Ukraine Peace Deal Unravels, Expert Talks on Iran’s Uranium Enrichment Postponed
Congrats to Volodymyr Zelensky for cementing his position as the champion at choosing to always do the wrong thing. Before Marco Rubio and the European foreign ministers assembled in London for negotiations with an Ukrainian delegation, the Z-man rejected any recognition by the US of Crimea as Russian territory. As a result, Rubio and Steve Witkoff ditched the talks, and were followed in short order by the other European foreign ministers. This potentially pivotal meeting turned into a complete fiasco.
Zelensky, if he had any smarts, could have kept his mouth shut and said nothing about the Kellogg Plan, and given Mr. Witkoff time to take the proposal to Moscow, where Mr. Putin would have said, NYET! That would have made the Russians the villains in this piece of Kabuki theater. Instead, Zelensky gave the Russians a perfect gift by reinforcing Russia’s longstanding assertion that Zelensky is not capable of negotiating in good faith.
President Trump and Vice-President Vance responded quickly to Zelensky’s defiance by repeating Secretary of State Rubio’s warning from last week… the United States will wash its hands of the bloody mess and leave it to the Europeans and Zelensky to sort out.
Meanwhile, back in Moscow, President Putin’s spokesman issued a statement that signals Russia’s negotiating position is going to become tougher. Peskov, speaking to a reporter from Le Point, said the following:
Ukraine must withdraw its troops from the territories of Donbas and Novorossiya, which have become part of the Russian Federation. There will be no “reset”, rollback or surrender of new regions. This is not even a subject for bargaining – it is a closed topic.
This marks a significant shift in the Russian claims on Ukrainian territory, i.e., Peskov using the word, Novorossiya. Novorossiya, meaning “New Russia,” is a historical term that originated during the era of the Russian Empire. It referred to an administrative region established in 1764 after the Russian Empire conquered territories north of the Black Sea and Crimea from the Ottoman Empire and the Cossacks. The region encompassed what is now southern and eastern Ukraine, including areas such as Odessa, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, and parts of Crimea and Bessarabia. The Russian Empire encouraged settlement by Russians and other ethnic groups, transforming it into an important agricultural and, later, industrial center. During my trip to St. Petersburg last June, I was given a rubber wristband with the phrase in Russian: Donbas the Heart of Russia. The Russians are dead serious about this territory being part of Russia’s history.
If you’re wondering where Bessarabia is located, it is situated between the Prut River to the west and the Dniester River to the east. Today, about two-thirds of Bessarabia lies within the modern country of Moldova, while the remaining portion is in southwestern Ukraine, including the Budjak region and a small area in the Ukrainian Chernivtsi Oblast.
Its boundaries are:
North: Extends into parts of modern-day Ukraine
West: Prut River (border with Romania)
East: Dniester River (border with Ukraine)
South: Danube River delta and the Black Sea
Zelensky’s refusal to negotiate and accept Russia’s terms means that Ukraine is likely to lose additional territory before the war ends. I believe that Russia also will also take control of Kharkiv, Poltava, Sumy and Chernihiv. Russian troops already occupy portions of Sumy and Kharkiv.
Despite the collapse of the meeting in London to discuss the Kellogg Plan, Steve Witkoff reportedly is still going to Moscow to meet with President Putin. While I am sure he will brief Putin on Trump’s plans regarding further support to Ukraine, Witkoff also will discuss next steps in normalizing relations with Russia and confer with Putin about the third-round of talks with Iran that will take place on Saturday in Oman.
I believe Russia is prepared to help the United States conclude a deal with Iran that would guarantee an end to any plans to build a nuclear weapon. President Putin hosted the Sultan of Oman on Monday, and the two discussed the upcoming meeting in Muscat between the US and Iran. The Sultan is acting as the mediator in the negotiations.
The scheduled meeting of the nuclear experts from the US and Iran, which was supposed to happen today (Wednesday), did not take place. I don’t have enough information about the reason for not holding the meeting… it may mean nothing or it could be a sign that the negotiations could be in trouble.
I discussed the collapse of the Ukrainian peace deal and the upcoming talks in Oman with Danny Davis and his producer, Gary today:
Add Odessa to areas that Russia will take.
I believe that when this is (mostly) a done deal, we will discover that this “peace plan” that was proposed by DJT through Witcoff to Putin was to make it look like we would be presenting a plan to Z. We knew he would refuse it. And Rubio signaled last week that we would wash our hands of Ukraine-which was seconded publicly by Vance. I think this was the plan all along. That gets us out of this snafu and allows Russia to go ahead and end this thing asap. The people of the Donbas and Crimea voted to be Russian-& they were being really tortured by Z and his Nazi thugs. Hopefully this is what happens.