately to mind along with Brazil; and Istanbul could well be the most favourable meeting place for the parties, with Turkey being both a NATO member-state and its growing relationship with Moscow given the mutual partnership that Putin and Erdogan have nurtured between themselves.
The broad outline of Moscow spelled out by Putin with the launch of the special military operation (SMO) on Feb 24, 2022, is now well known and has remained in place. The oblasts in the Donbass region that have acceded to the Russian Federation after the referendums in September of last year and have been integrated as “Novorossiya” are not going to be revoked or returned by Moscow, as is with Crimea, and the offers by Burns and Blinken in their respective messages to Moscow are indicators of Washington conceding to this reality, no different than Moscow conceding to the manner in which Kosovo was separated from Serbia by the NATO forces. Moscow might as well, if there is no stop to the shooting, shut the entire Black Sea coast to Kyiv by taking Odessa and moving into Transnistria. What then will be left for post-Armistice negotiations are the initial demands of the SMO, which were the denazification and demilitarization of what remains of Ukraine. In other words, Ukraine officially declared as a demilitarized neutral state, with guarantee written into the post-war Ukraine’s constitution that it will not ever be a member of NATO. Furthermore, I do not think Moscow will agree with any proposal for reparation to Kyiv, and if this matter is raised then Moscow will have as much right to demand reparation from the collective West for the effects of the war on the Russian-speaking population of the Donbass region going back to the genocidal military operations of the Kyiv regime launched after the 2014 Maidan coup that ousted the elected president Victor Yanukovych.
Wars have consequences, and the sheer arrogance of the neocon crowd in Washington through the Clinton, Bush (43), and the Obama-Biden administrations, has eventually brought the collective West its comeuppance. This Ukraine war spells the end of the unipolar hegemonic moment of the U.S. in world politics and history; it also spells the end of the Eurocentric Age that began around 1500 with its centre in the north Atlantic basin and the shift to the Eurasian/Pacific Age that is emergent. The only question in my mind, and in my prayers, is whether mankind’s survival instinct will prevail over the suicidal psychosis raging in the West with its nihilistic “wokeism” or not, and if it does prevail then the transition from the post-1945 world order to the 21st century multipolar world order might go forward without mankind in a fit of suicidal madness replaced by the Age of the Cockroaches.
Prof. Salim Mansur emigrated from India to Canada where he received a PhD in Political Science. He taught for many decades at the University of Western Ontario.
Mansur is a member of the board of directors for the Center for Islamic Pluralism based in Washington, D.C., a Senior Fellow with the Canadian Coalition for Democracies, a group which seeks to support democracies and placed particular emphasis on calling for the Government of Canada to adopt a pro-Israel stance.
@Sebastien
You are quite correct.
There is no honest argument to be made which can challenge these facts. Many people hate Russia and hate the Russians and hate Putin. These are irrational emotional sentiments which lack a factual relevance to the altercations which led to this war. Too few are interested in actually looking at the facts without the Hate-Tinted input of their emotional baggage. But I would be happy to read their comments proving me wrong on this point….just waiting for the floodgates to open…
Spot-on, Honeybee 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpGL-mj-LEk
BTW Peloni, Disingenuous? You say Putin felt threatened by Zelenskyy, and use the word “disingenuous?”
“Ooooh! Dat big, bad Zelenskyy gonna come take away all 8,000 of my nukes an’ whoop me all the way to Vladivostok if I don’ do sumphin’ quick!“
@Peloni Also, NATO invasion and bombing of Russian ally, Serbia, and recognition of Kosovo set a precedent very much like this situation only now NATO is hypocritically saying what’s good for
The goose isn’t good for the gander.
@Hineybee 😀 Good one. I’ll use it at some point. So, you too will take the Scarlett, eh?
Well, frankly, my dear…
I think it is simply disengenuos to suggest that we do not know who started this war. Russia was threatened over the course of a year by the automoton in a green shirt and the bobble headed child-sniffing crackpot. They massed a NATO trained, armed and funded army filled with neoNazi’s and fomenting anti-Russophobes. In an attempt to make the threats against Russia all the more real, this NATO army which was raised to kill Russians was set loose with more ferocity than had been experienced during the entire previous 8yr of the Dombas war. Are we to pretend that there is no right to pre-emptory self defense? Is this not the very basis for which we hope to hear that Israel will put an end to Iran’s nuclear program? In fact, this would be neither a novel nor a unsupportable claim which explains and defends Russia’s attempt, albeit still ongoing, to neutralize the anti-Russian threat mounting on her borders.
