I remember saying to a friend two and a half years ago that a negotiated peace should have been reached from the very start of the conflict in Ukraine by using democracy.
Just as there should be a plebiscite to find out what the people of the Chagos Islands desire - there should have been similar in the Russian areas currently under the control of Zelensky.
The British claim to both the Falklands and Gibraltar were both fully validated by the peoples of those nations who were given a vote to express their opinions. Support for staying with the UK was well over 97%.
Just as long as Russians and Russian speakers might have had a voice - there was no sense of valid entitlement that could have been capitalised upon by Putin.
A vote in each of these areas, supervised by the UN and a number of groups would have voted either for independence or reattaching to Russia.
Some may well have opted to remain with Ukraine.
The reason that this sensible option was possibly impossible was twofold:
1) The weakness of NATO - caused largely by the parsimonious antics of assorted EU leaders who apparently believed that America should continuously pour out billions to look after them and gave the lie to claims of EU independence. At the same time, these leaders spent what was effectively American money, wildly, and claimed that the world was 'enjoying a peace dividend'. Now that we have a paucity of military forces and weapons - the lie behind this claim has been fully revealed! Their incompetence has been horrendous!
2) The Extreme weakness of the UN.
Trump is forcing Zelensky towards a negotiating position. The Ukrainians want to hang onto territories that do not naturally attach to their nation and this has hugely weakened the rationale of their negotiating position.
The world should have recognised, long ago, that Putin was going to invade and helped Ukraine prepare.
Putin sheds human blood as if it is a matter of no consequence. (Incidentally, how many NATO nations have actually increased their defence spending since the invasion? - Precious few - if any!)
Trump is trying to stop the deaths. I applaud this.
However, Zelensky is not a tyrant. Putin is. Zelensky now must negotiate as his petulance with the President was self-destructive.
I am lacking in optimism. Attempts to force negotiation may or may not work but must be attempted asap.
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