Summary
Transcript
Our side will immediately, literally at the same minute, follow the order to cease-fire and start negotiations. One would think the State Department would welcome negotiations if for no other reason than to take the temperature to take the pulse of the other side. But our people don’t even want to talk. Isn’t that a dereliction of duty? Well, you want to remember that he says there’s two prerequisites before those negotiations can start. And one is that Ukraine has to pull all its forces out of those regions, the four regions or the four oblasts, that Russia has now annexed.
It’s very important to understand that Russia has annexed Crimea, and it completely controls Crimea. It’s also annexed four oblasts, and those four oblasts are not completely controlled by Russia. Ukraine controls slices of those four oblasts. So what he is saying is before negotiations can start, the Ukrainians have to abandon completely those four oblasts. Second, he’s saying that the Ukrainians have to commit to a neutral Ukraine, to Ukraine not becoming part of NATO before the negotiations can start. And asking for that at this point in time is definitely going to get a no from the West and from Ukraine.
And that’s why they dismiss the negotiations out of hand. [tr:trw].