Voice of Ukraine

From Maia Mikhaluk in Kyiv (483rd day):

“We intend to remain alive. Our neighbors want to see us dead. This is not a question that leaves much room for compromise.”(Golda Meir)

On June 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with a delegation from African countries – Zambia, South Africa, Egypt, Congo, Senegal, Uganda and the Union of Comoros.

They arrived in St. Petersburg from Kyiv, where they had a meeting with President Zelensky the day before. On the day of their visit, the capital of Ukraine was under ruzzian missile strike and members of the delegation even had to go down to the bomb shelter.

During African delegation’s time in ruzzia putin used the occasion to push a lie about ruzzia being always ready for negotiations and claim that last year a peace agreement had been reached but Ukraine broke that agreement after ruzzians retreated from Kyiv region. Putin even flashed some papers supposedly signed by the Ukrainian negotiators.

There is a lot that proves that statement to be a lie. First of all the negotiations that took place in March 2022 were done by people who had no right to sign any agreements; they were negotiating/preparing some kind of agreeable positions for the Presidents of ruzzia and Ukraine to sign. Obviously, putin and Zelensky never met to sign any peace agreement.

The fabricated paper that putin showed was supposedly signed in mid-April, 2022. That was the time when all the horrendous crimes in Bucha and Irpin were already discovered in the first days of April and all negotiations were stopped in the beginning of April.

But you might be wondering why putin is bringing up this lie and why now? It might have to do with the Ukrainian offensive that is going on now. He can’t do anything to stop our army, but he can try to undermine Western support of Ukraine by claiming that there is a diplomatic way out of the war – no need to continue military liberation of our land. Stopping military action would give putin time to regroup and get more resources. The Ukrainian army has initiative; we are not interested in “playing the games” that will eventually cost us even more lives.

Here is a quote from an article in BBC on this topic:
“Russian political scientist Tetyana Stanova reminds that similar statements – that it was Kyiv that thwarted the achievement of such a close peace – have been heard in various formulations by representatives of official Moscow since the end of last year.
“The Russian authorities have an internal need to prevent the Ukrainian counteroffensive. It is clear that they cannot do it militarily. But they can promote the narrative that, as they say, “Russia is ready for peace negotiations, it is the Ukrainians who want war.” They are trying to appeal to the rest of the world – not only to the West, but also to the world in general – in order to deprive the Ukrainian offensive of geopolitical support, to make it more controversial,” Stanova explained to the BBC.
Kyiv political scientist Petro Burkovsky draws attention to the specifics of the site where Putin demonstrated the “peace plan” that was “derailed by the Ukrainians”.

“Putin emphasized that Russia behaves within the framework of the UN Charter. This issue is important for African leaders, who have long been demanding UN reform. This is important: Putin wants to prove that Russia is ready for negotiations, and Ukraine was also ready, but continued under pressure from the West war,” says Burkovsky in a BBC commentary.

“A document is something that you can refer to and that you can quote, it’s an information hook that works very well in the Global South – with the help of such documents, problems on the African continent are solved, for example, a ceasefire is reached in Ethiopia or in Sudan Thus, Putin wants his position to look more convincing in the eyes of African leaders,” he adds.

However, the same Stanova draws attention to the fact that the addressees of Putin’s rhetoric can be not only China, India and African countries, which are more receptive to the Russian position, but also the “correct” from the point of view of Russia Western elites who oppose the unconditional and unlimited support of Kyiv and do not want to completely destroy relations with Moscow.

“Of course, no one in the West supports the war, but there is a discussion about how much and why to supply weapons, whether Ukraine should try to come to an agreement with Russia and perhaps even cede some part of its territory… Therefore, Putin gives these “good and correct Western to the elites” arguments that they will be able to use in internal discussions and say: “You see, Russia is ready for peace negotiations! They even had a piece of paper,” she explains.

What Stanova is talking about seems to be happening now.
On June 20, American businessman David Sachs published a tweet on his Twitter account (Sachs has almost 700,000 followers) that the Ukrainian counteroffensive was allegedly unsuccessful, and that Russia and Ukraine could have reached peace last year. The message, which was viewed three million times, mentioned, in particular, the documents that Putin showed in St. Petersburg.”

Don’t be fooled by ruzzian lies. If ruzzia wanted peace all they had to do is withdraw their troops from our land and stop bombing our cities with drones and missiles. Their idea of peace is Ukraine’s surrender and eventual disappearance.

They want us dead; we want to live – there is no room for compromise or negotiations.