Who will Russia negotiate with
Sometimes irreconcilable enemies agree on something important. Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, said at the G7 summit in Japan that peace talks between Russia and Ukraine should be rejected. Dmitry Medvedev supported her: «It's hard to disagree with a gynecologist who pretends to be the head of the EU.»
Of course, they differ in details. Von der Leyen believes that Zelensky's «peace formula» should be supported.
Perhaps Medvedev is right, and she really only pretends to be the head of the EU. Because a politician in such a post should be aware that Kyiv's «peace formula» is a «war formula».
Peaceful were, for example, the Minsk agreements, unfavorable for Russia, which did not provide for the return of Donbass to its “native harbour”. Now the military defeat of Russia is proposed as a start for some kind of negotiations. Since without World War III, a nuclear war, it is impossible to imagine, but there will be no winners in such a war, there is no point in discussing this.
But perhaps von der Leyen is insidious and just wants to continue the conflict, so that later it would be easier to negotiate with Russia — yes, the one who won, but suffered (you can’t get anywhere) significant costs. If this is so, then it is worth noting that the existence of an independent Ukraine is no longer provided here. But using it for your own purposes is quite.
Medvedev is much more specific and straightforward. He no longer considers present-day Ukraine as a sovereign territorial entity: “What equal negotiations can there be with a Nazi state that is in the half-life stage under external control? You can only talk with the owners.”
Here, by the way, von der Leyen can become insulting, since Medvedev names Washington as a party to the negotiations — “there are simply no other interlocutors.” And Europe in these negotiations «on the conditions of the post-war world order» is absent as a subject. However, Dmitry Anatolyevich admits that it is too early to talk about such negotiations.
Despite the difference in approaches, the result is still the same — we cross out Ukraine. We have no one to talk to, they are forbidden to talk to us by their owners. And until they cross it out (and here there are options and humane ones) — no negotiations.