Peloni: The Ukrainian people should be offered the opportunity to accept or reject the Russian peace offer. They could hold a public referendum or do something even more responsible like holding the presidential elections which the tyrant Zelensky has cancelled til the war is ended, even as he is actively taking steps to prevent the war from ending. Of course, pursuing either of these steps would presume that the people rather than the ruling tyrant should make such choices, and no self respecting despot would stoop so low as to enquire or be concerned with what the people actually want. Given the fact that the Ukrainian people have twice elected candidates in the post Maidan period based upon their claimed support of peace, it seems unfortunate that they will not be offered the opportunity to choose peace again.
By Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn | Reuters | May 25, 2024
MOSCOW/LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to halt the war in Ukraine with a negotiated ceasefire that recognizes the current battlefield lines, four Russian sources told Reuters, saying he is prepared to fight on if Kyiv and the West do not respond.
Three of the sources, familiar with discussions in Putin’s entourage, said the veteran Russian leader had expressed frustration to a small group of advisers about what he views as Western-backed attempts to stymie negotiations and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s decision to rule out talks.
“Putin can fight for as long as it takes, but Putin is also ready for a ceasefire – to freeze the war,” said another of the four, a senior Russian source who has worked with Putin and has knowledge of top level conversations in the Kremlin.
He, like the others cited in this story, spoke on condition of anonymity given the matter’s sensitivity.
For this account, Reuters spoke to a total of five people who work with or have worked with Putin at a senior level in the political and business worlds. The fifth source did not comment on freezing the war at the current frontlines.
Asked about the Reuters report at a news conference in Belarus on Friday, Putin said peace talks should restart.
“Let them resume,” he said, adding that negotiations should be based on “the realities on the ground” and on a plan agreed during a previous attempt to reach a deal in the first weeks of the war. “Not on the basis of what one side wants,” he said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on X that the Russian leader was trying to derail a Ukrainian-initiated peace summit in Switzerland next month by using his entourage to send out “phony signals” about his alleged readiness to halt the war.
“Putin currently has no desire to end his aggression against Ukraine. Only the principled and united voice of the global majority can force him to choose peace over war,” said Kuleba.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, said Putin wanted Western democracies to accept defeat.
NOT “ETERNAL WAR”
The appointment last week of economist Andrei Belousov as Russia’s defence minister was seen by some Western military and political analysts as placing the Russian economy on a permanent war footing in order to win a protracted conflict.<
It followed sustained battlefield pressure and territorial advances by Russia in recent weeks.
However, the sources said that Putin, re-elected in March for a new six-year term, would rather use Russia’s current momentum to put the war behind him. They did not directly comment on the new defence minister.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in response to a request for comment, said the country did not want “eternal war.”
Based on their knowledge of conversations in the upper ranks of the Kremlin, two of the sources said Putin was of the view that gains in the war so far were enough to sell a victory to the Russian people.
Europe’s biggest ground conflict since World War Two has cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides and led to sweeping Western sanctions on Russia’s economy.
Three sources said Putin understood any dramatic new advances would require another nationwide mobilisation, which he didn’t want, with one source, who knows the Russian president, saying his popularity dipped after the first mobilisation in September 2022.
The national call up spooked part of the population in Russia, triggering hundreds of thousands of draft age men to leave the country. Polls showed Putin’s popularity falling by several points.
Peskov said Russia had no need for mobilisation and was instead recruiting volunteer contractors to the armed forces.
The prospect of a ceasefire, or even peace talks, currently seems remote.
Zelenskiy has repeatedly said peace on Putin’s terms is a non-starter. He has vowed to retake lost territory, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. He signed a decree in 2022 that formally declared any talks with Putin “impossible.”< One of the sources predicted no agreement could happen while Zelenskiy was in power, unless Russia bypassed him and struck a deal with Washington. However, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking in Kyiv last week, told reporters he did not believe Putin was interested in serious negotiations.
SWISS TALKS
The Swiss peace summit in June is aimed at unifying international opinion on how to end the war. The talks were convened at the initiative of Zelenskiy who has said Putin should not attend. Switzerland has not invited Russia.
