| | A 2019 [[Rand Corporation]] paper entitled ''Extending Russia: Competing from Advantageous Ground'' knowingly imperiled Ukraine as a nation and its people, to extend Russia in the hopes of precipitating a sociopolitical or economic collapse, or both, with the full understanding Ukraine itself would lose any such conflict. The policy of militarizing Ukraine to provoke a Russian intervention was anticipated, according to the report, "to produce disproportionately large Ukrainian casualties, territorial losses, and refugee flows as well as a disadvantageous peace."<ref>Dobbins, James, Raphael S. Cohen, Nathan Chandler, Bryan Frederick, Edward Geist, Paul DeLuca, Forrest E. Morgan, Howard J. Shatz, and Brent Williams, ''Extending Russia: Competing from Advantageous Ground.'' Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2019. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR3063.html. [p. 100]</ref> | | A 2019 [[Rand Corporation]] paper entitled ''Extending Russia: Competing from Advantageous Ground'' knowingly imperiled Ukraine as a nation and its people, to extend Russia in the hopes of precipitating a sociopolitical or economic collapse, or both, with the full understanding Ukraine itself would lose any such conflict. The policy of militarizing Ukraine to provoke a Russian intervention was anticipated, according to the report, "to produce disproportionately large Ukrainian casualties, territorial losses, and refugee flows as well as a disadvantageous peace."<ref>Dobbins, James, Raphael S. Cohen, Nathan Chandler, Bryan Frederick, Edward Geist, Paul DeLuca, Forrest E. Morgan, Howard J. Shatz, and Brent Williams, ''Extending Russia: Competing from Advantageous Ground.'' Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2019. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR3063.html. [p. 100]</ref> |
| − | In February 2019, Ukraine’s constitution was amended to make NATO membership a compulsory government goal. Zelensky, who was elected President on a pro-peace platform in May 2019, did nothing to change that provision and in March 2021 he adopted the Crimean Platform – a program to recapture Crimea and the naval base at [[Sevastopol]] for NATO by any means necessary, including unspecified military measures which the Kyiv regime by itself was incapable of. In April, Ukraine forced a provocation with Russian naval forces in the Sea of Azov, which ended without violence, and in June the United Kingdom used the incident as an excuse to enhance Ukraine’s seaborne capabilities. That same month NATO promised Ukraine’s eventual membership of the alliance. In July, the United States and Ukraine co-hosted a naval exercise in the Black Sea that involved 32 countries and in August signed a US-Ukraine Strategic Defense Framework, followed a couple of months later by a Charter on Strategic Partnership. Between March and June, NATO conducted Defender 21, a multinational military exercise focussed on supposedly defending Europe from Russian attack. In the spring Ukraine began increasing its forces along the Donbass line of contact with the aim of eliminating the Donbas militias and retaking Crimea. | + | In February 2019, Ukraine’s constitution was amended to make NATO membership a compulsory government goal. Zelensky, who was elected President on a pro-peace platform in May 2019, did nothing to change that provision and in March 2021 he adopted the Crimean Platform – a program to recapture Crimea and the naval base at [[Sevastopol]] for NATO by any means necessary, including unspecified military measures which the Kyiv regime by itself was incapable of. In April, Ukraine forced a provocation with Russian naval forces in the Sea of Azov, which ended without violence, and in June the United Kingdom used the incident as an excuse to enhance Ukraine’s seaborne capabilities. That same month NATO promised Ukraine’s eventual membership of the alliance. In July, the United States and Ukraine co-hosted a naval exercise in the Black Sea that involved 32 countries and in August signed a US-Ukraine Strategic Defense Framework, followed a couple of months later by a Charter on Strategic Partnership. Between March and June, NATO conducted Defender 21, a multinational military exercise focused on supposedly defending Europe from Russian attack. In the spring Ukraine began increasing its forces along the Donbass line of contact with the aim of eliminating the Donbas militias and retaking Crimea. |
| | On October 11, 2022, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with ''60 Minutes'':<ref>[https://www.mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/1833291/?lang=en Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with the program 60 Minutes, Moscow, October 11, 2022].</ref> | | On October 11, 2022, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with ''60 Minutes'':<ref>[https://www.mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/1833291/?lang=en Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with the program 60 Minutes, Moscow, October 11, 2022].</ref> |
| | [[File:Berliner Zeitung 10-20-23.PNG|right|300px|thumb|'' How the peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia failed.''<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/NewsWithJingjing/comments/17ds1kp/the_only_ones_who_could_settle_the_war_against/ The only ones who could settle the war against Ukraine are the Americans].</ref>]] | | [[File:Berliner Zeitung 10-20-23.PNG|right|300px|thumb|'' How the peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia failed.''<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/NewsWithJingjing/comments/17ds1kp/the_only_ones_who_could_settle_the_war_against/ The only ones who could settle the war against Ukraine are the Americans].</ref>]] |
| − | {{quotebox-float|"We sat at the negotiating table with the Ukrainian delegation until the end of March [2022], when an approach to a settlement on the principles suggested by the Ukrainians at the time had been harmonised in [[Istanbul]]. These principles suited us for that moment but the talks were stopped by direct order from Washington and London. | + | {{quotebox-float|"We sat at the negotiating table with the Ukrainian delegation until the end of March [2022], when an approach to a settlement on the principles suggested by the Ukrainians at the time had been harmonized in [[Istanbul]]. These principles suited us for that moment but the talks were stopped by direct order from Washington and London. |