But this is not the only basis for which Russia responded to the threat on her borders. Indeed, in addition to this, Russia was invoking the US changes to international law at the end of the last century which allows an international organization to respond to a threat facing a member of the organization. In this case, Russia had formed an alliance with the Dombas communities of Donetz and Lughanz, providing an even more poignant application for this accepted international statute, since the terrorists which the US and NATO came to rescue in ’99 were not members of NATO, but Donetz and Lughanz which Russia came to rescue last year were members of the organization formed between them and Russia.
In any event, Russia had plenty of cause to enter this war, based on active military assaults upon an ally or based on active threats to her own sovereighty. Still, I should be interested to hear someone explain why these reasons were not enough to warrant a Russian response.
Sebastien:
I am way too wise to continue Send this to you with much ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpGL-mj-LEk
@Honeybee You wrote, “You, Ted and everyone else here have no idea whatever who “started it”.”
False. Colonel McGregor does a good job of explaining the chronology in this last video
And you addressed it to Michael, Peloni and Ted, and forgot to address it to me, though I’m not sure why you addressed it to Michael because he agrees with you that Russia is the aggressor. He just said we’re not laughing and we’re not. Otherwise, he just took the Scarlett,you know like taking the fifth? I made this up but I think it has a great deal of explanatory power as my history professors used to say.
https://youtu.be/k4SGgRl14HY
@Ted This is the post you misread. You read the first line, ignored the block text indicating it was a quote and ignored my response:
Sebastien Zorn
FEBRUARY 8, 2023 AT 3:45 PM
@Michael, Peloni, Ted
—
Oh, I see I forgot to address it to Honeybee. I just quoted her entire post . Still my response is there.
(You may have noticed I sometimes get mixed up when quoting.)
False. Colonel Mcgregor does a good job of explaining the chronology in this last video.
—
Did you not notice when she posted this?
@Ted Honeybee wrote that and I was rebutting her argument. One of a number of rebuttals I wrote but probably the first coherent and relevant one. Apology accepted.
@Sebastien
You wrote
At least I read it that way.
So I thought you wrote it./ Sorry for the misunderstanding.
@Ted You obviously misread what I wrote. I was practically quoting Colonel Mcgregor in one of the recent videos you posted when I wrote:
I added the Israel analogy and the information from elsewhere that The Russians attacked after Biden announced the escalation a year ago. Are you watching the videos or just posting them?
@Ted Why are you offended? I never speak for anyone but myself. And, I did place the blame on the US for the coups and fueling the war. But, It’s not just the US. Every Ukrainian nationalist movement before this one, has been genocidal towards Jews. This one is genocidal towards Russians. A lot of the stuff you have posted was about that and I was finally convinced.
You get ticked off and erupt at me for no apparent reason making no sense whatsoever every so often when I least expect it. My father was like that. I woyldn’t speak to him for 5 years in the 80s and the last 7 years of his life, though I reluctantly saw him on his deathbed where he lay babbling looking like a skeleton at the request of my half-brother. Knock it off.
@Sebastien
I am offended. Everything I have written and posted puts the blame on the US.
@Honeybee No, I’m not laughing. When I said the West Ukrainian government started it, I meant, and they wouldn’t stop. They were bombarding Eastern Ukrainian civilians for 8 years before Russia got involved. They had seceded without Russian involvement because the West Ukrainians were suppressing their culture and language and broke every agreement not to, we now know because they were playing for time to build their army. Washington did this with a series of anti-Russian coups and bringing NATO closer and closer to Russia’s border in violations of every promise. imagine Chinese Forces massing on our border. Imagine Arab forces massing on Israel’s. 1956, 1967, 1973. Think pre-emption was wrong? The Russians annexed when Biden announced an escalation.
This will only be resolved and West Ukraine will only survive when the annexation of Eastern Ukraine, which was part of Russia for hundreds of years until 5 minutes ago is recognized, and West Ukraine disarms and becomes a neutral buffer state again.
Russia is not the Soviet Union. West Ukrainians and East Ukrainians are not one people but two who don’t even speak the same language. Three if you count the oppressed Hungarians of Transnistria.
@Michael, Peloni, Ted
False. Colonel Mcgregor does a good job of explaining the chronology in this last video.
