Trump's Russia-Ukraine Peace Push Fails Again For the Same Predictable Reason
Pretending that Russia's war isn't Russia's fault won't work
Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently lamented that people who were alive in Ukraine are dead today “because this war continues.”
Not exactly. They’re dead because Russia killed them in an ongoing attempt to subjugate their country. The war isn’t a natural disaster out of anyone’s control, like, say, a hurricane. Russian leader Vladimir Putin chose to aggressively attack Ukraine, and decided every day since then to keep attacking while making extensive demands.
That’s the central truth of the war, but Russia has always denied it, and under President Donald Trump, the United States denies it as well. That denial renders peace negotiations a farce.
Russian leaders have long said they’re open to peace talks, but consistently show that they mean, “We’ll accept your surrender at any point.”
If war-ending talks such as this week’s summit in Turkey can’t even acknowledge the main reason the war continues, they’re guaranteed to fail.
Russian leaders have long said they’re open to peace talks, but consistently show that they mean, “We’ll accept your surrender at any point.” Last year, Putin responded to peace efforts by demanding that Ukraine first withdraw forces from all parts of Ukraine that Russian forces occupy and formally commit to never joining NATO. This year, Putin demanded that the United States officially recognize all Ukrainian territory Russia has taken since 2014 as Russia’s, and commit to keeping U.S. peacekeepers out of Ukraine. In exchange, Putin offers nothing besides his word that Russia will stop attacking.
He’s also announced brief ceasefires, such as an “Easter truce” this year, during which Russia kept bombing. And Putin got concessions from Ukraine in exchange for an end to hostilities in 2014, but subsequently broke that deal multiple times, as well as a 1994 treaty called the Budapest Memorandum.
Despite Putin’s record, America’s current leaders place the onus for peace on Ukraine, blaming the victim for the war.
In addition to Trump…
Read the full article for free at MSNBC.com here: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trumps-russia-ukraine-peace-talks-are-farce-rcna207156