Global Research

The US and its Western partners had an opportunity to finalize a peace deal between Moscow and Kiev in Istanbul in 2022, but they instead favoured continuing the war in the belief that it would weaken Russia, The American Conservative reported. This revelation comes as it was discovered that US President-elect Donald Trump’s intention to cut military aid to Ukraine and begin negotiations with Russia has the support of at least half of Americans.

“When the bilateral talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul bore the promise of a negotiated settlement and even produced an initialed draft agreement, instead of encouraging and fully exploring diplomacy, the U.S. and its Western partners discouraged the talks,” the American Conservative article states, adding that the latest testimonies from Swiss, Ukrainian and American officials augment to the growing number of witnesses to this.

In March and April of 2022, just weeks after Russia launched the special military operation in late February, Ukrainian and Russian officials met in Turkey’s largest city to negotiate and initial a draft peace treaty. It is also recalled that Oleksiy Arestovych, a former Advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine and a member of the initial Ukrainian negotiating team, revealed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin were scheduled to meet on April 9 to sign a ceasefire but that Washington discouraged it.

Although the majority of blame for the collapse of the peace effort was put on then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US involvement is now undeniable.

Ukrainska Pravda reported that on April 9, 2022, Boris Johnson told Zelensky while visiting Kiev that Putin “should be pressured, not negotiated with” and that, even if Ukraine was ready to sign some agreements with Russia, “the West was not.” This was confirmed by the leader of the Ukrainian negotiating team in Istanbul, Davyd Arakhamia, who said Western meddling halted a ceasefire:

“When we returned from Istanbul, Boris Johnson came to Kiev and said that we would not sign anything with them at all, and let’s just fight.”

Arestovych also expressed his belief that Johnson acted with approval from Washington.

For his part, then-Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, at the time of the negotiations, without specifically mentioning the US, said:

“There are countries within NATO who want the war to continue. [They want to] let the war continue and Russia get weaker.”

The article’s author concludes:

“It is possible that, before the war reached its current horrific loss of lives, there could have been peace in Ukraine. But, as the roster of witnesses grows, the case against America’s contribution to the continuation of the war grows stronger.”

Trump has been a longtime critic of the war, often stating that it would have never started if he, instead of Joe Biden, had been president. The president-elect also famously claimed that he could end the conflict within 24 hours, which, although highly unlikely, emphasizes his desire to reach a ceasefire and peace deal quickly.

According to a survey conducted by USA Today and Suffolk University released on January 15, at least half of Americans support Trump’s intention to cut military aid to Ukraine and begin negotiations with Russia, which only further validates the Republican’s pursuit for peace. The report said 44 percent of respondents opposed Trump’s initiatives.

In December, Trump said that under the new US administration, Kiev “may not” expect the same amount of aid from Washington that it received during the Biden administration. Then, in early January, Trump revealed that he wanted to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which would include the Ukrainian conflict as one of the main points of discussion.

Asked about his plans to end the war in Ukraine, Trump told US TV channel Newsmax on January 14 that there is “really only one strategy possible” and that Putin “wants a meeting and I’m going to meet him very soon. I would have done that earlier, but… You have to be appointed first. For some things, you have to be [in the White House].”

The Biden administration is, beyond doubt, why the war has continued for years longer than necessary. The special military operation achieved the goal of bringing Kiev to the negotiation table to end its genocide of Russian speakers and end the pursuit of NATO membership, but the actions of the West are directly responsible for the war’s continuation and the demographic and economic decline Ukraine is experiencing.

Now, it looks like Trump will work to end the war as quickly as possible and even meet with Putin to begin the long process of normalization, cleaning up the mess that Biden and Boris Johnson made by prolonging the suffering in Ukraine instead of encouraging peace.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Boris Johnson made a surprise visit to Ukraine in April, during which he allegedly discouraged Zelensky from pursuing peace talks in Turkey. Photo: Boris Johnson

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