Hi, Honeybee. You said,
I don’t know how that’s supposed to apply to anyone here. I’m certainly not laughing, and I don’t think Sebastien and Ted are either.
I don’t want to think too much about Ukraine. Neither side is able to win on the ground. All three of the main political instigators — Biden, Putin and Xi — are seeking and perpetrating wars in order to divert attention from their domestic failures. It’s psychopathic behaviour, at the expense of countless innocent people. In the end, only God will win: He’ll have revealed what’s in the hearts of men, in all their wickedness.
All wars eventually end; but no war has ever been un-fought. That simply cannot happen.
@Honeybee Yes, Edgar hasn’t ticked me off in a while and you have been spouting Ganz-like nonsense.
Sebastien: Have I replaced Edgar as your favorite person?
@Honeybee Russia accuses US embassy of ‘fake news’ about war, threatens expulsions
Do you trust Western media on other issues? How can you be so sure who is telling the truth and who is committing the atrocities?
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-730857
There is a recently discovered 1968 interview with Ben-Gurion on the Israeli streaming app, Izzy. In it he talks about the furious opposition to accepting reparations from Germany. He says, he understands how Holocaust survivors would feel that way. That’s why he was only willing to discuss it on the basis of reason with those who have not suffered.
@Honeybee Shakespeare overgeneralized. Case in point:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abba_Kovner
@Honeybee
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62952641
Sebastien, Ted, & Michael S,
“He laughs at wounds who never felt a blow” Wm Shakespeare
Sebastien,
I expected better things of you. First of all, you have the war all back-assward. You, Ted and everyone else here have no idea whatever who “started it”.
I just had another war dream, like countless others I’ve had for the past 54 years, ever since I put away the easy, peaceful life of a college student to put on a US Army uniform. In my dream, I was in the US, in a park. Ordinary people were coming at me, armed and in uniform. They were men, women and children. They intended to kill me, and I began killing them. Then I woke up.
That was a mild dream. I didn’t shout and swear, nor did I wake up finding myself fallen out of bed, as I sometimes do. I didn’t ask for those dreams. I didn’t start that war. I even protested against it, while in uniform. None of that mattered. I put on the uniform as a human being; and a couple years later, I started taking it off as a creature I don’t completely recognize.
Putin and Biden will be cell-mates in hell; and you and the others here do not speak well by praising — or excusing — either of them.
I think Peloni was too harsh.. It is to Russia’s credit that she entered with a light foot hoping that’s all that was necessary. When she saw she was wrong, she began to mobilize big time. I do not think Russia should stop to allow for negotiations. The war should continue until a deal is struck.
@ T Belman
I don’t see Russia agreeing to an armistice, period. Ukraine and the west would just use a lull in the fighting to re-coup, re-group, and re-arm. Russia is not that stupid. Instead, I see Russia continuing on westward until the Ukrainian regime and its armed forces completely crumble. It will do Russia little good to take only four provinces (plus Crimea), if what remains of Ukraine could someday re-arm and once again pose a threat.
No, the only way Russia can allow themselves to stop is if Ukraine is first beaten and then pledges 1) to never re-arm, 2) to remain neutral for perpetuity, and 3) to stomp out the Bandera ideology. Russia might then withdraw to the borders of the four eastern provinces, but the conditions I have just enumerated are the fundamental reasons Russia is fighting this war.
@Peloni Well said. Bravo. In this recent video, Colonel McGregor said the Russians view Americans as impulsive. They are proceeding slowly so as not to ignite a wider conflict.
@Honeybee
@Sebastien
I think the Russians have shown restraint, significant restraint in fact, in reacting to the wanton murder of their ethnic brothers and sisters on the far side of the Ukrainian border. Demonstrating such restraint in the midst of a war is not just reckless, it is highly dangerous. No one, of course, demonstrates the level of stupid restraint which Israel employs, even as almost nobody recognizes that they are actually demonstrating such restraint as they endure. As with Israel, the restraint which Russia has demonstrated in this war only serves to prolonged the crisis, and grants their enemies hopes of a possible victory, and undermines the long term goals and the short term victories of those demonstrating such restraint. When war is made necessary, it is best to resolve such matters in the quickest, most decisive fashion as possible so as to not prolong the threat which cause the war to begin in the first place. Restraint results in a greater risk to the soldiery and extends the threat to the citizenry, both of which are demonstrably unethical and unacceptable consequences to such follies as knocking on buildings to make sure that all the terrorists and their neighbors are safe and secure before leveling the structure – notably, it is not the structure which brought about the war, and chasing the terrorists/combatants elsewhere will not stop them from exercising the threat which brought about the crisis in the first place.
