Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s chief negotiator in Istanbul talks, supposedly said to the Ukrainian delegation: “We fought Sweden for 21 years. How long are you ready to fight? We’re prepared to fight forever.”
Indeed, waging the eternal war on Ukraine seems to be what Russian President Vladimir Putin wants when we look past the diplomatic pleasantries and mind games. Putin, blinded by his anti-Ukrainian obsession, is unable to stop the war, even though he knows the war is destroying Russia as well.
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The diplomatic back-and-forth, be it a coldly calculated chess game or a monumental mess disguised as diplomacy, only confirms that the Russian president and his Kremlin cronies don’t seem that interested in ending what it started.
Rather, Russians negotiate and escalate because their intent is to confuse and wage this war until Ukraine is destroyed. A ballistic missile here, a drone there. Death of Ukraine by a thousand cuts. Putin’s obsession with Ukraine goes beyond geopolitical calculations and borders on the irrational.
Can Ukraine seriously negotiate with that kind of maniac?
Russians only respect nations they see as sovereign
Russians divide the world into what they perceive as sovereign nations and the puppet states that must accept whatever the sovereign nations decide. Who’s in the sovereign nation club? Any nuclear nation, plus Switzerland, the Vatican and any nation that was a world-changing empire spanning vast distances, such as Turkey, Spain and Italy.
Zelensky Says Putin Rejected G7 Peace Talks Offer
Japan and Germany might be exceptions here, as they are likely considered to be US puppet states in spite of being world-changing empires during World War 2.
Only sovereign states can count on Russians taking them seriously in negotiations.
Ukrainian agency – anathema to Russians
For Russians, Ukraine is the most puppetized state on the planet – a US colony. Russians don’t negotiate with puppet states. Russians put the puppet states through a humiliation ritual, so that the puppet states never forget their demeaning place.
That’s what the Russians are doing by pretending to negotiate with Ukraine. That’s why the US must get involved in any negotiations between Ukraine and Russia because Russians don’t take Ukraine seriously.
It doesn’t matter that Ukrainians are the bravest people on the planet. We’re dealing with Russians – and to Russians, Ukrainian agency is anathema. Russians have nothing but death, destruction and contempt for any Ukrainian who fights for Ukraine’s independence.
Case in point, Russian propagandists mocked Azovstal defenders who were captured by Russian troops, scornfully saying that Ukrainians should have chosen death rather than capture. That’s the level of genocidal hatred we’re looking at.
‘’Ukraine never had the cards’’ is the ultimate insult
US President Donald Trump likes saying Ukraine has never had the cards. Alright, so who has all the cards, then? Russia, of course.
Trump is denying Ukraine agency and ascribing all the agency to Russia. Just imagine Trump standing over a mass grave in Bucha, shaking his head, and saying: “Well, they never had the cards.” That’s the level of disrespect and dehumanization we’re talking about, whether Trump knows it or not.
Portraying Ukraine as the victim – a sound strategy or a strategic mistake?
Are we doing Ukraine a terrible disservice by constantly calling it a victim? The US president likes winners, and strong players. By constantly painting Ukraine as the victim, as right as we are, we might be filling Trump’s mind with contempt. He doesn’t associate with victims. He hates victims. He wants winners. The ones who shape the world we live in. And in his mind, Russia seems to be one of these global winners.
We must find a way to show Trump that Ukraine is a winner, too. Trump is unlikely to take Ukraine seriously in negotiations or otherwise if he’s convinced Ukraine is merely a passive victim, and we’re going to hear more Russian narratives spouted by the so-called master negotiator. Trump likes to talk about peace. There’s an easy way to find out how serious Russia is about peace.
If Russia doesn’t return any Ukrainian children, it was never serious about peace
If Putin is serious about peace, he must release at least some of the taken Ukrainian children as an act of good faith. Releasing the children would go a long way to show that Putin isn’t just buying time by playing the negotiation and escalation game, while waiting for the Russian army to regain strength for more imperial conquests. If he doesn’t release any children, then it’s going to be glaringly obvious that the Russian president has no intention to end the war.
If Russia can agree to prisoner-of-war swaps, then surely it can agree to the return of at least a small group of Ukrainian children as a gesture of good faith? We’re likely bound to be disappointed but rescuing even one child from the clutches of Z-madness is better than nothing.
The eternal war scenario is likely
We’re talking about sanctions, about our powerful armies, about Russia collapsing, yet the bear is still stalking us and roaring in the distance. It seems that the eternal war scenario is indeed where we’re headed. The Russian army is likely going to keep gaining ground and Putin’s imperial misadventures are going to expand.
If we don’t put more pressure on Russia, then we might as well lose this war, and then, the future generations are going to say about us, “They could’ve easily stopped Russia, but their most important policymakers chose appeasement – and appeasement doomed their civilization.”
The stakes have never been higher. Let’s hope that Trump is going to harden his stance on Putin. It’s absurd and tragicomical, but the US president is likely the only person with the power to put Russia in its place. We really are cursed to live in interesting times.
The views expressed are the author’s and not necessarily of Kyiv Post.
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