Moscow has said the talks are not credible without it being there. Ukraine and Switzerland want Russian allies including China to attend.< Speaking in China on May 17, Putin said Ukraine may use the Swiss talks to get a broader group of countries to back Zelenskiy’s demand for a total Russian withdrawal, which Putin said would be an imposed condition rather than a serious peace negotiation. The Swiss foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In response to questions for this story, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said any initiative for peace must respect Ukraine’s “territorial integrity, within its internationally recognised borders” and described Russia as the sole obstacle to peace in Ukraine. “The Kremlin has yet to demonstrate any meaningful interest in ending its war, quite the opposite,” the spokesperson said. Kyiv says Putin, whose team repeatedly denied he was planning a war before invading Ukraine in 2022, cannot be trusted to honour any deal. Both Russia and Ukraine have also said they fear the other side would use any ceasefire to re-arm. Kyiv and its Western backers are banking on a $61 billion U.S. aid package and additional European military aid to reverse what Zelenskiy described to Reuters this week as “one of the most difficult moments” of the full scale war.
As well as shortages of ammunition after U.S. delays in approving the package, Ukraine has admitted it is struggling to recruit enough troops and last month lowered the age for men who can be drafted to 25 from 27.
TERRITORY
Putin’s insistence on locking in any battlefield gains in a deal is non-negotiable, all of the sources suggested.
Putin would, however, be ready to settle for what land he has now and freeze the conflict at the current front lines, four of the sources said.
“Putin will say that we won, that NATO attacked us and we kept our sovereignty, that we have a land corridor to Crimea, which is true,” one of them said, giving their own analysis.
Freezing the conflict along current lines would leave Russia in possession of substantial chunks of four Ukrainian regions he formally incorporated into Russia in September 2022, but without full control of any of them.
Such an arrangement would fall short of the goals Moscow set for itself at the time, when it said the four of Ukraine’s regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – now belonged to it in their entirety.
Peskov said that there could be no question of handing back the four regions which were now permanently part of Russia according to its own constitution.
Another factor playing into the Kremlin chief’s view that the war should end is that the longer it drags on, the more battle-hardened veterans return to Russia, dissatisfied with post-war job and income prospects, potentially creating tensions in society, said one of the sources, who has worked with Putin.
In February, three Russian sources told Reuters the United States rejected a previous Putin suggestion of a ceasefire to freeze the war.
In the absence of a ceasefire, Putin wants to take as much territory as possible to ratchet up pressure on Ukraine while seeking to exploit unexpected opportunities to acquire more, three of the sources said.
Russian forces control around 18% of Ukraine and this month thrust into the northeastern region of Kharkiv.
Putin is counting on Russia’s large population compared to Ukraine to sustain superior manpower even without a mobilisation, bolstered by unusually generous pay packets for those who sign up.
“Russia will push further,” the source who has worked with Putin said.
Putin will slowly conquer territories until Zelenskiy comes up with an offer to stop, the person said, saying the Russian leader had expressed the view to aides that the West would not provide enough weapons, sapping Ukraine’s morale.
U.S. and European leaders have said they will stand by Ukraine until its security sovereignty is guaranteed. NATO countries and allies say they are trying to accelerate deliveries of weapons.
“Russia could end the war at any time by withdrawing its forces from Ukraine, instead of continuing to launch brutal attacks against Ukraine’s cities, ports, and people every day,” the State Department said in response to a question about weapons supplies.
All five sources said Putin had told advisers he had no designs on NATO territory, reflecting his public comments on the matter. Two of the sources cited Russian concerns about the growing danger of escalation with the West, including nuclear escalation, over the Ukraine standoff.
The State Department said the United States had not adjusted its nuclear posture, nor seen any sign that Russia was preparing to use a nuclear weapon.
“We continue to monitor the strategic environment and remain ready,” the spokesperson said.
“It’s good to want things.”
– “Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael” (1990)
But if Trump takes office again, he might get it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o37HL4nfbQM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Flanagan_(Irish-Israeli_soldier)
Bee
You dragging me down
Prefer to stay clear of yours truly
Do not involve me AT ALL in anything
Bee comprehension problems?
Ireland is a country of many betrayals and many failures.