I think it is a fair suggestion that Russia was concerned that if they went into Ukraine as if it had been Bagdad or Tripoli, it might have escalated the possibilty of drawing the Americans and Russia into open conflict. It is also true that Putin had no interest in savaging the countryside in Ukraine. But his lack of applying significant pressure in the beginning months of this war has led to the frog tolerating the slow boil all the more easily, and this was a necessary military consequence to the political choice of the Russian policy of restraint which has characterized the Russian SMO from the early months til not very long ago.
@Honeybee And you sidestepped the question. The Ukrainians started it. Do you really think the Russians have not been showing restraint?
@Honeybee You are playing with words. “Restraint” was your word. Now it’s “compassion.” In an all-out war, you aim to destroy the enemy as quickly as possible. Period. I was so frustrated during the 2nd Iraq War when the army was stalled in front of Faluja. Just go around it or obliterate it. Geez.
Sebastien, “Watch Ukrainian missile strike hits[sic] Russian town.” What, did the Russians expect to go unscathed?
Sebastien; Failing to bomb unprotected civilians is not showing restraint; it is showing compassion. This a sentiment you will find neither in Sherman nor the Russians Recall the behavior of the Russian army in Chechnya
.
@Honeybee
@Honeybee Israel is not trying to win the war but merely to maintain the status quo and avoid sanctions. There’s nothing admirable abour showing restraint in a war. The Allies would have lost. The Union would have lost. America lost every war in which it showed restraint. Human rights should be a contractual quid pro quo.
Sebastian: Apples and Oranges. Israel shows laudable restraint. Russia, massive unrestrained death and destruction.
@Honeybee “Watch Ukrainian missile strike hits Russian town.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/366690
Russia doesn’t need an armistice. It’s Ukraine and the West who need an armistice… and they need it now. If they don’t get an armistice soon, Russia will just continue its march westward, until there is nothing left of Ukraine to salvage. In its stupid and foolish desire to look tough, or to at least appear on an equal footing with Russia (which it is not), Ukraine has said that it will not negotiate with Russia unless preconditions, (which are patently unacceptable to the Russians), are met. Trying to impose any preconditions on Russia is ridiculous. Russia is in the driver’s seat on all counts, (unless you believe the MSM). Ukraine is simply not in a position to demand anything as a precondition for talks. Thus, Ukrainian demands for preconditions talks are nothing more than bluff and posturing for the benefit of western audiences and benefactors.
If someone in the west, or maybe even in Ukraine itself, is truly concerned with saving at least some part of Ukraine, they will drop all calls for preconditions and sue for peace immediately, while there is still something left to save. Even if they do this, however, Russia may completely disregard their pleas. Why shouldn’t they? Maybe it is already too late for a negotiated settlement, but regardless, Ukraine needs to make the effort to establish meaningful negotiations for the sake of the next generation of Ukrainian people, whose fathers, sons, uncles, and even grandfathers are being sacrificed as cannon fodder, solely for the sake of western hegemony.
The Ukrainians should immediately call for “negotiations now, with no preconditions”, and pray to God that the Russians will take them up on it.
@Honeybee https://youtu.be/KXcQ892cKso
@Honeybee “Little girl demonstrates art of stabbing: “Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab!”
Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik | Dec 9, 2015”
https://palwatch.org/page/9323
@Honeybee What about the 14,000 murdered Russian Ukrainians? Didn’t Russia have a right to make it stop? Doesn’t Israel have a right to bomb the Pals even when civilians get in the way?
oops on my above post. However Felix my sentiment on Putin and the Russian remains the same.
The war on Ukraine, the death of children, and the destruction are NOT EXCUSED by the manufactured hysteria over nazi/fascism.
FelixQuigley
FEBRUARY 5, 2023 AT 2:21 PM
I do believe that Putin does hate this war. And so do the Russian people
Ah, come on Felix!!!!!!!!!!!! Get real, Nazi/Fascist!!!!!!!!!! This is an excuse for the death of children and the destruction of Ukraine?
I do believe that Putin does hate this war. And so do the Russian people.
