Posted on 08/17/2024 7:51:48 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
Secretive peace talks between Ukraine and Russia collapsed before they even started following Kyiv's incursion into the Kursk region last week.
The two countries were set to hold indirect talks in Qatar on a deal to halt strikes on energy and power infrastructure, in a first step towards a partial-ceasefire.
However, Russian officials were said to be furious at Ukraine’s surprise incursion, according to the Washington Post, which revealed the secret Doha talks.
Moscow’s delegation described it as “an escalation" and immediately pulled out of the talks this week. A Qatari diplomat said that Russia “didn’t call off the talks, they said give us time".
Since the proposed talks collapsed, Ukraine's surprise cross-border operation has entered its second week and appears to be strengthening, leading to an unprecedented crisis for Vladimir Putin.
Kyiv has so far seized at least 82 settlements, while more than 120,000 Russian civilians have fled the area.
In a tongue-in-joke jab at the Russian leader, Ukraine has now jokingly declared a 'Kursk People's Republic'.
Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk were photographed planting mock flags declaring the new republic, and joking that they had liberated it from Russia.
(Excerpt) Read more at express.co.uk ...
At the very least it diverts Russian resources.
The Ukrainian incursion into Russia's Kursk oblast has even worse consequences for Ukraine than had been known so far.
Over the last six months, in revenge for Ukrainian attacks on Russian infrastructure, especially oil refineries, the Russian forces created serious damage on Ukraine's electricity network. Nearly every conventional power generation facility in Ukraine has been damaged. Half of Ukraine's 18 Gigawatts of electricity generation capacity has been taken offline. The damaged power stations were often also used to provide heating to large blocks of Soviet type apartments. Without power and heating it will be a very difficult winter for many people in Ukraine.
There was interest on both sides to stop the campaigns against the other sides infrastructure. An agreement about it was in the making and was possible. But, as Washington Post reports, the Ukrainian attack on Kursk blew it apart:
Ukraine and Russia were set to send delegations to Doha this month to negotiate a landmark agreement halting strikes on energy and power infrastructure on both sides, diplomats and officials familiar with the discussions said, in what would have amounted to a partial cease-fire and offered a reprieve for both countries.
But the indirect talks, with the Qataris serving as mediators and meeting separately with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations, were derailed by Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region last week, according to the officials.
...
The diplomat familiar with the talks said that Qatar has been discussing the arrangement for an energy strike moratorium with Kyiv and Moscow for the past two months. The official said the two sides agreed to a summit in Doha with just minor details left to be worked out.
“After Kursk, the Russians balked,” another person familiar with the talks said.
Instead of its senseless attack on Kursk Ukraine could have had an agreement that would make it possible to get through the winter without many blackouts and other interruptions. It blew that chance.
The moral uplift for Ukrainian forces created by the attack on Kursk is already waning. Russia has not pulled any of its troops involved in the attacks in the east to defend Kursk. It has instead pulled reserves from elsewhere. One of the hoped for effects of the Kursk incursion is thereby not happening.
95% of what you and your ilk have claimed about this war has been WRONG.
I and my sources have been 95% right as proven by the slow but constant advancement by the Russian military in Ukraine, the slow, meat grinder approach saves lives and maintains Russia's superiority in ammo and missiles.
Again -- every INCH of territory that Russia controls in Ukraine will remain part of the Russian Federation after this war is over.
Now, it's past time for you to put or shut up and bet on that or admit I'm right.
You're a buffoon, bragging about a war Ukraine is losing badly.
Where in my entire post did I say I hate Jim Nabors, Don Knotts or Rock Hudson, or anyone for that matter?
You’re doing what zeepers do best: Create fabrications out of whole cloth to suit your agenda.
Hey, wait....this headline is entirely possible.
LOL And Russia deserves it.
No. They are trapped in the USA’s schedule, not their own
Having said that , they were brutally attacked for no reason by a thuggish dictator.
Actually, the U.S. fomented a coup in 2014 leading the people of Donstsk and Luhansk to declare independence and to set up the DPR and LPR. They self-governed and were recognized by several nations. In 2022, Russia recognized them, and entered into a mutual defense agreement with each, sort of like a mini NATO. Ukraine, continuing its dickhead antics of the previous ten years, decided to FAFO. Honoring the mutual defense agreements, Russia came to the aid of DPR and LPR at their invitation. Russia did not just wake up one morning and attack the pure and innocent Ukraine for no reason. Russia declared it will denazify and demilitarize Ukraine. They are working at it. They are settling a neighborhood dispute that is not in our neighborhood.
The whole point of NATO and us being over there, is to not have to fight another World War.
Of course it is. And to eliminate the threat of the dominoes falling.
It is hardly wasteful if it shows up Muscowy inability to fight
“fire control”
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