has in the past outlined what he'd see as a dual-channel carrot-and-stick strategy for getting peace talks started between the two parties. If Ukraine refused to enter negotiations, the US would threaten to withdraw aid and support. If Russia refused, the US would threaten to arm Ukraine to the hilt. How much of that plan (and Kellogg's reputation) will survive into the cold reality after the inauguration, we'll have to wait and see. Kellogg stated the other day that he felt the conflict could be over in a couple of months, but that timeable is probably based more on Trump's wishful thinking than any sensible estimate. The US is obviously an influential and key parner in NATO, but many of the European powers that support Ukraine don't want it to capitulate (especially in a way that will favour Russia and store up problems for them all in the not-too-distant future). They've been preparing, and if Trump follows past form and threatens to leave NATO if he doesn't get his own way, he might be in for a nasty surprise.
Ukraine has never refused to join in any serious negotiations (in fact, it's held a series of summits in the last year to prepare the way), unlike Russia, with Putin airily waving away the prospects of peace talks earlier in the year because he felt Russia had the upper hand and could improve its bargaining position by "taking" more territory, so it would be stupid to negotiate at that point.
Recently, the Russians have sent mixed messages depending on which apparatchik was being quoted at the time, from a flat refusal to enter any negotiations that involved the US to a grudging and unenthusiastic willingness to hear what might be on offer.
Russia's case for being taken seriously as a negotiating partner isn't helped by the daily bloodthirsty imperialistic tosh that its state-sponsored pundits rant about on Russian media, nor by the starkly genocidal declaration yesterday by ex-Russian President and now Deputy Head of the Russian Security Council Dmitri Medvedev:
Today, Ukraine faces a choice – to be with Russia or to disappear from the world map altogether.
At the same time, Ukrainians are not required to lay down “neither soul nor body” for their freedom. They should humble the pride of “otherness”, refuse to oppose themselves to the all-Russian project and cast out the demons of political Ukrainianism.
Our task is to help the residents of Little Russia and New Russia build Ukraine without the hassle of “Ukrainianism”. To consolidate in the public consciousness that Russia is irreplaceable for Ukraine in cultural, linguistic and political terms.
If the so-called Ukraine continues to follow an aggressive Russophobic course, it will disappear from the world map forever, just as the puppet entity of Manchukuo, artificially created by militaristic Japan as a proxy force on the territory ofChina, once evaporated.
https://interaffairs.ru/news/show/49351
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