RTFri, 10 Dec 2021 18:31 UTC
© Reuters/Kevin LamarquePresident of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. Hopes for building peace in Ukraine's east have been dashed, after its leader fell prey to "Nazi" influences, Russian President Vladimir Putin has alleged.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, on Friday, that he would not rule out the possibility of a referendum on the status of two breakaway regions, in the east of his country, or direct negotiations with Moscow.
Zelensky was speaking to Kiev's 1+1 TV network, following a call with the French President Emmanuel Macron. He was referring to Donetsk and Lugansk, which have been largely controlled by separatists, with Russian support, since shortly after the Kiev Maidan in 2014. The president explained:
"I do not rule out a referendum on Donbass as a whole. It's not a question of status. This could be about the Donbass, Crimea, and maybe in general on halting the war."
Zelensky also said
he would not rule out direct negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and saw support for it from Ukraine's European partners and the US.A readout of the Macron-Zelensky call provided by Paris said
the two presidents agreed to resume the talks in the so-called Normandy format, with the mediation of France and Germany. Macron pledged to discuss reviving the model with the new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz next week.US President Joe Biden also spoke with Zelensky on Thursday, briefing the Ukrainian leader on his talks with Putin earlier in the week.
The Normandy format was responsible for the Minsk agreements, which stopped the high-intensity fighting in the Donbass by the spring of 2015. The two eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk had declared independence from Ukraine in 2014, after the elected government in Kiev was violently overthrown. While Russia does not recognise their status, it does support both regions.
The president elected in the aftermath, Petro Poroshenko, lost to Zelensky in 2019 in a landslide.
Comment: Promises requited that should have never been made.
The US has decided against delivering a major military aid package to Kiev amid renewed tensions surrounding Ukraine, a report from NBC News has claimed. It follows a week of frenetic trans-Atlantic diplomacy around the issue.
The White House had prepared a package of $200 million worth of additional military assistance to the East European country, the network reported on Saturday.
NBC insists that the US has other options for helping Ukraine, including a much larger aid package that could be approved "in the event of [a] further incursion by Russia."
The White House delayed a shipment of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine in an effort to defuse tensions and "retain leverage in the case of a Russian attack on Ukraine."
Funding someone else's war is more important than economic woes at home (so say those who just raised the US debt ceiling into the stratosphere):
The Pentagon has disclosed details of the shipment of anti-tank missile systems and projectiles supplied to Kiev, as Moscow grows increasingly concerned about the prospect of a full-blown conflict in Ukraine's Donbass region.
On Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Anton Semelroth said:
"the $60 million package... included 30 Javelin command and control launchers, as well as 180 missiles. In 2021, the US allocated more than $450 million in aid to Ukraine for security tasks as part of our continued commitment to support the country's ability to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that
"more and more forces and equipment are being accumulated on the line of contact in the Donbass, supported by an increasing number of Western instructors."
At the end of November, the top diplomat said that claims Ukraine's troops had deployed American-made Javelin rocket launchers were a matter of grave concern and could lead to a full-blown offensive in the war-torn region. Lavrov said:
"In recent weeks, we have seen a stream of consciousness from the Ukrainian leadership - especially when it comes to the military - that is excessively inflamed and dangerous."
Just hours before, the head of Ukraine's military intelligence service, Kirill Budanov, revealed that advanced US-made Javelin systems had been tested by Ukraine's troops and were being used by soldiers in the Donbass.
Russia's ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, warned the White House earlier in November that supplying Ukraine with deadly armaments could diminish hopes for peace in the region, stating that Moscow believes "another opportunity to encourage Kiev to stop the war has been missed."
Zelensky has chosen to be in the center of this squeeze play. He is either a play-acting, high stakes gambling man or cognitively naive to think he has any ability to leverage either side of this equation over the other to his benefit. His most important contribution: providing the excuse.
So, according to Zelensky, Ukraine is at war.