(RightWing.org) – It’s been nearly two years since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military to invade neighboring Ukraine in an attempt to begin rebuilding the Soviet Union. Since then, the world has seen a cycle of rumors and denials, along with accusations and counterclaims. Recent events would seem to indicate that the pattern is showing no signs of slowing down.
Behind-the-Scenes Bargaining?
Several pro-Ukraine news outlets are reporting that Putin has been using back channels to let the United States know he is open to a negotiated peace, according to their analyses of the January 25 article published by Bloomberg News. The claim is that two unnamed “individuals close to the Kremlin” purport that the Russian dictator used “indirect channels to signal” his willingness.
However, no one in the White House has confirmed the receipt of any such feelers being put out by Moscow. Among the rumors in the story is that Putin would be willing to drop his insistence on Ukraine’s neutrality in Eastern Europe and his objection to Kyiv seeking NATO membership.
In response to this story, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was nothing but total fabrication, per an article written in Russia’s state-run media outlet Tass. Its report reiterated Putin’s repeated statements that peace will come in due course, which will be when the objectives of the country’s “special military operation” are met.
Early on in the war, one of those goals was stated as the intent to remove the “Nazi” regime ruling in Kyiv. Reports indicated that Putin attempted to justify the attack by alleging the Ukrainian government was engaged in a campaign of “genocide [that included] numerous bloodied crimes against civilians.”
The Blame Game
On January 24, an Ilyushin Il-76 Soviet Union-era military cargo plane crashed near the city of Belgorod which is not far from the border with Ukraine. The Russians made two claims that have yet to be confirmed as true, the first being that there were 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) on board who were to be repatriated.
The second, and much more inflammatory accusation made is that it was a Ukrainian surface-to-air missile (SAM) that blew the aircraft apart. The upper echelons of the Ukraine Armed Forces claim that the Russians use such aircraft to transport weapons to the front lines, but neither confirmed nor denied that this shootdown was carried out by their air defense systems, in what CNN called “a carefully worded statement.”
The backbiting is not limited to the two countries at war. In the United States, President Joe Biden and congressional Republicans are battling over the POTUS’s request for $60 billion more in military aid for Ukraine. As Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene aka MTG (R-GA) recently posted on X (formerly Twitter), this ask by the “warmongers” on the Left is nothing more than an attempt to keep the war going. She says, “This is sick” in the face of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s calls for a peaceful settlement.
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