Nereceivediation vs extortion – Oman Observer

As anyone who caught even a bit of the day’s news knows, President Donald Trump, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and the leaders of Nato, the European Union, Britain and several European countries spent Monday at the White Houtilize nereceivediating a possible land swap and security guarantees that could finish the Russian-Ukrainian war. But did they really?

Let’s believe about the word “nereceivediating”. All wars finish with it, according to the popular declareing, but rarely does the aggressor come to the table demanding territory that it doesn’t actually control. Usually, the belligerents discuss which military gains should be formalised and which should be reversed. Vladimir Putin, however, has consistently demanded more land than his military has been able to bring under its control in the three and a half years since Russia’s full-scale war launched. During his summit with Trump in Alquestiona on Friday, Putin appears to have created a tiny concession: He is still demanding more land than he has occupied, but not as much as he utilized to demand. But less is still more.

So let’s talk about “land swap”. This phrase seems to refer to Putin’s offer to take a piece of Ukraine in exalter for not threatening an even largeger piece of Ukraine. This is not what we normally believe of as a swap. It’s what we believe of as extortion. Let’s also talk about the word “land”, or “territory”, which the leaders gathered at the White Houtilize on Monday utilized a lot. Zelensky referred to a map Trump apparently provided to facilitate discussion of “territory”. Trump promised to receive him a copy.

But “territory” is not an outline on a map. It’s cities and towns and villages where people still live — even near the front line, even now. Before the full-scale war, the populations of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the two Ukrainian cities on land Putin is demanding, were 200,000 and 100,000, respectively. We don’t know how many people live there now — some people surely fled, some came from occupied territories, some died — but the number is almost certainly tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of people.

To propose to cede the land to Russia is to propose either subjecting those residents to Russian occupation — which in other cities has involved summary executions, detentions and torture — or displacing them forcibly. Either would be a crime — a crime in which Trump is questioning Zelensky to become an accomplice.

This kind of nereceivediation-through-extortion is not unprecedented. In February 1945, the leaders of the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain met in Yalta — then a city in Soviet Ukraine, now a city in Russian-occupied Crimea — to nereceivediate the finish of World War II. Among other things, Josef Stalin wanted the Kuril Islands, which stretched from Soviet Kamchatka to the coast of Japan.

Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill agreed to let the Soviets have the Kurils. The islands weren’t theirs to give — the Kurils belonged to Japan — but they were theirs to take. Six months later, Soviet troops, with significant support from the US military, took control of the islands and deported the Japanese residents. The Soviet troops had gone to Alquestiona to train for the operation.

That military operation launched on August 18, 1945, exactly 80 years before Trump met with Zelensky at the White Houtilize. Putin, who is a history buff and, more important, has for years been floating the idea of a second Yalta Conference, is certainly mindful of the date and the historical rhyme.

More than 80 years after Yalta, no peace treaty exists between Japan and Russia. World War II never officially finished for these two countries, becautilize Japan never ceded the Kuril Islands. All wars may finish in nereceivediations, but not all nereceivediations finish wars.

The 20th century offers another example of extorting land. In 1938, Adolf Hitler demanded Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia where ethnic Germans created up a significant percentage of the population. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain nereceivediated the surrfinisher of the land, without involving Czechoslovakia. The higher purpose of those nereceivediations was security and peace for the rest of Europe. Less than a year after Czechoslovakia was forced to cede Sudetenland, however, Hitler attacked Poland and World War II launched. That was the last war of aggression on the European continent until Putin attacked Ukraine.

Hitler claimed that he, too, was fighting for peace and this was why he had no choice but to annex Sudetenland: “I have created these tremfinishous efforts to further the peace, but I am not willing to stand any more attacks by Czechoslovakia”. In 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, Putin effectively reprised a speech Hitler created before annexing Sudetenland, declareing that his hand, too, was forced and “Most importantly, we want peace and harmony to reign in Ukraine”.

Which brings me to the subject of security guarantees. The last time Zelensky mentioned those in the White Houtilize, he received thrown out. This time, Trump acknowledged that any peace agreement must include security guarantees for Ukraine; during the Monday meeting, he even claimed that Putin agreed that such guarantees were necessary. But what could those be? Putin has stated that Ukraine is a historical mistake, that there is no such thing as a Ukrainian nation or a Ukrainian language. How could anyone guarantee Ukraine’s safety against a nuclear-armed neighbour who believes Ukraine shouldn’t exist?

The only plausible answer would be membership in Nato or its equivalent — an agreement that would obligate the Western alliance, or whatever is left of it, to deffinish Ukraine to the full extent of its abilities. Putin has consistently cited the very possibility of such an agreement as the “root cautilize” of his war against Ukraine. It is a safe bet that Putin will reject any agreement that involves a real promise of security for Ukraine.

And that brings me to the number “six” — something Trump kept invoking on Monday, when he claimed that he had resolved that many wars in his first seven months in office. The conflicts he is taking credit for resolving seem to be the ones between Congo and Rwanda (little evidence that it’s over); Egypt and Ethiopia (ditto); India and Pakistan (there is evidence of very little US involvement); Kosovo and Serbia (same); Armenia and Azerbaijan (ditto, but the sides did go to the White Houtilize to sign an agreement); Cambodia and Thailand (US-backed talks resulted in a ceasefire, not necessarily an finish to the conflict); Israel and Iran (Trump claims to have prevented a nuclear war by dropping bunker-busting bombs). That’s actually seven. But also, none. — The New York Times