Ukraine

Mehmet Perinçek stated that peace talks have been sabotaged by outside powers. He said that the allegations of child abduction are efforts to undermine the peace initiatives. Similarly, despite the agreement on the exchange of sick and wounded prisoners, Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinskiy later stated that Ukraine did not comply with it.

[NOTE — I published this piece in November 2023. In light of the possible meeting between the Russians and the Ukrainians on Thursday in Istanbul, I think it is worth publishing it again for many of you who may have missed it the first time. I decided to do this after listening to Nima’s podcast with Ray McGovern and John Helmer. They had a major, yet polite, disagreement on what happened during Istanbul 2022. Helmer insisted that the Russian’s cancelled the deal. Simply not true. Sergei Lavrov, during my meeting with him in early March of this year, recounted the same sequence of events that I wrote about in November 2023. Also worth noting that Russia is sending the same negotiating team that was in place for the 2022 talks.]

The diplomatic tempo of the Ukrainian Conflict is picking up as all relevant parties begin talking more about reaching an agreement to end it.

The decade of 2000 marked the start of Ukraine becoming a de facto member of NATO. It not only participated in all of the main exercises, but it hosted many. In fact, between 2000 and 2010, Ukraine is ranked in the top six of countries that hosted a NATO or USEUCOM exercise. Ukraine and Georgia, who was ranked number seven, were not NATO members. What the hell? Two non-NATO countries hosted more NATO exercises than 22 of the member nations. This is prima facie evidence that the West, despite warnings from Russia, was intent on making Ukraine and Georgia official members of NATO.