By Ahmed Adel
More than two years into the Ukrainian conflict, the Kiev regime is facing pressure from both Western allies and the Global South to come to the negotiating table to reach a “flexible” peace with Russia, Bloomberg reported. However, this is complicated because, according to a former US official, making any concessions to Russia “would be fatal” for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
According to the Bloomberg article, Ukraine is approaching the third winter of the conflict against the backdrop of reduced Western support. Germany is allocating much less funds in its budget to Ukraine, and “France is grappling with its own ballooning deficit.”
Despite Zelensky’s statements that he is unwilling to negotiate any concessions with Moscow, senior Ukrainian officials admitted to the outlet that “an endgame should come into play.”
“Ukraine’s allies are detecting that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy may be getting ready to adopt a more flexible approach as they look at ways to help bring an end to Russia’s war,” the article quotes its sources close to NATO.
Kiev’s possible membership in NATO has not been confirmed even by US Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris who, in turn, had promised support for Ukraine.
The article admits that in addition to the West, another part of the world, the Global South, also wants peace talks between Russia and Ukraine to take place. Unlike the West, countries in the Global South, particularly Brazil and China, have consistently stated that Russia must be included in peace negotiations.
“Zelensky’s blueprint to isolate Moscow by securing the support of countries such as China, India and Brazil has stalled amid an insistence” that the Kremlin has a seat at the negotiating table, the article concludes.
On June 15-16, the so-called “Peace Summit for Ukraine” was held in the Swiss resort of Burgenstock, but Russia was not invited. Brazil, India, Mexico, South Africa and other states did not sign the final communiqué. The Kremlin said that it makes no sense to look for options for resolving the situation in the Ukrainian conflict without Russia’s participation.
For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s peaceful settlement of the conflict calls for Ukrainian troops to withdraw from the new Russian regions, demands that Kiev renounce its intentions to join NATO and adopt a neutral, non-aligned, and nuclear-free status, carry out the country’s demilitarisation and denazification, and lift anti-Russia sanctions.
Daria Zarivna, the aide to Zelensky’s chief of staff, announced that the second peace summit will not be held in November, as originally planned.
“The second Peace Summit will not take place in November. But everything for its preparation should already be ready. So far, thematic conferences are being held on each item of the Formula, which ends with the adoption of communiqués. The main provisions of these communiqués will form the basis for the future peace plan of the Second Summit,” Zarivna said on October 8.
According to Stephen Bryen, former deputy assistant secretary of the US Department of Defense, Zelensky cancelled the second Ukraine peace summit after realising that almost no one would attend.
Bryen’s beliefs on the summit’s cancellation are based on US presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s statement that she will not talk to Putin about Ukraine without Zelensky.
“Meanwhile Zelensky, who was just forced to cancel a forthcoming ‘peace summit’ (officially postponed to a future time) because no one wanted to come, has made it clear he will not negotiate with Moscow under any circumstances,” he wrote in his Substack article.
Furthermore, as the Ukrainian army begins to disintegrate, Zelensky is relying on “neo-Nazi elite brigades for his protection,” Bryen noted. “Zelensky understands that any concession he might make to Russia would be fatal for him.”
The former deputy assistant secretary to the Department of Defense concluded his article:
“There is growing unease in the United States about the hundreds of billions wasted on Ukraine, with no settlement now possible. At some point that policy will result in a major walk-back from the NATO alliance, and from any commitment to defend Europe when it really does little to defend itself.”
In effect, Zelensky is facing increased pressure from the West and the Global South to concede on his ridiculous policy of not negotiating with the Kremlin so that the war can be concluded. However, because he has relied on neo-Nazi formations to battle Russian forces and to preserve the regime, it also puts him in a dangerous position as the Ukrainian neo-Nazis want the war to continue.
At the same time, Zelensky is evidently unwilling to relinquish power by his refusal to step down or hold the elections that were due in May, meaning that the war will continue since he relies on neo-Nazis to maintain his power and preserve the regime. These neo-Nazis will kill him, according to Bryen, if he ends the war.
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Birds Not Bombs: Let’s Fight for a World of Peace, Not War
This article was originally published on InfoBrics.
Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is from the Public Domain
