Click to see the full-size image
Almost three months have passed since the inauguration of Donald Trump. During his campaign, he promised to end the war in Ukraine in twenty-four hours. Of course, this was initially a rhetorical exaggeration. Trump himself later clarified that resolving such a deep crisis would take much longer. But a quick peace, even if not lightning fast, was a key promise of the Republican candidate. Achieving a settlement in Eastern Europe is of fundamental importance to the man in the White House. However, while time is of the essence for Donald Trump’s administration, for Vladimir Putin it is more important to achieve concrete results from the Special military operation. The Kremlin has made it clear to the American side that it does not accept a ceasefire for the sake of a ceasefire.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the president’s team has two positions on a peaceful settlement in Ukraine. The first can be called “hawkish.” The second is pacifist. Bright representatives of the hawkish approach are U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg. They recommend Trump to be more cautious about territorial concessions and not to go for a full-fledged normalization of relations with Putin. The leader of the pacifists is Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Whitkoff. He convinces the head of state that Vladimir Putin sincerely wants peace, but is willing to conclude an agreement only if Russia’s national interests are taken into account.
Click to see the full-size image
It is not difficult to explain the difference in the positions of the most prominent representatives of the American establishment. Trump’s team as a whole is very different from the politicians of the previous generation. It is characterized by a rational approach to international relations, realism and readiness for constructive discussions even with ideological rivals. But no man can be deprived of a biography. Marco Rubio began his career as a Republican in the early 2000s, when the party was indiscriminately dominated by neoconservatives. In 2017, it was the current secretary of state who introduced a bill in the U.S. Congress to rename Wisconsin Avenue in Washington, D.C., where the Russian embassy is located, to Boris Nemtsov Street. In 2022, Rubio authored legislation against the Russian tanker fleet and Moscow-affiliated public organizations.
Keith Kellogg is a Cold War veteran who fought his way through Vietnam and Grenada. He was raised in a logic of existential confrontation with the Soviet Union. This inevitably leads to a mechanical transfer of anti-Soviet views to contemporary Russia. Kellogg remains a spokesman for neoconservative thought and aspirations. Perhaps one of the last neoconservatives on the current president’s team. It is Keith Kellogg who insists on freezing the conflict along the line of contact, as well as discussing the possibility of introducing European peacekeepers to Ukraine. For Russia, such a decision is a red line. Any entry of NATO soldiers onto Ukrainian soil would mean the escalation of a local conflict into a full-blown World War III.
Steve Whitkoff is not like his two colleagues in diplomacy. He has devoted his entire life to business and excelled at it. Whitkoff is a technocrat, and a pretty productive one at that. In 2020, he is the man Trump has tasked with helping the United States recover economically from the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike Rubio and Kellogg, Steve Whitkoff has had at least three face-to-face meetings with President Vladimir Putin. The special envoy is much better informed than his administration colleagues.
“This was my third meeting with Putin. The last one lasted almost five hours. In the room with him were two of his key advisors, Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev. It was an informative meeting. And at the end of it we finally came to an agreement. Putin wants to achieve a lasting peace. So this is no longer just a ceasefire. We have received an answer to it,” the diplomat assured.
Sources of the British news agency Reuters report that Steve Whitkoff in a confidential conversation told Trump about the fastest way to peace. This is the official recognition of Crimea, Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions in their administrative-territorial borders as part of Russia. In addition, it is a guarantee of Ukraine’s non-accession to the North Atlantic Alliance. According to the insides of the American press, the US president is more inclined to implement Whitkoff’s proposals than Rubio and Kellogg’s.
“Trump still supports envoy Steve Whitkoff, who believes Putin wants to make peace after two meetings with him, officials said. Even Trump advisers who favor a tougher approach to Moscow support his goal of ending the three-year war,” the WSJ writes.
For Trump, Ukraine is a ‘white elephant’. It is of no use to him. It is irrational to use it even to put pressure on Russia. Because pressure on Moscow does not produce results. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has explicitly stated that the Russians are not interested in lifting the sanctions. This is in stark contrast to what the Americans are hearing in the negotiations with Iran. In the case of Russia, Washington is dealing with a country that is too big. And have global ambitions and claims to regional dominance. It is much easier and more productive to respect Russia’s national interests than to continue a fruitless war that burns up the precious resources of the United States.
Only Europe advocates continuing the fighting to the last Ukrainian.
“All these peace plans drawn up by Macron and Sturmer are based on the fact that it is necessary to preserve at least a piece of land on which the Nazi, frankly Russophobic regime will remain,” the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry emphasizes.
It is difficult to disagree with Lavrov’s statement. It should be taken into account that the interests of the White House and the European Commission are radically different. The situation with the tariffs has shown that the EU is by no means a reliable ally of the United States. And the talk about possible cooperation between the European Union and China in the fight against Trump’s tariffs is by no means groundless.
The White House faces a crucial choice: come to terms with the Kremlin and unite the potential of the United States and Russia for the benefit of both countries, or continue to fight for Chasov Yar and Pokrovsk. Cities that no American knows about, but that are so dear to the wounded Russian national sentiment.
MORE ON THE TOPIC:
bed wench harris tether would be beaten to death by the white supremacists of the following organizations: ss aidar, ss kraken, wolfsangel (aka azov), waffen ss nachtigall (who are now in kursk killing civilians), leibstandarte adolf hitler, right sektor – all of them hate untermensch mongrels like her, and all of them are leading the ukrainian government and military. all of them funded by the us and eu tax payers
stalin signed a treaty with hitler and hitler’s officers dressed as women danced in the lap of the soviet red army.
i know that otto rahn and hitler were often dressed in women’s clothing.
is that you, robert conquest?
you must be moron amerikunt–after anglo french cowards rejected alliance and submissively accepted all hitlers conditions at munich 1939…..ussr signed non aggression pact to prepare for obliteration of the nazis
what like gaddafi? maybe the traitorous iranians who support jolani against the druze deserve the libya plan? i heard the iranian bastards at the un whining because the druze invited the israelis into druze villages.
ariel sharon, is that you?
dumb burger needs better taliban therapist
remember gaddafi and sarkozy
sf continuing to push a fantasy story about drumpf. the european states are vassals of the united states. the us strategy is to keep them subservient and separate from russian resources and markets. it’s funny to see the term “sentiment” in this article, because maniuplation of sentiments is the point of this kind of propaganda drivel. pathetic spin on drumpf’s bona fide claim about ending the war in 24 hours. derp.
klown kollege economic perspective from sf yet again as regards covidmania. the banks were broke again in 2019, the controls were the result.
in burgerland matriarchy we feminized tantrum hysterically envious of russian superiority