Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy, December 4, 2023 —
Russia wanted to sign a peace deal with Ukraine in March 2022, but NATO countries sabotaged it, according to Germany’s former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and the parliamentary faction leader of Zelensky’s political party, Davyd Arakhamia.
The United States has played a key role in fueling the wars in both Israel-Palestine and Ukraine.
The US government has sought to prevent peace in Gaza, vetoing resolutions in the UN Security Council that call for a ceasefire, while sending weapons to Israel to help it bomb densely populated civilian areas, contributing to the killing of more than 15,000 Palestinians, approximately 70% of whom are women and children.
Since 2022, Washington has done exactly the same in Ukraine, torpedoing peace proposals that Russia had supported.
This has been confirmed by numerous sources, including the former leader of Germany and a top Ukrainian official, as well as Israel’s ex prime minister.
Germany’s former leader says US sabotaged Russia-Ukraine peace talks
This October, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder explained in an interview how he had tried to negotiate peace between Ukraine and Russia in 2022.
Ukraine’s overtly anti-Russian newspaper Ukrainska Pravda reported on his bombshell remarks.
Moscow had a concrete peace plan laid out, according to Schröder. It was based on five points: “Ukraine’s rejection of NATO membership, two official languages in Ukraine, Donbas autonomy, security guarantees for Ukraine, and negotiations on the status of Crimea”, Ukrainska Pravda wrote.
But the former German leader said the United States sabotaged the peace talks.
“The only people who could resolve the war over Ukraine are the Americans”, Schröder emphasized.
“During the peace talks in March 2022 in Istanbul with [Ukraine’s Defense Minister] Rustem Umierov, Ukrainians did not agree to peace because they were not allowed to. They had to coordinate everything they talked about with the Americans first”, he recalled.
“However, nothing eventually happened. My impression is that nothing could happen because everything else was decided in Washington. It was fatal”, Schröder added.
The former German head of state likewise warned that Russia will never accept NATO expansion into Ukraine and Georgia.
“Regardless of who is in power, there is a belief in Russia that the West wants to expand further with NATO, namely into the post-Soviet area. Keywords: Georgia and Ukraine. No one at the head of Russia will allow this to happen. This danger analysis may be emotional, but it is real for Russia. The West must understand this and compromise accordingly; otherwise, peace will be tough to achieve”, Schröder stressed, in the comments quoted by Ukrainska Pravda.