Congress Zelensky Washington
FILE PHOTO: US newspaper, citing NATO and Ukrainian officials, claims Zelensky wants to first secure some military victories against Moscow
Ukraine may present its vision of peace around the last week in February, near the first anniversary of Russia's offensive against the country, the Wall Street Journal has reported. The US newspaper, citing European and Ukrainian diplomats, claimed President Vladimir Zelensky and his team are currently working on such a formula.

In its article on Thursday, the media outlet alleged that the Ukrainian leadership wants to strengthen its position at the negotiating table by making gains on the battlefield against Russia before unveiling any peace proposals.


Comment: And so all the West needs to do is keep funding the proxy-war? Because that will lead to peace?


The topic of peace and how Ukraine sees it was high on the agenda of US President Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Zelensky during the latter's visit to Washington on Wednesday.

However, according to the Washington Post, citing an anonymous senior US official, the discussion was largely "academic," as the US and Ukraine believe Russia is not interested in any such negotiations at this point.

Addressing G20 leaders in Indonesia last month, President Zelensky laid out a ten-point peace plan, which called for, among other things, the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine and an "all for all" prisoner swap.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the time that the terms were "unrealistic and inadequate" and that Zelensky's speech was full of "militant, Russophobic and aggressive rhetoric."

The Kremlin, in turn, insisted that Kiev must recognize the "reality on the ground" as a prerequisite for any peace negotiations. In Moscow's eyes, this reality includes the new status of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions as parts of Russia.

Unnamed Western officials cited by the Wall Street Journal had suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing to launch a renewed offensive in the coming months and is not interested in any peace talks before he sees how those efforts pan out.


Comment: Indeed, Russia appears to be working up to some kind of significant move, and that might just be what has prompted US-Ukraine to float the idea of negotiations: Medvedev delivers 'personal message' from Putin to Xi


Meanwhile, speaking to journalists on Thursday, the Russian head of state said that Moscow's "goal is not to ramp up this military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war, that is what we are striving for and will strive for."

Putin noted that the sooner hostilities in Ukraine come to an end, the better, as the "intensification of fighting leads to unnecessary losses."

The Russian president went on to insist that the Kremlin has never refused to engage in peace talks with Ukraine. He claimed that it is the leadership in Kiev that "has forbidden itself from" going down this road.

This is an apparent reference to a decree signed by Zelensky in early October, according to which Ukraine will not negotiate with Moscow as long as Putin remains in power there. The decision came in response to Moscow officially signing agreements with the Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples' Republics as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, which joined Russia after holding referendums.

"One way or another, all armed conflicts end with some negotiations on the diplomatic track," Putin argued on Thursday.

He also expressed hope that those "who are opposing us" realize this as soon as possible.

Kremlin comments on Kiev's purported peace plan

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that Russia considers previous comments made by Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky about the possibility of peace talks as detached from reality. He'd been asked on Friday to comment on media reports about a new peace plan being formulated by the leader's office.

"We are not aware of it," the official told journalists during a briefing. "We have heard Zelensky's statements about various steps, a peace plan. But all that he has said until now did not take into account the reality on the ground, which one simply cannot ignore."

Zelensky was asked about a "just peace" ending the conflict, during a press-conference in Washington that he held this week alongside US President Joe Biden. He replied that he didn't know what that term meant, before declaring that no amount of reparations would compensate for the losses of some Ukrainians, who want revenge on "inhumans."


Comment: And that might be part of the reality on the ground Peskov is talking about, and that Russia's special operation is intended to deal with: Ukraine's Nazi problem. The Nazi's had a similar term for its opponents: 'Untermensch' - non-Aryan "inferior people"'.


Biden intervened to declare that both he and Zelensky ultimately wanted peace. US policy states a strategic defeat of Russia as a primary goal in the crisis.

Russia and Ukraine were on the brink of reaching a ceasefire agreement in early April. But Kiev's Western backers reportedly declined to support the deal that Kiev brought to the negotiation table. Moscow said the US and its allies derailed the talks so that they could inflict more damage on Russia, disregarding Ukraine's interests.