To the Last Ukrainian?

The West and Kiev are once again stranding Ukraine in the forever kill zone

There was – or rather, seemed to be – hope for peace, for a brief moment. And how deceptive it has turned out. I should know because I was cautiously optimistic, too, when we were told just over a week ago that the presidents of Russia and the US, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, had a long and useful phone conversation and were planning to meet in person again.

By now that “Alaska 2.0” summit, this time said to take place in the Hungarian capital Budapest, has been cancelled before it was even properly scheduled, and the Russian-American relationship has taken further severe hits. Washington has initiated unprecedented sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, which had not been sanctioned before, and dozens of their subsidiaries. All of this accompanied by what seems deliberately condescending and offensive rhetoric blaming Russia and its president – and them alone – for the persistent impasse in finding a negotiated solution to the Ukraine War, that is a Western proxy war against Russia.