Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recommended a cease-fire to Russian President Vladimir Putin as another round of in-person talks between Ukraine and Russia begin in Istanbul.
Neutrality for Ukraine is on the table, report several news outlets. The Washington Post account explains:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to offer a diplomatic opening Sunday, saying that Kyiv could declare its “neutrality” and effectively renounce its ambitions to join NATO in a potential peace deal with Moscow, but stressed that Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are “beyond doubt” and any deal must be voted on by a national referendum held without Russian troops in Ukraine. Zelensky made these remarks during an interview with a Russian outlet, which the Kremlin’s Internet censor then banned Russian media outlets from publishing.
That is, after all Putin has spent and lost to occupy parts of Ukraine, returning to a status quo ante without winning any more than a pledge of Ukrainian neutrality may not give him enough cover to cease and desist. Plus, a national referendum on the deal will not be acceptable. Democracy is not Putin’s thing.
Pentagon intelligence suggests Russia is changing focus to controlling the eastern Donbas region, where pro-Kremlin separatist forces have long fought the Ukrainian government. The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence accused Russia on Sunday of trying to dominate the east and divide his country in two — “to create North and South Korea in Ukraine.”
Additionally, there is no way Putin would allow a Zelensky interview to undercut Russian government propaganda that Putin means to liberate Ukraine from Nazis and demilitarize its neighbor.
Russia may retain Crimea as it has, but East and West Ukraine is a nonstarter for Zelensky. Too much blood has been spilled.
The New York Times adds:
In the interview, Mr. Zelensky offered a graphic description of what he claimed was the Kremlin’s disregard for both Ukrainian and Russian lives, to the point, he said, that the Russian army was slow to pick up the bodies of its fallen soldiers.
“First they refused, then something else, then they proposed some sorts of bags to us,” Mr. Zelensky said, describing Ukraine’s efforts to hand over the bodies of Russian soldiers. “Listen, even when a dog or a cat dies, people don’t do this.”
Russian officials announced an investigation into Russian reporters who published the interview on social media hours before Russian regulators “released a statement directing Russian news outlets not to publish the interview.”
Western Europe is looking for any proposal that might stop the death and destruction wrought by Russian artillery and missile strikes even as Putin’s invasion flounders. But this “opening” from Ukraine feels more like a feint than a serious bargaining position. That is especially so “where the vast majority of the public wants to fight, and believes they will win,” Jen Kirby writes in a Vox explainer on neutrality:
Ukrainians under siege are also deeply skeptical that neutrality is what Russia wants. “Russia will not honor any security guarantees because Russia will accept nothing less than Ukraine’s destruction,” said Mychailo Wynnyckyj, a sociologist from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. “It’s not about status, it’s about existence.”
The existence of most concern to Putin now may be his own.
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
For The Win, 4th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free, countywide get-out-the-vote planning guide for county committees at ForTheWin.us. This is what winning looks like.