CONTINUES
Two hundred different negotiating sessions have been held. Not once did Russia even make a sensible or near compromising suggestion. They don’t see any difference between peace talks and war - talks are about defeating your enemy to them, not ending a war that’s gone horribly awry. There is no Russian concept for accepting peace unless it’s clear they won. They haven’t and they won’t so there can’t be a peace Putin’s regime can accept.
So what do we do about it? The only thing we can and should have done from the start. We support Ukraine with money, weapons, training and whatever else they need. We start to stand up ever more firmly to Russian provocations, we look to defend Ukrainian citizens and cities - shoot down attacking missiles, risk a no-fly zone in the west of the country. Russia will hate it, but it will live with it. Just as it has done as we crossed all of its other red lines. Because it has no more it can do about it than what it’s already doing.
It tries to attack us through sabotage, assassination plans, cyber espionage, and military intimidation, right now. What more can it do without starting a war it cannot possibly win?
Russia cannot be allowed peace on its terms and nobody in their right mind would let it have it. Because peace today on Russian terms is war tomorrow on Russian terms.
We all know it. That’s why Ukraine must win. For themselves and all of us. Peace for now remains a chimera.