The Russian Presidential Aide and head of the Russian negotiating group with Ukraine also said that recently the Russian Military Historical Society handed over several thousand books to the institutions where Ukrainian prisoners of war are being held, including textbooks on the history of Russia in the 20th century and pamphlets about Bandera
This guy makes one mistake in his reasoning. He’s absolutely right about Trump not offering a real peace deal, but he talks about the conflict as if it’s something the US forced on Russia, which is of course not true; it’s Russia, and specifically Putin, who chose to start this war and invade Ukraine. He talks about NATO expansion as if that’s something the US is pushing, but again, countries want to join NATO because they feel threatened by Russia.
Russia started this war because NATO rejected Ukraine’s membership, leaving Ukraine vulnerable. But it wasn’t a definitive rejection, leaving Putin to think he had a closing window of opportunity to invade Ukraine, which is why he rushed into this foolish war. Harder guarantees for Ukrainian security would have dissuaded Putin.
EU, meanwhile, never wanted anything like this, and even remained in denial after the invasion started. The EU just wants to trade with Russia and treat it as a normal country, a trading partner. Even after Putin invaded, they kept buying Russian gas for quite some time and some countries really didn’t want to stop. Because gas is more important than human lives, to some.
Freezing the conflict is a bad idea; there needs to be a permanent peace, but there can only be a permanent peace if Russia stops invading its neighbours (this wasn’t the first time), and Putin made it clear he has no plans to stop. He’s frequently talking about Lithuania, Moldova, and more recently Azerbaijan.
It’s pretty clear what the problem is here. It’s Russian imperialism. Putin’s dreams of empire. His unwillingness to accept other nations as equals.
The US has been pushing that since the Warsaw Pact dissolved, and was planning for it long before. Weaponizing Europe, Countering Eurasia: Mackinder, Brzezinski, Nuland and the Road to the Ukraine War
Next you’re going to tell us that NATO is a defensive alliance.
Previously: