UKRAINE: THE FINAL PEACE PLAN...?
The U.S. is desperately seeking to move on from Ukraine to confront China. The latest move in its to date amateurish foray into diplomacy is a much talked about, still unreleased 28-point peace plan.
The news of a 28 step peace plan to resolve the war in Ukraine began to appear over the last 24 hours. News of its contents were sketchy at first but today the first few details have begun to emerge.
The contents being speculated upon currently favor Russia’s demands that the root causes of the conflict be resolved. Therefore it is entirely unsurprising that initial reports say Zelensky has already rejected and dismissed the plan outright before it is even officially released or its steps being announced in full. Apparently he is insisting that the so-called peace plan his European sponsors recently put together be discussed instead, a plan that is clearly unrealistic.
Over the next few days we will hopefully hear more of the 28 step peace plan which appears to have been formulated solely in the USA. It appears there has been no Russian input though this is disputed by reports from some quarters.
Naturally all the terms within the plan once fully revealed will be subject to negotiation from both sides, clearly hard-bargaining will then ensue. That is if the plan reaches the stage where it is accepted by both sides as a worthy starting point for such negotiations. I would imagine the Kremlin would agree on this point, Zelensky however, is unlikely to move forward on this unless pressured extraordinarily hard, more than ever before.
The plan has not as yet been officially released so news reports are apparently using leaked information in regard to its contents. Far less that half of the steps are being speculated about in these reports and we know all too well how poorly western mass media has been in terms of accuracy on this war to date. Nevertheless, the following steps are claimed by the sources reporting on the plan to be included within it.
As far as I can ascertain the points below are those that have been leaked and/or speculated upon in news media over the past 24 hours:
1. Crimea and most territory now under Russian control to be recognized as integral parts of the Russian Federation.
2. Russia to gain full de facto control of Lugansk and Donetsk regions (together referred to as the Donbass).
3. In Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, the current lines of control to be frozen in place, with Russia returning some land, subject to negotiations. Existing battle lines in these two regions to be frozen in place. The return of any of this territory to Ukraine to be subject to later negotiations.
4. Ukrainian armed forces to be reduced by 2.5 times of its size. (To no more than 400,000 personnel.)
5. The Ukrainian regime to no longer have access to long-range missiles capable of striking deep into Russia.
6. US military assistance to the Ukrainian regime to be rolled back.
7. No foreign troops to be allowed on Ukrainian soil.
8. Russian to be recognized as an official state language within Ukraine.
9. The granting of formal status to the local branch of the Russian Orthodox Church within Ukraine.
The official and semi-official statements of the Ukrainian regime side currently indicates an extremely negative and even dismissive reaction. However, with the Russian army advancing all along the battle front, taking more territory each day and with the Ukrainian regime mired in a massive corruption scandal Zelensky will have to think very carefully before rejecting this U.S. plan out of hand. His reputation, now at rock bottom both at home and abroad can hardly stand another misstep further weakening his position.
As for the Russians they will await their receipt of the plan. To date the Kremlin reports they have received nothing official regarding it to date.