Israel becomes a displacement for those failures
Palestine the impossible and illogical, Sharia Palestine, becomes their shining light as Ireland descends into darkness
Felix Compared to the Jews, how many Nobel Awards have the Irish won? How has Ireland’s scientific contribution compared to Israel’s?
Bee that what I always say
Will you go across and teach em
You seem to have your wires seriously crossed see my twitter…felixquigley1
Fighting for the IDF
https://k-larevue.com/en/a-proxy-israeli-palestinian-conflict-is-playing-out-in-northern-ireland/
Felix Compared to the Jews, how many Nobel Awards have the Irish won? How has Ireland’s scientific contribution compared to Israel’s?
Ireland is a country of many betrayals and many failures.
Israel becomes a displacement for those failures
Palestine the impossible and illogical, Shario Palestine, becomes their shining light as Ireland descends into darkness
Laura
Yes of course. We know.
Georgia
The coming months will be crucial for Georgia to obtain EU candidate status, Blinken has said.
The US Secretary of State added that this would be ‘an achievement of historic proportions’ for Tbilisi and urged the Georgian authorities to take steps to move the country in the ‘right direction’.
Earlier, the US threatened Georgia with sanctions if the authorities did not revise the law on foreign agents. Blinken has announced a comprehensive review of co-operation between Washington and Tbilisi.
http://t.me/ukraine_watch
Ireland sucks.
An insane comment, Felix. Ukraine gave up its nukes 30 years ago in exchange for security guarantees by the US, UK and Russia which obviously was reneged upon. It is PUTIN who keeps threatening to use nuclear weapons, Zelensky doesn’t have any. Your entire post was ass backwards and the inversion of reality. Trying to explain the popularity of Putin in some western circles, I’ve concluded its a knee-jerk reaction against America by people on the far right and far left. Being pro-Russia/pro-Putin is simply another expression of anti-Americanism. These are largely people who are also anti-Israel. I have yet to come across someone pro-Russia who is also pro-Israel other than here on Israpundit. You guys are conflicted, not me.
This is a crock of shit and your entire comment was wacky. I’m well aware of who Biden and Blinken are and will vote them out of office. Putin is ALSO a clear enemy of Israel. That is blatantly obvious by his alliance with Iran and hamas. But you not only give him a free pass, you act as though he’s Israel’s friend. It is YOU, Felix, not me that can’t have it both ways. You can’t support Putin’s Russia and claim you are pro-Israel. Russa/China/Iran are joined at the hip and are waging war on Israel and ultimately America.
Here, Felix, is the Irish history that the world is all too familiar with:
https://www.quora.com/Did-the-IRA-and-the-PLO-ever-have-very-close-relations
Here’s my line, Felix
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/O%27Neil-299
…and I too, Felix! directly descended from Niall Noígíal! ‘Tis a sad day, that his spawn should work so hard to fill the Emerald Isle — and DC as well — with Marxist snakes!
Seb
Being a supporter of Israel it’s better than an enemy
But there is requirement for the best in leadership that’s possible
Israel faces Antisemitism on a world scale. On this I presented an essay by Brendan O’Neill of Spiked which had undoubtedly insights.
You were silent
Now you present this????
I am sad Sebastien. You do disappoint to be honest
Reposting:
😀
Michael of course I am proud to be Irish. That is why I oppose the present betrayers.
Klein leaves again
As a lackey of Biden and Blinken Laura is giving full backing to these (by now more than clear) enemies of Israel and vicious operators against Netanyahu.
She cannot have it both ways
She pretends she would die for Israel. But she can canvases for the policy of America against Russia.
They are making war against Russia. They want to remove Putin and destroy the country in every sense. They do the same to Israel.
Laura tried to keep the two issues separate
She is not an honest person.
Secondly she seems to present Putin as the belligerent
But to do THAT Laura has to tell lies about all of history
And ignore the push of NATO to the East breaking all promises to Putin.
Then she ignores the 2014 coup
Then she ignores the revelation about the betrayals of France and Germany on Kirsk 1 and 2
There have been so many lies to Russia…those lies are now a big problem.
