In his speech at the UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine, Blinken said that the United States opposes a temporary and urgent ceasefire in Ukraine because it would help Russia rearm.
“Members of the Security Council have a fundamental responsibility to ensure that any peace is just and lasting. The Security Council should not be misled by calls for a temporary or unconditional ceasefire.”
said
According to him, “the Russian Federation uses any cessation of hostilities in order to consolidate its control over the occupied territories and to rearm its forces for subsequent attacks.” In his view, members of the Security Council should not “follow the wrong equation” urging parties to the conflict to cease hostilities or cease aid to Ukraine.
On February 24, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a 12-point plan to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Beijing called for ceasefire and peace talks to resolve the humanitarian crisis, protect civilians and prisoners of war, abandon the “Cold War mentality”, respect the sovereignty of all countries “without double standards”, and guarantee their exports. grain, to promote the rebuilding of Ukraine and to ensure the stability of production chains and their supply.
Commenting on China’s plan to resolve the conflict, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that some points of China’s peace plan could become the basis for negotiations with Russia. He doesn’t quite agree on some points and “you can work on some of them.” Zelensky noted that the proposals put forward by China in general are not a peace plan, but Beijing’s position on the situation in Ukraine.
Also on February 24, Presidents of Russia and Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin held phone calls, Ankara reported. Erdogan noted that “a just peace without further loss of life and destruction” should be achieved in Ukraine. The Kremlin stated that during the meeting, special attention was paid to the implementation of the Istanbul agreements on the export of Ukrainian grain and Russian agricultural products and fertilizers.
“Bastard Compromise”
According to Time columnist Philip Short, Washington fears Ukraine’s advance into Crimea as it could lead to the uncontrolled escalation feared by the White House. According to him, Washington may not want the Ukrainian Armed Forces to expel the RF Armed Forces from all occupied territories, especially the Crimea.
“Ukraine’s advance into Crimea, a Russian region like any other, where most of the population considers themselves Russian and from Moscow’s point of view risks an unmanageable escalation precisely the kind the Biden administration plans to thwart,” the article states.
The article states that the prospects for the progress of the conflict and the fate of the eventual temporary or final ceasefire are extremely uncertain. So, for example, a possible “bastard compromise” is the preservation of new territories for Russia, and then the cessation of the conflict, which will allow Washington to talk about the collective success of the West. According to the author of the article, this option will cause a wave of anger in Kiev because they will see such an option as treason.
“If this happens, Ukrainians will perceive it as treason for no reason. [со стороны Запада], but in the end Kiev may be left with no choice but to compromise. The West will sweeten the pill by providing a great healing aid,” the observer concluded.
Washington Priorities
Columnist Josh Hammer said in an article for Newsweek that the US is not interested in returning Ukraine to the 1991 borders that Kiev was trying to reach.
“The US has very little to do with exactly where to draw state borders in eastern Ukraine,” he said.
According to him, Washington’s main task in the Russia-Ukraine conflict is to protect the Zelensky-led regime, but the American administration does not try to discuss issues related to territorial claims.
The article also says that the supply of weapons to the Ukrainian Armed Forces will inevitably lead to the depletion of the American arsenal, since Patriot air defense systems and HIMARS missile systems “do not grow on trees.”