Ending the war in Ukraine

By
John Minto
-
94
1330

One year on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is on the warpath urging world leaders to send their most advanced weapons to Ukraine to “secure its long-term future”. At a Munich Security Conference in the last few days

Mr Sunak had said he wanted to “make sure other countries follow our lead” in providing battle tanks, and training soldiers and aviators on Nato-standard aircrafts.

In his speech in Germany, he said: “Ukraine needs more artillery, armoured vehicles and air defences, so now is the time to double down on our military support.

“When Putin started this war, he gambled that our resolve would falter. Even now he is betting we will lose our nerve.

“But we proved him wrong then, and we will prove him wrong now.”

Calling for a new Nato charter to provide assurances of long-term support, Mr Sunak said allies “must demonstrate that we’ll remain by their side, willing and able to help them defend their country again and again”.

He went on to say that, as well as having a military strategy “to gain a decisive advantage on the battlefield”, allies also needed “to rebuild the international order on which our collective security depends”.

Mr Sunak said international law needed to be upheld in order to hold Russia to account. He also called for “a new framework” for Ukraine’s long-term security, and said the international community’s response had not been strong enough against Russia’s aggression.

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Sunak’s speech was a Kafkaesque charade – brim-fill with nauseating hypocrisy about “security” “defence” and the importance of “international law”. This blog is not the place to pick all this apart but just one phrase is enough for now: “Iraq in 2003”.

It’s clear the major western powers – the US, European Union and the UK – are determined to pursue war against Russia irrespective of the death and destruction ravaged in Ukraine or Russia.

The war is being cheered on by the west which sees the opportunity to seriously degrade the Russian economy and military capability for the benefit of western interests.

Yes Putin is a bastard, yes he is a war criminal and nothing that has happened justifies his invasion of Ukraine. But unless we acknowledge the reason he acted as he has then we are as much part of the problem as any of the main actors.

Russian President Putin met in person with US President Biden in mid-2021 in Switzerland, then later in a video meeting in December that year. At each meeting Putin was seeking assurances Ukraine would not join NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), a move that would almost certainly mean US missiles stationed on Russia’s border.

Remember for a moment the panic in the US in the early 1960s when Russia was moving missiles to Cuba on America’s doorstep. The “Russian missile crisis” brought the world closer to nuclear war than at any time in the past or since. The US saw Russia’s action as a direct threat and refused to allow it just as Russia today has refused to accept US missiles at its border.

At each of the Biden/Putin meetings the US believed it had Russia in a corner just where it (and the US arms industry) wanted it. So Biden refused to give Putin the security assurances he needed. Instead Biden explained Ukraine was a sovereign state and he would not agree to provide any assurances on Russian security. (More mind-numbing hypocrisy here – how many democratically elected sovereign states, including Ukraine in 2014, has the US overthrown or messed up since the Second World War?)

At this point a Russian invasion of Ukraine became almost inevitable.

Just to be clear the US refusal to give Russia a security guarantee does not justify Putin’s invasion. It was an invasion and occupation no more acceptable than Israel’s 75-year-old ethnic cleansing and occupation of Palestine which continues to this day.

So what should we do? Progressive voices must begin the drive for peace talks to resolve the war in Ukraine.

Humanity needs a settlement which would guarantee both Ukrainian and Russian security.

It’s a hard call with all the fevered excitement from people who should know better – including some on this blog site. Armchair warmongers are always a problem as they salivate at the death and destruction of others.

We must demand a ceasefire and a return to the talks deliberately spiked by Biden in December 2021.

Late last year Biden said he would only meet with Putin if it were to end the war in Ukraine but only public pressure will ensure this happens with the right signals delivered by Biden to Putin.

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94 COMMENTS

  1. No, the war was not inevitable. Russia didn’t have to invade. There was no prospect that Ukraine was about to join NATO. In short, so far as Russia was concerned, the strategic picture before the invasion was much as it had been in 2004, when the East European nations joined NATO.

    A ceasefire does make some sense, since in my view the current front lines are reasonably close to what a final settlement might look like. However it won’t happen yet. Both sides want to try an offensive. Both are likely to fail. Only then will serious discussions take place.