She supports Zelensky who wants very much a nuclear war in the world
Of course criticise Russia
But this now spirals to nuclear war. There is at least a danger that we should do everything to avoid
Instead the CIA is knocking out critical defence against nuclear attack in Russia.
I cannot see a way forward if ALL the history is being obscured…which is being done
Felix, I didn’t know you were Irish! So sad, to hear that 🙁
My feelings exactly. I’m perplexed as to why anyone who’s pro-Israel or an American patriot can support Putin.
I trust Putin’s call for a ceasefire as much as I trust hamas’s. If he’s calling for a ceasefire, it’s for diabolical purposes. It’s either because he’s losing ground or it would be temporary to eventually take the rest of Ukraine at such a time when Russia replenishes its forces and arms. Then it will create some kind of phony pretext claiming Ukraine violated the treaty, therefore Russia “must” start bombing Ukraine again. This isn’t speculation. I know Russia wants to recreate the Russian empire simply because Putin has said so. He’s said Ukraine is not a nation, that it belongs to Russia. That is his ultimate goal with regard to Ukraine. Then in time the rest of the former republics.
peloni
I would be obliged if you do not even try to censor me on this site. It won’t work anyway.
No Irishman would ever bend the knee to anyone
This whole history Russia v west and Ukraine
Has to be understood in detail
Peloni has tried. Not yet good enough. IMHO.
ITS NOT WOULD LIKE TO KNOW
RATHER NECESSITY TO SURVIVE
As far as I understand again
The Crimea back in 1991 ?check date declared itself an independent state
Ie before Ukraine did
Peloni
I notice you use the word “reverance” ie me for Baud
Wrong word. Very wrong word. Bit naughty.
ngbranitsky
Who are you. Are you on twitter. I am at @felixquigley1
You misunderstood
Peloni Ted and I are not groupies of anyone. We try for the truth.
You sound so complacent. You understand what is nuclear war?
Laura
If Putin is as you say involved in October 7 publish everything so the truth is known
This does not mean the history of the Ukraine issue should not be pursued totally also.
Peloni
Tell me the alternative
Because of his life’s work in the UN I think… he was on the spot for a long time
His knowledge on Ukraine is priceless
And if we get out without nuclear conflagration
Plus he can be fought
Please publish what you know about Baud all of it ASAP . What good is keeping to yourself
You approaching this as a miserable petty bourgeois
We are all in a life and death struggle. We have to find the truth out about not one thing but everything
@ngbranitsky
We may never know because his efforts to establish a ceasefire are being summarily dismissed, and easily not for the first time, unfortunately.
In return for a ceasefire with the current borders, is Putin offering to help rebuild the Ukrainian cities he destroyed?
Essential questions about the Russia-Hamas link: The evidence and its implications
https://www.mei.edu/publications/essential-questions-about-russia-hamas-link-evidence-and-its-implications
@Felix
As you continue to hold a significant reverence for Baud, I think it only appropriate that it be noted that Baud is at current producing an extraordinary work of dishonesty which is intended to malign Israel as an eternal villain without any basis
of self defense to the recent slaughter of October which he also disputes. Few here should find his authority on any subject as being terribly authoritative, even as his arguments which you find relevant may still hold true.
@Peloni bye now. We certainly will never agree on this topic it is quite obvious.
I do not support thugs like Putin who are allied with the enemies of Israel: Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas…..
You appear to feel comfortable with this. Your right as a free person.
Back on topic
Of course if you refer to Putin as a thug that kind of approach
Not serious
The old politics of an old man
And empty of content
Then refers vaguely to an election and a death…what on earth !
the opposition leader had been jailed and died in prison.
Yes, the opposition leader who was being funded by the US State Dept. Such foreign assets should be imprisoned failing an explanation of the purpose of their foreign funding.
@Bear
You seem ready enough to respond to statements such as this which I did not make. Perhaps you could respond more directly to what I did state.
Because you seem ever addicted to responding to irrelevant comments that I never made. Hence, perhaps you will find it less futile if you stay on subject rather than avoiding the issue raised, which was Zel’s despotic overthrow of the Ukrainian democracy, which has no relevance or tie to either Russia or Putin, but only to Zel’s own authoritarian intolerance for accepting the will of his own people.
