It’s becoming increasingly difficult to deny the war in Ukraine could have been ended mere months into the Russian invasion — and that the U.S. and U.K. governments worked to prevent this from happening...
...
The latest piece of corroboration comes courtesy David Arakhamia, the parliamentary leader of Zelensky’s “Servant of the People” party who led the Ukrainian delegation in peace talks with Moscow. Arakhamiatoldjournalist Natalia Moseichuk in a recent televised interview that “Russia's goal was to push us to take neutrality,” meaning to commit to not joining NATO, and that “they were ready to end the war if we accept neutrality.”
There were several reasons the negotiations ultimately collapsed, he said, including the need to change the Ukrainian constitution (which had been amended in February 2019 to enshrine the country’s NATO aspirations), and the fact that Johnson had come to Kyiv to inform Ukrainian officials the West wouldn’t sign any agreement with Moscow, instead urging: “let’s just fight.”
...
...
The interview corroborates claims first reported in May 2022 by the broadlyWestern-alignedUkrainska Pravdaoutlet — whichreportedthat Boris Johnson told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the West wouldn’t support any peace deal regardless of what Ukraine wanted, and they preferred to keep taking the fight to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was less powerful than they had thought....
...
....
Johnson had himselfconfirmed, albeit not in so many words, in a phone call to French President Emmanuel Macron that he had urged Zelensky against peace.
All of it lends further weight to multiple accounts over the course of the past 21 months that have claimed Ukraine and Russia were on the brink of peace, but were blocked by NATO states eager for a prolonged war that would weaken Russia and possibly destabilize it.
Former U.S. national security official Fiona Hillreportedthe two sides had reached a tentative peace deal the same month of Johnson’s surprise visit to Kyiv, while former German ChancellorGerhard Schroeder, former Israeli Prime MinisterNaftali Bennett, andseveralTurkishofficials — all of whom were involved at various times in the talks — have said that NATO officials stopped or undermined negotiations.
....
...
MultipleU.S. reportsdocumentedadividein NATO, with the United States and U.K. reportedly heading a faction of states who preferred a longer war than a sooner peace. Historian Niall Fergusonreportedoverhearing an unnamed U.S. official say in March 2022 that “the only end game now is the end of Putin regime [sic].”
...
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ukraine-russia-talks/
