Posted on 02/18/2026 11:18:10 AM PST by Tench_Coxe
US-mediated peace talks on Ukraine collapsed in less than two hours after Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky claimed it was unfair that Donald Trump was placing more pressure on his country than on Russia.
The second day of talks concluded on Wednesday, though neither side signalled they were any closer to ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.
The talks wrapped up after just two hours, much shorter than the six hours of meetings on Tuesday, according to the head of Russia's delegation.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
I am with you.
I want Ukraine to fight until it’s all gone, too.
What Zelenskyy does NOT understand, is that Russia is holding virtually the cards in this bloody deadly serious game, and while the effort is sapping most of the Russian Federation’s economic strength, Putin still has a lot more warm bodies, resources and time to spend/waste than Ukraine.
Stop the shooting, take a breath, start cleaning up the debris, meet the needs of the wounded, and bury the dead. Whatever the sacrifices, get back to the business of living.
You are on your own. I do not support genocide.
Z doesn’t want peace.
Who’s responsible for making it fair?
Both sides of this suck so I hope they both keep dying.
The cards that Russia is holding has become a house of cards. The Russian economy is collapsing. No, I do not mean overnight, but it is hard to see how Putin can continue for another year. Russia is also taking unsustainable casualties. The Russian population is not unlimited. And what you and Putin do not seem to understand is that the Ukrainians are fighting for their lives. Do not think that it only Zelensky. It is the entire nation.
yes!!!!
That was quick.
Let them fight it out.
Ahhhhh, isn't this mighty 'anti-semitic' language????? I mean, reallllly Vicky Nulands plot to use US to get even against Russssssia ... along with Lord McCain, Linda Graham and that twit from MInnnie soda ... Klobuchar ... I have read on FR from the beginning of this demand of US taxpayer to fund the penis piano playing cocaine addict ..... Surely , bray, you are not claiming the mighty is not worthy of your and my tax dollars ... how do you discern that the piano penis playing Z is NOT supposed to be according to your religion, worthy of US dollar support???????
Well, duh. Does anybody think the little martinet is interested in stopping the grift? He’s a complete con. Don’t get me wrong -— Putin’s a thug, but Zelensky has no intention of honestly negotiating. How his people have not unseated him, whether by means fair or foul, is beyond me.
Time for us to help Ukraine. The cruel and barbaric Russians must be stopped.
Fighting for their lives? Ukrainians can leave for Poland and Romania pretty much any time the trains run.
As for talk of economic collapse, and pretty much all talk of economic collapse at any time whatsoever, it is not defined. No one ever defines economic collapse. There is powerful defense for the concept that the only economy for mankind is calories so the only collapse there can be is starvation. Zero evidence of empty grocery store shelves in Russian cities. Nor Kiev’s. Pretty much this is all that matters economically.
You have no idea what the casualty counts are. Don’t pretend otherwise.
Putin is winning. He doesn’t have to compromise. Putin has cards. Zelensky has no cards.
Clapping for your good choices.
Why would Putin stop killing if Trump and the EU globohomos validate his mass murder and industrial scale banditry as legitimate political doctrine? He’ll just be getting started. Are we tired of winning yet?
There were also two Ukrainian delegations at the table - the Zelensky team and the opposition government team.
The reality is that the Trump Administration is riding the tiger and they are slowly distancing themselves from the debacle in Ukraine and transferring the responsibility for the war to the Europeans where it belongs.
The reality is that President Trumps enemies - foreign and domestic are the same people who are driving the war in Ukraine.
The Zelensky regime is running the Ukraine off a cliff to disaster and everyone knows it.
In fact Zelensky and the EU are intentionally engineering a crisis in Ukraine to force the Trump Administration to resume supply of free weapons to Ukraine and to provide political and media pressure to force President Trump to intervene directly with US troops in Ukraine
Absent the massive US economic and military support under Biden , the Ukraine will begin to collapse both economically and militarily in short order.
The US funding and military authorizations expired in October 2025 and both the economic and military situation is rapidly deteriorating in the Ukraine .
The Europeans have promised to take up the slack but they are not following through on both their their military and economic commitments to support Ukraine. The EU are not sending the euros and, like the US, they simply do not have the weapons to spare because the Ukrainians have already blown through the NATO stockpiles.
Despite the multiple impending crisis in Ukraine, Zelensky and his EU backers refuse to negotiate seriously with Russia to put an end to the fighting while the Ukraine still the ability to resist.
This is also by design.
The current Zelensky/EU strategy is to engineer an economic and military collapse of the Ukraine that they can blame on President Trump to allow Democrats to win back the House and Senate in the 2026 elections, force the US to massively intervene in the Ukraine and then impeach President Trump for the disaster they engineered in Ukraine.
I think the Zelensky and EU public position is still for Russia to unilaterally withdraw from Donbas and Crimea, repay war reparations to the Ukraine and submit Russia to war crimes tribunals plus a long list of other non starters so as long as Zelensky and his backers are in charge, the peace process is dead in the water with zero chances of moving forward
President Trump is trying to end the war before the impending Ukrainian meltdown takes place and to stay relevant in Ukraine to prevent a major Russian military move to exploit the Ukrainian weakness.
At the same time, Trump is doing everything possible to win the blame game when the crisis hits while the Ukraine proxy warriors and their media allies are getting ready for the anti Trump media full court press tom take down the Trump Administration once the SHTF
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.