    Because of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine will almost certainly end up in NATO, at the minimum with a NATO security guarantee. Almost the exact opposite of what Russia wants. But then look at Finland. Neutral before 2022, now about to join NATO. All due to Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.

    • Ukraine is already a de facto Nato member.The Ukrainian foreign minister said as much
      https://www.kyivpost.com/post/11093
      Stoltenberg in January said “Nato’s position is unchanged, and that is, that Ukraine will become a member of Nato”
      https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_210744.htm
      Current corruption rules would make it difficult for Ukraine to be accepted into NATO, that’s why they’re entering through the back door, and are now integrated militarily , with training and weapons systems.
      I’m really interested to know what further diplomatic options were available to the Russians after all their attempts to have security guarantees since the end of the 90’s were rejected.

      • The problem with the idea that ‘intervention by Putin was wrong’ is that it ignores what otherwise would have happened.

        Once U.S. nuclear missiles can easily roll into Ukraine, this puts them only 15 minutes flight time from Moscow. If they’re hypersonic, it can be as low as 5 minutes.

        The days of simply negotiating arms control agreements are over. Most of the big agreements no longer exist. START. negotiations have completely stalled.

        The Russians would have to move their missiles closer in response. Narrowing the gap would mean putting nukes back in Cuba, and next to Alaska again.

        Suddenly we are transported back to October ’62, but this time with much faster missiles.

        In other words, you have to believe that the world being five minutes away from nuclear armageddon, is a better result than Putin trying to restore the Ukrainian government (which, without the American-backed coup, would probably still be there — preventing the war in the first place).

      • The interview with Stoltenberg was just a few days ago. So after a year of aggressive war by Russia it is hardly surprising that the Secretary General of NATO is saying Ukraine should join. As my initial comment noted, this is one of the consequences of Russia’s foolish war. Same with Sweden and Finland joining NATO.

        Rather than keeping NATO way from Russia’s border the outcome of the war is that Russia will now have NATO right on their western border. Russia will certainly be nervous if Belorussia gets a western friendly government.

        • Oh come on Wayne .Even you have to admit that Ukraine had been brought into
          Natos orbit long before the invasion .How could you possibly have missed George Bush declaring that Ukraine and Georgia should become NATO members, back in 2008…long before the invasion .

      • Putin as the leader of a super power is a cowardly gutless bully who attacks citizens of a powerless nation rather than military targets. Reminds me of what I read about Hitler trialing his weapons by attacking Spain.

    • Ukraine was already NATO’S lapdog, just without the Western official recognition. NATO trained,NATO armed and plans well underway for a NATO base on Ukrainian soil ignore basic facts and you whole article collapses just like the West.

    • Agree, it would be a waste of time to negotiate with Russia. Putin strategy is first to annex Ukraine, then Moldova, move on to the Baltic sates, followed by Poland. This has been confirmed by his generals. Where should he stop? London, Washington? Was the same with Nazi Germany. If you don’t stop him now it will never end. China will become his Italian partner in Asia.

      • Gahhh!
        It’s those bloody Dominos again!!
        (Except it was proved totally wrong as a theory after we gave up and lost in Vietnam…)

      • Someone should remind Comrade Putin that he is supposed to invade Moldova after he has finished with Ukraine. I don’t think he realises that. Then there all those other states. He doesn’t know it yet but he is going to be a very busy guy.

      • Why would Russia want those crappy poor Baltic states, the perpetual trouble of the Poles, and economically stuffed Germany? Russia kept German industry competitive with cheap abundant gas. That goes elsewhere for more money now. Without having to send a single soldier Russia (courtesy of Biden blowing up Nordstream) has cured the age old problem that is Germany.

  2. Isn’t for the Ukrainians to decide if peace talks begin? It is their territory that is being occupied.

    It is incredibly arrogant to demand a ceasefire in their war to defend themselves.

    • Ownership of of the territory in question is what this war is about, so it can hardly be claimed that the Ukranians are defending “their” territory.

        • The Ukrainians think it’s more important to save face than to relinquish territories which, to them, are probably more trouble than they are worth. The problem in Ukraine is that these territories are very useful to the NATO crowd, which is hoping that one day Ukraine will join them.

