"best strategy in 2013-14 would have been a negotiated
settlement."There were negotiated agreements, namely the Budapest Memorandum and the Friendship treaty.
Putin broke them to invade Ukraine.
Then they had Minsk 1 and 2 to deal with Putin breaking the Budapest Memorandum and the Friendship Treaty.
Putin broke them too.
But of course Putin can be trusted to keep to an agreement as this long history of breaking agreements, preparing for war and stating he will continue his war over decades shows.
Dec 1994 –Russia signs the Budapest Memorandum to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrityfor Ukraine giving up nuclear weapons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum
May 1997 –Russia signs Friendship Treaty that outlines the inviolability of existingborders between the two countries and prevents one another from invading eachother
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian%E2%80%93Ukrainian_Friendship_Treaty#:~:text=6%20External%20links-,Signing%20and%20ratification,the%20Law%20of%20Ukraine%20No .
Sep 2004 –Putin aims to meddle in Ukrainian elections by poisoning pro Western oppositioncandidate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#TCDD_poisoning
Nov 2013 –Russia attempts economic blackmail to force Ukraine to ditch EU associationdeal
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/22/russia-ukraine-eu-pact-lithuania
Nov 2013 –Putin bribes Yanukovych to dump EU association deal
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-25162563
Mar 2014 –Putin invades Ukraine to prevent Ukraine’s choice to look West, Putin lies thatRussian troops are responsible
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL6N0M122M/
Dec 2015 –Putin admits Russian troops were responsible for invading Ukraine in 2014
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL6N0M122M/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_green_men_(Russo-Ukrainian_War)
Jun 2017 –Russia constantly violates ceasefire agreements
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/russia-not-ukraine-is-serial-violator-of-ceasefire-agreement/
May 2019 –Russia meddles in Ukrainian elections
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/report/foreign-interference-in-ukraine-s-election/
Apr 2019 –Zelensky elected president in a landslide
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volodymyr_Zelenskyy#:~:text=Zelenskyy%20achieved%20a%20plurality%20of,was%20elected%20President%20of%20Ukraine .
Jul 2019 –Zelensky proposes new peace talks with Putin
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/7/9/ukraines-zelenskyy-proposes-new-peace-talks-with-russias-putin
Dec 2019 –On Zelensky’s initiative Zelensky and Putin meet for peace talks, since Putinwas always intent on invading and conquering Ukraine, these talks lead tonothing
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/putin-and-zelenskiy-meet-for-first-time
Apr 2021 –Putin begins military forces build up for full scale invasion of Ukraine whilelying and saying he has no plans to further invade
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prelude_to_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine#:~:text=In%20March%20and%20April%202021,annexation%20of%20Crimea%20in%202014 .
Nov 2021 –Russia lies that they have no plans to invade Ukraine
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/12/russia-kremlin-ukraine-nato-threats-521031
Dec 2021 –Putin refuses to hold direct talks with Zelensky to end Russia’s ongoing insurgencywar on Ukraine that Putin started in 2014
https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraines-zelensky-not-afraid-of-direct-talks-with-russia-to-stop-donbas-war/
Jan 2021 –Russia lies and says they have no plans to invade Ukraine or anyone
https://www.euronews.com/2022/01/27/russia-has-no-plans-to-invade-either-ukraine-or-any-other-country-says-moscow-s-top-eu-dip
Feb 2022 –Putin kills both Minsk peace agreements saying they “no longer exist” when declaringannexation of eastern Ukraine
https://ecfr.eu/article/ukraine-russia-and-the-minsk-agreements-a-post-mortem/
https://www.*.com/putin-says-minsk-agreements-eastern-ukraine-no-longer-exist-2022-2
Feb 2022 –Putin lies some more and says he has no pans to occupy anyone or imposeanything on anyone by force “It is not our plan to occupy Ukrainianterritory. We do not intend to impose anything on anyone by force.”
https://www.natomultimedia.tv/app/asset/687548
Feb 24 2022– Putin launces full scale invasion of Ukraine after lying many times saying hehad no plans to and would not do so
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-has-launched-full-scale-invasion-ukraine-kyiv-says-2022-02-24/
Mar 2022 –Putin refuses to hold direct talks with Zelensky to end full scale war onUkraine.
https://www.newsweek.com/volodomyr-zelensky-ukraine-russia-putin-bild-war-compromise-1686679
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/19/world/europe/putin-zelensky-turkey.html
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/4/russia-ukraine-war-zelenskyy-asks-putin-for-direct-talks
Mar 2022 –Putin causes peace deal with Ukraine to collapse because Putin kept changingthe conditions of the deal, on top of battlefield humiliations around Kyiv anduncovering of Russian massacres of civilians in Bucha (article from Sep 2022)
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/exclusive-war-began-putin-rejected-ukraine-peace-deal-recommended-by-his-aide-2022-09-14/
Sep 2022 –Putin, after denying any plans to invade or occupy any Ukrainian territory inFeb 2022, announces annexation of more Ukrainian territory, a large portion ofwhich it has failed to ever control.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/30/putin-announces-russian-annexation-of-four-ukrainian-regions
Dec 2023 –Russia says no peace for Ukraine until its war objectives are completed
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/14/russias-goals-in-ukraine-unchanged-putin-says
Jan 2024 –Russia complains they were not invited to Ukraine peace summit, says pointlesswithout Russian participation.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-calls-ukraine-peace-meetings-pointless-says-plan-cant-succeed-2024-01-16/
Jul 2024 –Russia is invited to second peace summit but refuses to take part in peace negotiations.
https://kyivindependent.com/russia-second-peace-summit/
