Posted on 03/22/2025 8:37:51 AM PDT by McGruff
The biggest obstacle to resolving Russia’s war in Ukraine is the status of Crimea and the four mainland Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia, said US special envoy Steve Witkoff, calling them “the elephant in the room” in peace talks.
The four mainland regions, which Witkoff appeared to struggle to name and needed prompting from Carlson, were illegally annexed during Russia’s full-scale invasion and Kyiv vehemently opposes giving them up.
The Kremlin has since staged referenda on joining Russia in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, which Kyiv and the international community decried as a propaganda exercise, but which Witkoff claimed was evidence of their desire to split from Ukraine.
“They’re Russian-speaking,” Witkoff said of the four eastern regions. “There have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule.”
Zelensky stressed last weekend that Ukraine’s position “is that we do not recognize the occupied Ukrainian territories as Russian.”
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Zelensky, the loser, cannot be dealt with. He would just as soon watch more Ukes die.
Here he is thinking conscription is a laughing matter.
https://x.com/i/status/1903360557077393721
Dump any US involvement of any kind, money, intel, internet, waeponry and let the people stopping the process fight on using their own resources.
Trump should be done giving any attention to Zelensky.
“They’re Russian-speaking,” Witkoff said of the four eastern regions. “There have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule.”
Well, you will be upset, if Mexico carved majority Spanish speaking or majority Hispanics areas out of the US.
CNN - best to look for an actual news organization on this.
The referendum was sham, most Ukrainians under occupation boycotted it.
“Well, you will be upset, if Mexico carved majority Spanish speaking or majority Hispanics areas out of the US.”
If the roles were reversed, Mexico had our military might and we had theirs, not much we could do. Resistance in that case is futile and would cost lots of innocent lives.
Come to think of it, if the roles were reversed, Mexico might just do that.
The answer is “yes”.
Maybe waterboarding Z for the location of the lost $220B would get him to make the necessary concessions?
“US envoy says ‘elephant in the room’ in peace talks is whether Ukraine will cede occupied regions”
At this point, it’s more like whether the Russians will cede them...
> Well, you will be upset, if Mexico carved majority Spanish speaking or majority Hispanics areas out of the US. <
Good point. It would be reprehensible to allow this war to continue. It would also be reprehensible to allow Russia to just seize those territories - for the reason you are alluding to.
Yet Russia isn’t going to withdraw. The solution is to have Russia buy those territories with large amounts of gold and natural gas. Let Trump set the price.
If that price makes both sides uncomfortable, then you know the price is right.
Yes, it’s unrealistic to drive the Russians out.
“Dump any US involvement of any kind, money, intel, internet, waeponry and let the people stopping the process fight on using their own resources.”
I agree. Zelensky ought to be happy the US kept him from losing the entire country!
It’s over.
Ukraine needs to hold new elections.
“US envoy says ‘elephant in the room’ in peace talks is whether Ukraine will cede occupied regions
At this point, it’s more like whether the Russians will cede them...”
Everybody is dancing around that and/or making assumptions. Putin may give some land back, or he may not. Right now, he’s taking more land. I don’t see how anyone but him decides about land repatriation, but if there’s something that will influence him to give up some land, Trump will find it. If not, that’s the fortunes of war.
“...the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule.”
Possibly. Just because a country is slow to change past habits like language, currency, or religious history, doesn’t mean it wants to be ruled. The US for instance still has old religion and we speak a number of laguages throughout the country from our past. The only difference here is that our country has a different form of leadership more locally observered.
This conflict started in the late 1980’s with a desire for the Ukraines, and other satellite state countries, to separate from the Soviet regeme as the Soviets fell. And even though the Ukraine did have the tools to be independent operating as a self contained country, even they almost fell financially in their first four years with problems with their GDP and inflation. Now it’s all about wealth and the Russians want it back while the small previously separating countries want to keep it.
wy69
Maybe better said, “Whether Zelensky or his successor will cede occupied regions”.
Yea, but they wouldn’t want to be under Mexican rule.
Invalid analogy. messycans have already done that and we’ve done ...... nothing. Ragheads have also done that and we’ve done .... nothing. Antifa has done that and .. (see above).
Interesting for triggering my thought processes - when the Soviet empire collapsed in 1991, why were the boundaries of Ukraine established as they were? It isn’t surprising that there are many Russian speakers in all of Ukraine (not just the 4-5 areas the subject of this article) as it was a Soviet country and Russian was the required language. It would be interesting to see the age demographics of those that are choosing to now align with Russia.
I just have a hard time accepting the premise regardless how many times it is offered. Are the citizens in Lugansk, Kherson, Donetsk, Z, and Crimea the ones driving the invasion? If so, why have they not had flower strewn welcome parades for the Russians?
Anyone know why the boundaries were established in 1991?
Gwjack
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