          “To conquer Russia it would be first be necessary to decouple Ukraine from Russia” – Bismarck

          “For a country to be an enemy of the USA is dangerous, to be an ally is fatal.” – Kissinger

    • “Isnt it for the Ukrainians to decide when peace talks begin?” The war is over control of gas supply to Europe and also the undeveloped gas resource in Ukraine. Peace would mean Europe once again buying gas from Russia at a third of the price of their current supplier North America. America is not going to allow any Peace unless its given Ukraine’s resources and thats how Ukraine is destined to pay its armaments invoice and the invoice isnt big enough yet. So no it isnt for the Ukrainians to decide when peace talks begin.

      • You do know that the USA is independent from any need to import oil or gas thanks to shale oil.

        And if what you say is true, why are the Germans and other European nations assisting Ukraine as well? Because they want to buy expensive US (or Qatari) gas rather than the cheap Russian gas.. Sure that is the case?

  3. Where is the mention of the fact Russia annexed the Crimea in 2014 .America did nothing then which I am sure gave Putin a false sense he could do what suited him without considering the repercussions.
    America is involved in my disputes and I cannot claim to understand the right or wrong of their reasoning but in this case they seem to be on the right side ..Russia was not attacked and did not need to invade a neighbour and if the Ukraine was not so rich in oil and other resources they would not have .

    • Excuse me? America influenced the coup which led to Crimeas annexation, primarily because Russia had a military base there and wasn’t letting it fall into enemy hands/the chaos of insurrection. America can hardly complain, they have how many military bases around the world?

    • Trevor it aint about the oil, it is about the fact that American missiles will be on their border.

      Wasn’t acceptable for the US to have them on their doorstep which should it be acceptable for Russia.

      Yes Putin is a madman, and a bastard. But look into the corrupt Ukrainian head man and you will find corruption and a manipulation of previous elections with the help of the US

      • Russian missiles are on USA’s maritime borders in massive submarines ready to launch on USA by a crazy madman Putin with the help of another mad man in North Korea.

  4. Donbass etc deserves protection from Ukraine bombing their children. So does Palestine. And why was Kurdistan broken up among 5 nations? Etc etc.

    Basically, the post WWII “rules based order” was a sham. Just like the league of nations was a failure, so too is the UN.

  5. Do you really think Putin would stop at Ukraine? This is his sixth incursion into neighbouring states and comes with a track record of assassinating opponents both at home and abroad. So, if Ukraine fell, Moldova would likely be next on the chopping block. In fact, his people have already been agitating in that country regarding the unrecognized region of ‘Transnistria’. This sounds a lot like Hitler invading Poland on the excuse of ‘saving’ the folk of Sudetenland. After that he’d go for the Baltic States.

    • I think you’ll find hitler invaded CZECHOSLOVAKIA after getting the sudetenland..poland had nowt to do with it danzig being his flimsy excuse for that…..andrew if you’re going to try to use history do read a book every now and then

  7. Putin had no choice. The many bio-labs set up in the Ukraine, funded by the Bidens (Joe, Jim and Hunter) WERE a threat to the whole world’s population. The heinous products of their bio-labs (as confirmed to exist by Victoria Nuland) were being tested on their military and the populaces of the Donbass. Their companies Lion Hall, Paradigm Global Advisors, https://www.thedailybeast.com/james-and-hunter-biden-accused-of-cashing-in-on-the-family-name, Rosemount Seneca etc were/are fronts: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/watch-kat-cammack-calls-biden-trafficker-in-chief-amid-fentanyl-epidemic?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
    Mr Google dilligently scrubs the sordidness but the NATO & Co begin to look insane as they scream for more killing. All you commenters on this blog who yay and hurrah for more war should go cool down imo.
    How to end the war in the Ukraine? Simple, impeach Biden and put an ankle bracelet on the rest of them.

  8. In the face the US-engineered coup in 2014 that installed an anti-Russia puppet government in Ukraine, which then made war on those of its regions which in protest declared their independence, (and with the solemnly agreed Minsk accords, now exposed as a Franco/German charade, having been ignored) what was Russia to do when those regions sought its help to repel the bloody war that for eight years has been rained on them?
    Not forgetting that Russia, having repudiated Communism and joined the global Capitalist cabal, thereby obviating the need for NATO to exist at all, why was it not only retained but expanded, if not to facilitate this very crisis?
    Subjected to what experienced world watchers have described as the biggest most blatant anti-Russia pro-war propaganda campaign ever deployed we are being played like a fiddle in the interests of US imperialism.
    But, that aside and on the facts alone, if it’s valid for the US and its NATO surrogate to have both created this Fascist state on Russia’s border and to be arming it to the teeth, it’s surely valid for Russia to defend those being oppressed by it and by so doing, ultimately halt that threat spreading.

