“This entire situation stems from failure to adhere to the terms of Minsk. Ukraine, France, Germany, signed the agreement and it was ratified as a UN Resolution. Here it is. US State dept. pretends it doesn’t exist.”
No they don’t. And neither does Ukraine. Come to think of it, even the DPR calls bullshit on that front. Read their own report, sent to Moscow AND the United Nations, here: https://eng.ombudsman-dnr.ru/annual-reports/. If it’s too long to digest, I can give you the MULTIPLE reports and MULTIPLE page numbers that contradict the Kremlin narrative.
Minsk II WAS being implemented by Zelenskyy. The Donbass authorities even confirmed that the ceasefires on the Ukraine side, and the armistices, had resulted in an exponential drop in civilian casualties since his election. Their reports EXPLICITLY say, Minsk 2 was being implemented. It was Russia, in February 2022, that decided not to bother.
The failures of Minsk 1 are a different matter but there the blame lies both with Poroshenko refusing to compromise and France/Germany basically offering a toxic deal to Ukraine purely for the quiet life.
Holding Z responsible for the failures of his predecessor is as disingenuous as holding Trump responsible for Obama’s executive orders. It’s just obvious propaganda from the Russkies, and I really can’t believe how anyone who remotely thinks of themselves as “smart” could fall for something so contrived and dumb.
But Z does have a point, there won’t be a Minsk 3, 4, or 5 because every time Russia and the West negotiate a Minsk deal, Ukraine gives and Russia takes - there’s literally no benefit in signing such an agreement especially when Russia’s response to good faith by Ukraine was a frickin’ invasion.
“Ukraine for eight years was built up as a US/NATO launching pad for weapons aimed at Russia.”
1. Name one weapon, inside Ukraine, that was pointed at Russia. Just one. Go on. Bet ya can’t.
2. Putin and his pundits on Rossiya 1 didn’t give a hoot about biolabs until after the dumbass Trumpian lunatics wouldn’t shut up about them, and in doing so handed him a causus belli on a platter.
You know WHY Russia didn’t care until after Trump left office? Russia’s own on-territory biolabs have had more leaks than Thames Water - for decades. Whole Russian towns have been hit by accidental releases. Russia’s security and risk appetite was not harmed in any way by western safeguards being enforced in Ukraine’s biolabs - so they were never going to make a huge song and dance about those labs as long as the USA maintained its PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY. All ya had to do was stick to the frickin’ script, and biolabs wouldn’t even be a talking point in Russia.
“US backed forces have been shelling Donbass the entire time.”
The Donbass separatists were funded by Russia, and half the fighters in it were proper Russians “on holiday”. Like our old friend Strelkov: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Girkin. If you think that using Ukraine as a proxy is a bad thing, consider Girkin was GRU/FSB who was active in Transnistria, Bosnia, and Chechnya BEFORE he went to eastern Ukraine... the year BEFORE becoming a commander of the Donbas rebels in 2014.
So Russia’s the last country on the planet that can claim the moral high ground. At least the USA’s proxies in Ukraine were serving American interests AND Ukraine’s interests AND complying with the terms of the Budapest Memorandum all at Ukraine’s invitation - Russia’s proxies were not invited by anybody, were simply sent in by Russia, their mission was to destabilize the country, they were VIOLATING the Budapest Memorandum... and the words of Strelkov himself confirm all this.
“Just because things are not spoon fed by Fox and Friends does not absolve anyone from ignorance.”
Goes both ways. Bullshit is repeated ad infinitem by Russian bots and troll farms and gullible idiots run with it purely because they think it’s more important to score points on the Hunter Biden issue than get the facts right.
That is one interpretation, that you wrap up with the suggestion that I am a Russian bot. It is still a free country and I have every right to assert my opinion and feel obligated to shout down these ideas that simply don’t make any sense. And I will. You are forming your opinions on western news, a very dubious source.
It isn’t fun doing it but we’ve lost control of this govt. that is now stewing in a putrid bath of ignominy. We all have our share of responsibility. It cannot even perform rudimentary functions such as elections. It teeters on failed state territory.
It is just my opinion of course, that the biggest deficit we run here, and there are many, is that of genuine national and personal humility. It will be the most difficult to overcome.
Coming to possess genuine humility is a lesson MUCH easier to LEARN than be taught, and we are all about to be taught a lesson we will not forget. It may kill many of us.