Loading ...Putin adviser says ceasefire gives nothing to Russia, would only help Ukraine
Yuri Ushakov, a former Russian ambassador to the U.S. and senior aide to Putin, described President Trump’s moves toward a ceasefire as “hasty actions” that don’t benefit Russia in the long term, in an interview with Russian media.
“A 30-day temporary ceasefire. Well, what does it give us? It gives us nothing.” Ushakov said.
“It only gives the Ukrainians the opportunity to regroup, gather strength and continue the same thing in the future.”
https://thehill.com/policy/international/5192475-russia-putin-ukraine-ceasefire/amp/
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Russia plays hardball over a ceasefire deal as U.S. officials head to Moscow
Like chess this seems to be the opening gambit — Trump isn’t stupid enough to think that Moscow would accept terms from the vanquished — but perhaps there will be something to work with when the meetings are over and Moscow officially responds. Trump has a VERY small window of time before he ends up “owning” the Ukrainian mess started by Nuland long before the 2014 massacre! Opening moves are almost locked in……….
How predictable was this? It was absolutely shocking that Trump reverted to supporting this immoral NATO war. Either Trump is pathetically over his head in terms of statecraft, or he’s been co-opted by the swamp.
My sense is that Trump is NOT negotiating on behalf of NATO and that what he is attempting is NOT supported by either the globalist deep state or NATO.
My speculation is that in order to remove the US from NATO, he needs the existing conflict to end (or be paused) so that the US cannot be accused of abandoning its allies during times of trouble. He does not want the negativity of an Afghanistan style retreat.
However, if the war is “paused” Trump can say — OK NATO we told you our terms and you have NOT modified your participation levels — we clearly stated that for us to continue US support for NATO we require each of your countries to be at 5% of GDP. None of you have or attempted to achieved this requirement.
Therefore, we are removing ourselves from this alliance during a period when none of you are threatened by anything other than your own imagination and we (the USA) will focus upon our own domestic issues by consolidating our troops on home terf.
Trump can’t do that while the war in Ukraine is underway without the US being called a coward! To choose to simply walk away while the conflict is ongoing will have very different consequences than the above.
This is also why the European Union is so adamant that a war that has already been lost must continue. They cannot allow the US to remove itself from NATO because then they would have to defend themselves and the goal is to have someone else’s children die in war & not your own!
I think you’re probably right. I also think it’s a poor tactic. Since Trump has not disavowed the war, he inevitably is taking ownership of it, so he will be blamed by his opponents for its loss. The previous administration sought to arrange this scenario, and Trump walked right into it. I’ve argued that he should have forthrightly stated, before he took the reins of power, that the war was lost, and Ukraine should sue for peace. Of course, they wouldn’t do it, but Trump would have made his position clear. When he did take over, he should have informed NATO countries that he was halting arms shipments and intelligence sharing, and that they were to do the same. If they didn’t comply, he should have told them he would withdraw from NATO immediately. They would have complied, the war would have come to a halt, and negotiations to work out a security framework for Europe and Russia would have quickly commenced. Once that negotiation was complete, Trump would have his justification to leave NATO in a measured and dignified manner. Trump is handling this matter very poorly, in my opinion.