Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
In early April 2022, Ukraine rejected an attempt to make peace with Russia. These mediation attempts were led by the then Israeli prime Minister Naftali Bennett and supported by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
The full story is related in a recently detailed article by Michael von der Schulenburg, a former United Nations assistant secretary-general, Hajo Funke, professor emeritus for political sciences of the Otto-Suhr-Institute/ Freie University Berlin and General (ret.) Harald Kujat, at one time the highest-ranking German officer of the Bundeswehr and at NATO.
To make a long story short, the crux of Russia’s demands was that Ukraine remain neutral, and out of NATO. There was a tacit agreement between Russia and Ukraine until British Prime Minister Boris Johnson rode into town and torpedoed the agreement.
These claims have now been substantiated by Ukrainian politician and presidential advisor David Arakhamia, who agrees that internationally mediated negotiations in Istanbul had produced an agreement to bring the fighting in Ukraine to an end.
Arakhamia led the Ukrainian delegation at peace talks with the Russians in Belarus and Turkey during early 2022. In a television interview with Ukrainian journalist Nataliia Moseichuk, Arakhamia says:
“[The Russians] were ready to end the war if we accepted neutrality like Finland once did. And we would make a commitment that we would not join NATO. When we returned from Istanbul, Boris Johnson came to Kyiv and said: ‘We will not sign anything with them at all and let’s just go to war.’”
The result of following Johnson’s dictum is that Ukraine’s negotiating position today is far worse than it was in March 2022. Ukraine will now lose large parts of its territory.
There has been a steady drum beat from the Uni-party (Republicans and Democrats) in Congress to get Ukraine into NATO, and damn the cost. As I’ve noted before, Ukraine is running out of men and is considering a total mobilization of everyone from age 17 to 70. This could include women.
The Schulenburg article lists one of several conclusions: “The blocking of the peace negotiations at that time has harmed everyone: Russia and Europe – but above all the people of Ukraine, who are paying with their blood the price for the ambitions of the major powers and will probably get nothing in return.”
Who do you believe these “major powers” are?
“The fault lies not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
Rube Render is a former Clovis city commissioner and former chair of the Curry County Republican Party. Contact him:
