[Sacajaweau]

This is old news...

[Timber Rattler]

Hmmmm...except that the original cited source doesn't exactly say that, and is taken out of context.

See here: The World Putin Wants How Distortions About the Past Feed Delusions About the Future

Vladimir Putin is determined to shape the future to look like his version of the past. Russia’s president invaded Ukraine not because he felt threatened by NATO expansion or by Western “provocations.” He ordered his “special military operation” because he believes that it is Russia’s divine right to rule Ukraine, to wipe out the country’s national identity, and to integrate its people into a Greater Russia.

This treatise, and similar public statements, make clear that Putin wants a world where Russia presides over a new Slavic union composed of Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, and perhaps the northern part of Kazakhstan (which is heavily Slavic)—and where all the other post-Soviet states recognize Russia’s suzerainty. He also wants the West and the global South to accept Russia’s predominant regional role in Eurasia. This is more than a sphere of influence; it is a sphere of control, with a mixture of outright territorial reintegration of some places and dominance in the security, political, and economic spheres of others.

(snip)

Despite calls by some for a negotiated settlement that would involve Ukrainian territorial concessions, Putin seems uninterested in a compromise that would leave Ukraine as a sovereign, independent state—whatever its borders. According to multiple former senior U.S. officials we spoke with, in April 2022, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators appeared to have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim settlement: Russia would withdraw to its position on February 23, when it controlled part of the Donbas region and all of Crimea, and in exchange, Ukraine would promise not to seek NATO membership and instead receive security guarantees from a number of countries. But as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated in a July interview with his country’s state media, this compromise is no longer an option. Even giving Russia all of the Donbas is not enough. “Now the geography is different,” Lavrov asserted, in describing Russia’s short-term military aims. “It’s also Kherson and the Zaporizhzhya regions and a number of other territories.” The goal is not negotiation, but Ukrainian capitulation.

[skeeter]

Let’s you and he fight.

[BobL]

VERY SAD that the two countries couldn’t be left alone to settle their differences. Now there are huge deaths, injuries, and dislocations.

About the only good part of all of their is that Europeans are getting to better know Greta.

[Kazan]

The blood of tens of thousands is on the hands of Johnson.

[hardspunned]

DC scuttled it.

[Widget Jr]

"The terms of that settlement would have been for Russia to withdraw to the positions it held before launching the invasion on February 24. In exchange, Ukraine would “promise not to seek NATO membership and instead receive security guarantees from a number of countries.”"

Given that Ukraine and NATO knew by April Russia intended to take the entire country, the Russian army was outside of Kyiv, why should Zelensky have trusted Putin to honor any agreement?

Any deal Russia offered was just to by time for their army to regroup and try again. When it comes to Russian irredentism and the 2nd CCCP, Putin can not be trusted.

[FarCenter]

Russia won’t go back to the February 24 line of control.

Russia must secure the Crimean water supply from the Dnipro River. So Luhansk, Donetsk and most of Kherson are the minimum.

And to connect Donetsk and Kherson, they will keep most of Zaporizhia.

[bigbob]

Then Z thought, oh hell, I can milk Biden for another 30 mil, at least!