Does No One Want Peace in Ukraine?

Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have been rare since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Part of the blame falls on Europe and the mainstream media for attempting to suffocate diplomacy.

When the first bilateral talks occurred in the early weeks of the war, the West, led by the United States, Britain and Poland discouraged them and nudged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky off the promising path of peace and along the path of war with promises of whatever Ukraine needs for as long as they need it. An initialed draft of a peace plan yielded to three years of war.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “should be pressured, not negotiated with” and told Zelensky that Ukraine should “just fight.” The Americans, rather than encouraging diplomacy that could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, prevented the poisoning of international relations and prevented the real risk of World War III, ramped up military aid and provided Ukraine with the most advanced weapons NATO had to offer.

Now there is hope of a resumption of those talks. Russian and Ukrainian delegations have met for the first time since those early talks for a first round of direct negotiations. And, once again, rather than nurturing them, Europe and the Western media are dismissing and suffocating them.

Rather than throwing their influential weight behind Ukraine negotiating with Russia, Europe has pushed Ukraine to adopt maximalist terms that they know will force Russia to go on fighting. They try to convince the Trump administration that Putin is bent on conquering Europe and is only faking interest in peace. They push for more sanctions on Russia and more military aid for Ukraine.

Instead of pushing for peace, Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said on May 26 that Germany had removed range restrictions on weapons sent to Ukraine, restrictions that his predecessor, like the United States, had insisted on to avoid crossing red lines that could draw NATO into war with Russia and into a third world war.

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