    • If the Russians had invaded earlier they may have been able to obtain a quick victory, before the Ukrainians had “rearmed and retrained”. I think Putin must have held back, believing that the Ukrainians would adhere to the Minsk agreements. A bad mistake it seems. If a ceasefire is broached now by the West, why would Putin believe them given the revelations, concerning those agreements, by Poroschenko and Frau Merkel.

    • USA needs a boogie man. No matter what part of the political spectrum they are, the US media are all in for Team America, even progressives such as Rachel Maddow wets her pants when an opportunity arises to stick something to Putin.

      Yet until this incursion Putin wasn’t even in the same league as USA in dealing out death and and war since 1990. Nor was Putin’s disgusting removal of political opponents in the same league as the numerous petty dictators that USA installs or cozies up to, so long as they allow multi national corporations free rein to exploit third world resources. Duterte and Mohammed bin Salman fine, Putin bad is the general policy.

      • True, Richard (USA needs a boogie man..)
        I think it is actually the US military-industrial complex that needs this, so that it can manipulate the USA and world opinion.
        Eisenhower warned us, but did little to stop it happening. Churchill made his ‘Iron Curtain’ speech, and Truman went down to deliberately ‘scare the tripe’ out of Congress, as I believe he himself said.
        An external enemy is a great way of unifying a country that might not otherwise be united..
        After the USSR came Terrorism (Islamic). The great War on Terror! Tui moment.. 20 years later USA slinked out of Afghanistan just as it had failed in Vietnam in the 70s.
        After that come Putin and China. Our current boogie men.

        Just no end to it, is there?
        Sad to say, the independent media in the West have become corporatised into resembling commercial operations. Look at TV1!!
        We get fed media crap to support all this propaganda. Reminds me of ‘1984’ and ‘Brave New World’. (Not a supermarket, sad to say.)
        Sorry – no confidence from one who has read quite a lot of history, and smells far too many fish.

    • Plus Russia asked twice (under Putin) to join NATO, so they’d NOT fear Russia as an enermy.
      So NATO is nowadays PURELY a vehicle for the M.I.C to make more money.

  9. Shhhhhhhhhhh…….
    We should keep quiet and walk softly as we farm to sell our produce overseas. Nothing to see here, move along. We should attempt to remove our islands from all maps and we should pretend we’re well West of West Australia, and again, nothing to see here…… We’re diseased, boring people with dubious genes, we’re nasty and sickly and we’ll give you fleas and asthma. We never wash, we don’t wipe our arses, we love organ music which we play loudly but only after midnight. If you come to Aotearoa / New Zealand you’d better bring disinfectant and a torch because we love to sexy-woo in the paddocks by moonlight as the cold winds shiver through the macrocarpas. And the rougher the better. You’s foreigners got any of them whips, ice cubes and handcuffs?
    If anyone with a funny accent and a gun and a boat an’ that asks, tell them. We’d love to have you invade, we’re running out of fresh meat and dildo batteries.
    Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh….

  10. Maidan was not a US engineered coup. You would find that most off shore support came from Poland but you are not bothered with such niceties are you Malcolm?

    • I’m happy to consider all “niceties” in the interest of serving the truth Gadfly, one of which is that of a US under secretary of State Victoria Newland, not very Polish, expounding on the efforts she put into engineering the overthrow of the democratically elected government in Ukraine. bbc.com/news/world-europe-26079957 check it out.

  11. As it is for every war ‘the first casualties of war is the truth, the rest are mostly civilians’.

    Men shooting men for what, men who were instructed they had to be there.

    The US has now given $112 billion, and there is some worry on capitol hill by both parties given they have many living in poverty in the US.

  12. IMO, from the US POV using Ukraine as a bulwark against Russia significantly effects Europe which is one of China’s wealthiest trading alliances.

