{"id":259415,"date":"2024-04-15T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T11:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=259415"},"modified":"2024-07-01T08:19:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T07:19:57","slug":"ukraine-may-have-to-compromise-with-russia-says-nato-chief-stoltenberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/04\/ukraine-may-have-to-compromise-with-russia-says-nato-chief-stoltenberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine May Have to Compromise with Russia, Says NATO Chief Stoltenberg"},"content":{"rendered":"

9 Apr 2024 – Ukraine may ultimately\u00a0have to agree to some kind of compromise\u00a0with Russia to\u00a0end the conflict, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with the BBC\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0on April 6, adding that it is up to the West to ensure Kiev achieves an \u201cacceptable result.\u201d Yet, despite Stoltenberg signalling for peace negotiations and with weapons running out, Kiev has once again ruled out speaking with Moscow.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The\u00a0NATO chief\u00a0reiterated that the West\u00a0must support Ukraine in the long term \u201ceven if we believe and hope that the war will end in the near future.\u201d He further added that Western countries should invest in Kiev\u2019s defence capabilities to make it more resilient in case of future hostilities. At the same time, he signalled that Ukraine was\u00a0to choose when and under what conditions to seek peace\u00a0with Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if we believe and hope that the war will end in the near future, we need to support Ukraine for many years, to build their defences to deter future aggression,\u201d Stoltenberg said, adding that the West\u2019s role is to help Kiev reach a negotiating position that can produce an \u201cacceptable result.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That said, the alliance leader emphasised that\u00a0he was not pressuring Kiev\u00a0for any concessions, adding that \u201creal peace\u201d can only be achieved when \u201cUkraine prevails.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Stoltenberg made a strong appeal for long-term support for Kiev, urging the bloc\u2019s members to \u201crely less on voluntary contributions and more on NATO commitments.\u201d According to several reports, Stoltenberg proposed a five-year military\u00a0aid package\u00a0worth \u20ac100 billion to Ukraine. The exact details of the initiative are now under discussion.<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of\u00a0the conflict, Russia remained open to talks with Ukraine. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky<\/strong>\u00a0banned any negotiations with the Kremlin\u00a0after four former Ukrainian territories voted overwhelmingly to join Russia in the fall of 2022. Instead, the Ukrainian leader has recommended a\u00a0ten-point \u201cpeace formula\u201d demanding that Moscow withdraw its troops from the territory that Kiev claims as its own and create a court to prosecute Russian officials for alleged war crimes. Moscow rejected the initiative as \u201cdisconnected from reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

In\u00a0an interview<\/a>\u00a0with Politico on April 6, Zelensky\u2019s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak<\/strong>, stated that although Ukrainians were tired of the conflict, they\u00a0would vehemently oppose any compromise with Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Russians are not interested in any negotiations. They want the capitulation of Ukraine. But it will never happen \u2014 all of us who are in Ukraine, we will not accept any compromise on our independence, on our territorial integrity, on our freedom. And this president will never agree to anything like the Minsk agreements or a frozen conflict. No, I\u2019m sure about that,\u201d he said.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, last month, Zelensky suggested that a\u00a0return to Ukraine\u2019s 1991 borders\u00a0was no longer a precondition for\u00a0negotiations with Russia but still insisted that Kiev must regain the territory it lost to Moscow since 2022. Moscow said Ukraine must acknowledge the fact that its\u00a0borders have changed drastically\u00a0since the start of hostilities.<\/p>\n

Yet, Kiev refuses to admit this reality, even as weapons are running out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to explain 100 times what we need, but there\u2019s no point just sitting here and complaining,\u201d Yermak said, adding that although Ukraine is grateful for all the support it is getting, more 155mm artillery shells, drones, electronic warfare systems, Patriot air-defence systems are needed.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe still critically need additional air-defence systems because without them it is impossible to for us to defend our cities,\u201d he added.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Zelensky\u2019s rhetoric about military aid deliveries from the West has become increasingly desperate in recent months. Earlier in April, he warned that\u00a0Kiev was not ready to defend itself against a major Russian offensive\u00a0expected in late spring or summer and complained that\u00a0Ukraine\u00a0\u201cdidn\u2019t have rounds, artillery rounds, a lot of different things\u201d needed to \u201cstabilise the situation\u201d at the front, something he\u00a0said\u00a0would make Kiev\u2019s partners \u201creally happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief\u00a0Oleksandr Syrskyi<\/strong> acknowledged in early April that his forces are facing a \u201cdifficult\u201d situation and that Russia has been capitalising on its superiority in air power, missiles, and artillery stocks. Although Ukraine will inevitably get many of the weapons demanded, as many experts have already admitted, this will not be able to change the course of the war, which will end in a decisive Russian victory.<\/p>\n

For this reason, the majority of NATO members, and now evidently even the alliance\u2019s chief, are begrudgingly highlighting that Kiev will have no choice but to negotiate with Moscow, even if Zelensky stubbornly refuses to at this moment in time. Despite this stubbornness, Zelensky or another future Ukrainian leader will have no choice but to begin negotiations, which will include the official recognition of changed borders.<\/p>\n

________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – globalresearch.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ukraine may ultimately\u00a0have to agree to some kind of compromise\u00a0with Russia to\u00a0end the conflict, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with the BBC\u00a0published\u00a0on April 6, adding that it is up to the West to ensure Kiev achieves an \u201cacceptable result.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":240429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[1268,1644,91,278,961,124,70,92,481],"class_list":["post-259415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-european-union","tag-international-court-of-justice-icj","tag-nato","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-united-nations","tag-usa","tag-violent-conflict","tag-warfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":259416,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259415\/revisions\/259416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}