re: The Ukrainian Counter Offensive

80% of this board is disgusted with the U.S. escalating the situation and giving $100 billion to Ukraine when congress didn't have $5 billion to defend our own border.

It's wild this whole thing probably could have been avoided on NATO neutrality.

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New evidence is emerging that a peace deal was achievable at the beginning of the war. At a recent meeting with the African delegation, Putin showed the draft of an outline or preliminary agreement signed by the Ukrainian delegation at Istanbul in April 2022. It provided that Russia would pull back to pre-war lines if Ukraine would agree not to join NATO (but Ukraine could receive security guarantees from the West).

This document has not been publicly released yet, but no one seriously contests that it exists. The only dispute is over what happened subsequently; Ukraine (via reporting in Reuters) contends the deal fell apart. However, the availability of a deal based on Ukrainian Neutrality is consistent with previous comments from Naftali Bennett, who said a deal was attainable but rejected by the West.

Why would the West do this? Ukrainska Pravda (UP), a pro-Ukraine publication, reported in May 2022:

“As soon as the Ukrainian negotiators and Abramovich/Medinsky [the Russian negotiators], following the outcome of Istanbul, had agreed on the structure of a future possible agreement in general terms, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared in Kyiv almost without warning. "Johnson brought two simple messages to Kyiv. The first is that Putin is a war criminal; he should be pressured, not negotiated with. And the second is that even if Ukraine is ready to sign some agreements on guarantees with Putin, they are not. We can sign (an agreement) with you (Ukraine), but not with him. Anyway, he will screw everyone over", is how one of Zelenskyy's close associates summed up the essence of Johnson's visit.”

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Other evidence:

-Turkey’s foreign minister
-ex-Israeli PM
-sources close to Zelensky
-US officials/Fiona Hill

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr
@RobertKennedyJr
Awaiting White House propaganda offensive sugarcoating this calamity to sustain dwindling support for this misadventure in US. Revelation that UK &US leaders sabotaged April 2022 peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia. puts blame for this terrible crime on DC neocons; 350,000 dead !!

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And before it even started a similar deal was spiked.

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This war was completely avoidable. The party in this conflict that actually sought diplomacy repeatedly was Russia.

Not something you'd read in the New York Times...

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