If you were hoping that perhaps Ukraine, the West, and Russia would enter peace talks before we get any closer to World War III — or get any deeper into World War III, some might say — then you are out of luck, according to a top diplomat from Ukraine.
“We cannot negotiate with these people,” Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.K, told Newsweek in an interview published Tuesday. “All the cards are on the table right now.”
Prystaiko arrived at that position by admitting that Ukraine would be operating from a position of weakness in the war.
“You can argue that they achieved a lot,” Prystaiko said of Russia’s success. “That’s why they can negotiate now.”
The ambassador also said that the world’s focus on Ukraine’s counteroffensive this spring is misguided. If it goes wrong, which he admits it could, then he frets the West will take that as a sign that Ukraine’s hope is lost forever.
“The whole importance of the counteroffensive, all the hopes we put on this—this is very unhealthy,” he told Newsweek. “If anything goes wrong, or it’s not successful enough—and what is enough?—people will have all these excuses. They will say they knew that was going to happen, and now we must get to the table and negotiate something.”
From his perspective, the West needs to provide better supplies — quicker and with more discreetness. Until that happens, Russia will be able to attack Ukraine strategically. For now, though, Prystaiko says that there is much to be proud of for the Ukrainian people.
“They decided to squash us totally, and it never happened,” he said. “Now we’re talking about whether we have Bakhmut. Ask Ukrainians, they will say they had never heard of Bakhmut. And the Russians have been fighting for six months to take this town of 30,000 people. Ukraine is 40 million people. This is a tiny place. We’re losing people, it’s tragic. But it’s not that important.”
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Prystaiko said “people have to understand that we not only survived, we’re actually dictating the terms to these same Russians. I don’t understand why people do not see the beauty of it, especially in the West.”
Indeed, there is beauty in a nation defending its borders, language, and culture from an outside threat. The American people see the beauty in that, and wonder why the Biden administration and its allies don’t feel the same way about America.
So, if you support the Biden administration and the Republican Establishment’s agenda, you’d say that the West — led by the U.S. — needs to keep supporting Ukraine with billions upon billions of dollars as America’s economy suffers as requested by Prystaiko.
If you don’t want the U.S. to enter World War III, then you might be wondering why nobody has demanded that Ukraine enter peace talks before more of its people get killed and the U.S. gets dragged directly into the war with Russia.
If the recent classified docs leaks are real, the U.S. already has military personnel on the ground. As the Newsweek article notes, Russian President Vladimir Putin is “settling” in for a long war. Is the U.S. really going to allow Ukraine “to fight to the last man,” as chief war drum-beater Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has said? If Ukraine hasn’t won by that point, then who will the West send to fight Ukraine’s war?
Nobody wants Russia to win, but it’s not hard to see that the longer this goes on, the more countries will be drawn into it.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.