    The US needs to slow China down before 2025 so the Rand institution writes in a report from early 2000s, they even suggest military confrontation is a possibility because in their opinion the west would be able to recover quicker??

    The Monroe doctrine still applies in the US hemisphere today with US memory of Cuba ally the Soviet’s military alliance still to this day have imposed crippling sanctions on a country that no longer threatens US dominance in the region. The sycophantic ideology that graces the halls of power in the US is mindblowing. The Russian need their own Monroe doctrine?

  13. Let me quote (paraphrase)Victoria Nuland. “Fuck the EU! Fuck anybody that doesnt put our guy in as our President!”

    And then it all fell to shit.

    • It’s all over for the Ukraine.

      Biden is dead on his feet. The US can’t do anymore damage than it already has. Maybe?

      NATO are bankrupt and out of ammo, lacking in will except for the Nazi mouthpieces sitting in the UN and EU Commission.

      The Germans just had another election last week because their election in 2021 was ruled, dodgy as fuck!
      They too are another fucked up country that has erased their history and are in the process of repeating it! They’ll be watching Russian Tanks rolling into Berlin if the Nazi Green Party has their way!

      Meanwhile, Xi & Putin have had their officials do world tour hui with all their allies and BRIICS+ partners in the last few months.
      They’re both due to meet shortly. I’m betting they’re going to put their collective, 40%+ of the world’s pop & manufacturing base, on the line and make some calls to end the war and to get to the table or else they’ll start sanctioning every other fucker!
      Now wouldn’t that be a doozy at a time when the entire would is already suffering from inflation, supply shortages and massive poverty, plague and pestilence, weather ect … governments should be worried because if they have an election on the near horizon. They would probably be getting chucked out because their people would say to them, enough is enough you muthafuckers!

      This is shaping up to be a good few months and year or two I reckon!

  14. Thankyou John for talking some sense on this subject. I’ve been amazed at the power of the propaganda over Ukraine and how so many on this site have forgotten (or are ignorant) of the history of how the US maintains control of the world.

    Even something as simple as recognizing that almost everything a government says during war time is bound to be propaganda seems to have been forgotten.

    It’s a real simple; if they’ve got us all focused on the evil enemy leader it means our leaders can get away with anything

  15. The maniacs who run this country can’t even muster the minimal moral courage needed to say that George Bush and Obama should receive Nuremberg-style justice for his crimes against the people of Iraq, and Clinton and Trump for their crimes against the people of Syria and Libya and support of ISIS. They’ll keep helping Zelensky murder Ukrainians and Russians alike.

  16. Peace should but won’t come from the negotiation table. There is one good reason for that: there is nobody in the West who the Russians can trust to keep a deal. Biden, the man who blew up the pipeline and consequently destroyed allies Germany energy supply? Blinken or Nuland, pathological liars? Macron, Von der Leyden, Scholz, Sumac, all puppets of the US?

    What good is an agreement if there is no faith, no trust? Nobody outside of the Golden Billion trust the West. And with good reason.

    In case you hadn’t read what Russia asked of the West prior to intervention it was NATO rolled back to where it was when the Wall came down, no US missiles, bases etc east of Berlin. In the case of Ukraine it was demilitarisation and de Nazification.

    I can’t see Russia retracting those demands, nor US agreeing. They are too far apart. So one side will have to force the issue. This could take a while, and maybe never be resolved.

  17. Maybe …. Nagasaki Washington, and Berlin and no.10 Downing St, Paris and kyiv, and Poland too. That should do it.

    The Americans did it even though they didnt have to eh.

  18. Borders matter post WW ll. Small countries need that assurance.

    The main thing is how to deal with psychos — Russia.

    If Russia was a democracy … they’d have joined NATO! Down to Putin. The end of his temporary tyrannical security for Russia. Let’s bring the great Russian people into the democracy they’ve long deserved. A Marshall Plan.

    The Left confusion about Ukraine is par for the course. Everyone thinks things are complicated. Democracy and borders. Poverty and climate change in NZ.

    Ideas are straightforward.

    • “If Russia was a democracy … they’d have joined NATO!”
      I think any application by Russia, no matter who their leader, to join NATO would be met with a US veto.

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