Maybe a million Russian’s fled when Putin attacked Ukraine. How may more will flee now as he needs to draft more men to keep slaughtering Ukrainians. So this spoke clearly about their lack of support of the war in Ukraine.
Temporary off topic
If anyone is eager to learn why these leaders came out to support a state which is not, and can never be, consult in Spiked by Brendan O’Neill, Rewarding Fascism
https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/05/22/rewarding-fascism/
Russia is allied with Iran, hamas, NK and china. It’s an abomination that Israpundit continues to support Russia and putin.
I’ve told people here to read the pro-hamas, rabid antisemitic Russia based and pro-Russia accounts on X. I’ve yet to come across anyone pro-Russia who is pro-Israel.
The problem with Klein is that he is following a different narrative, one that is not connected to reality.
Jacques Baud Explained in an article for The Postil
“In fact, these Republics were not seeking to separate from Ukraine, but to have a status of autonomy, guaranteeing them the use of the Russian language as an official language. For the first legislative act of the new government resulting from the overthrow of President Yanukovych, was the abolition, on February 23, 2014, of the Kivalov-Kolesnichenko law of 2012 that made Russian an official language. A bit like if putschists decided that French and Italian would no longer be official languages in Switzerland.
This decision caused a storm in the Russian-speaking population. The result was a fierce repression against the Russian-speaking regions (Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Lugansk and Donetsk) which was carried out beginning in February 2014 and led to a militarization of the situation and some massacres (in Odessa and Marioupol, for the most notable). At the end of summer 2014, only the self-proclaimed Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk remained.”
Very important information contained in that
It was a out very extreme people now with state power beginning to repression their own Ukrainian people over a basic democratic rights to speak Russian.
It was between Ukrainian and Ukrainian
If you are out to start a civil war then that’s exactly what you would do.
The important thing to grasp is that Russia was not involved but of course it was informed of the repression of Russia speakers
@Peloni Russian had an election and the opposition leader had been jailed and died in prison. How funny pretending Russia has free and fair elections.
If a referendum for Ukraine is a good idea, I think a referendum and free elections in Russia would also be fair and a good idea. Then Russia would need to get rid of Putin and his thugs and have a true democracy. Not likely to happen any time soon as theocracy of thuggery is alive and well in Russia.
Anyway having a debate with supporters of Russian Nationalism or Putin is an exercise in futility, I have found out in the past.
@Bear
I think the Russian people recently had an election, did they not? Even as bombs were dropping, troops were on the battlefield, and the US economic war against them was expanding, the Russian polls were opened and the Russian people cast their votes, yet the Ukainian polls are closed and the people are ruled by the dispicable despot Zel. Notably, Putin did not fear the outcome of that election enough to cancel it altogether as did the West’s proxy master in Ukraine whose every effort is gaining his elitist crowd greater wealth while overseeing the endless slaughter of the Ukrainian people in a war which they have no chance of winning.
Klein based on your three paragraphs
So skewed
Replete with obvious lies
If Jews can get through the present struggle with Hamas then a new wave of Hebrews will exclude you
You seem to use Russia as displacement for your empty life
Is your life empty?
Klein
How to answer such a person devoid of truth
Your 3 paragraphs containing so many lies
It must be embarrassing for true Jews to read
Examine all Jews this remark by Blinken
“However, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking in Kyiv last week, told reporters he did not believe Putin was interested in serious negotiations.”
Do Jews not have experience of Blinken?
Is he a liar in Israel and a truth teller in Russia.
Of course not he is a liar always.
The problem some Jews have is in a bias against Russia and this hatred is their only basis.
Like Adam and Bear
@Peloni I think the Russian people should be offered a referendum if they are willing to withdraw from Ukrainian lands and a achieve a permanent peace based on the borders recognized in 1994.
The Russian people should be asked if all their dead and wounded soldiers and harm to their economy was worth Putin’s plan of retaking over the lands of the former Soviet Union.
So the people of Russia rather than the tyrant dictator could decide if they want forever wars with their neighbors. Perhaps they prefer getting along with their neighbors and being part of all the world again and not just friends with Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and China?