But the whole situation is: how to exist with a neighbour which is Fascist/Nazi?
And which IS being used under Azov WANTS to be used as a proxy???
You hate to fight but have to.
On the opposite side Putin can and will negotiate and compromise too but not capitulate
Moreover he has the trust of Russians and will keep too
He acts out of national patriotism
The big problem the world has is we have two parties in America that are warmongers and the latest from John Mearsheimer says that America is now so invested it CANNOT PULL BACK
Yes I agree with you denazification demilitaristion aims well broadcast
But often as satire
In other words it’s not nearly enough just to say words
The whole experience has to be highlighted
Such as…where to start..the material is so extensive…perhaps the films we have
Peloni
Perhaps I was not clear.
I was making the assertion that the whole saga of the Minsk carryon is simply NOT well known.
And it really can be crucial to know
Better to say WIDELY known
The other thing not well known about is everything connected with the Maidan Coup.
There IS a lot
@Felix
I disagree. Demilitarization and denazification has been well publicized by the Russians as the motivation for the launch of the ATO and it has never wavered.
An even more expansive commentary by Prof. Mansur with even more details reported.
Indeed, it is very revealing to hear that the West actually is responding to the reality of their looming defeat, though far too timidly for it to be useful. Russia is winning this war and that is clear to all with even the most supportive of MSM outlets such as the Guardian and the WSJ noting that Russia, not Ukraine, is winning. With the wind at his back and his forces about to pounce, the image of compromise on Putin’s part would be for him to not press the obvious advantage he holds and sweep over Odessa and the rest of Ukraine to achieve his stated goals of demilitarizing and denazifiying Ukraine. For him to accede to this, there must be a tangible offer made by a credible agent. As Ted notes, the credible offer would have to be at minimum the four provinces which are legally recognized as Russian territory by Russia, and as Mansur notes, the credible agent would not be the chief US spy, or the chief US diplomat.
Erdogan would jump at the chance to play the great peacemaker of course, even despite the anger he likely holds over his last attempt to do so was sunk by Boris Johnson. The West, however, will not be keen on improving Erdogan’s political capital by crowning him with the role of peacemaker as he goes into the coming election, but Putin seems to hold some trust in the Turkish scalawag, so perhaps the West will bend to this as well. Putin is not the war hawk which the West has painted him, so, unless he has changed his nature due to the many revelations over the past year, he will likely be interested in accepting a reasonable arrangement with reasonable conditions and mediator.
In any event, I think the West will not play out a redo on the Charge of the Light Brigade while running into this Ukrainian abyss to fight a battle which they can not win, though in war anything is possible, especially with the Deep State caricatures who are running things in Washington.
I recall a line from a movie some years back noting that in the nuclear age, war is the real enemy, and this is true. It is this truth which kept the Cold War very cold due to the deliberate seriousness of the many statesmen who led throughout that long contest. It is this same truth which also displays the reckless and cynical nature of the clowns ruling in the West which spurred this crisis into open war, only as the basis by which to achieve regime change in Russia, while exhibiting such gross negligence and incompetence that not only did they fail to not unseat Putin, but they made him all the more stable in his position while leaving themselves, rather than Putin, with no easy off-ramp by which to end the war they began.
Mansur writes
“I mostly agree with Peloni that the collective West led by the U.S. is, as Putin and the leadership in Moscow have repeatedly said, “not-agreement capable.” In other words, there is no basis any more for Moscow to trust any Western/American leader, and especially those presently ruling, with whom they can negotiate an agreement that will be honoured in the West. The Minsk Agreements (I and II) erased all trust in Moscow of the post-1992 leadership in the collective West.
And
The broad outline of Moscow spelled out by Putin with the launch of the special military operation (SMO) on Feb 24, 2022, is now well known and has remained in place ”
Yes indeed the treachery practiced on Putin and Russia/Russians in these two treaties of Minsk was so sullenly and insultingly dishonest that there can be no trust left as far as Russia is concerned
So Russia had no alternative and does not have nor will not. And no way back or out of.
But the second extract above is not correct.
NOT WELL KNOWN
This has been a war of propaganda and Russia has been useless or near useless in this regard.
That may be harsh because the capitalist west are the greatest liars in history.
But none of this is known to billions of people. This is why I keep opposing these lies and liars here all the time…the lies from people like Michael never end AND HE IS SUPPORTED HERE