The Ukrainian brass is making a lot of money from the war with Russia, and they don’t want Zelensky to end the party. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:
Russia on Monday made clear that it is sticking by initial demands raised by Moscow at the start of the war in February 2022, after President Putin last week issues statements which appeared open to compromise for the sake of peace talks.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has declared that Russia will never give up its hold over Crimea, as well as the annexed regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts. He named as a condition for peace negotiations that Russia’s control and sovereignty over these territories is vital and essentially non-negotiable.
“The international recognition of Crimea, Sevastopol, the DPR, the LPR, the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions as part of Russia is another imperative,” he said. “All the commitments Kiev assumes must be legally binding, contain enforcement mechanisms and be permanent,” Lavrov added.
“Russia proceeds from the premise that Kiev’s non-accession to NATO, as well as reaffirming its neutral and non-aligned status as per the 1990 Declaration on Ukraine’s State Sovereignty – these factors form one of the two pillars for a final settlement to the Ukraine crisis that would meet Russia’s security interests,” he continue.
