So suspected of treason for many years and still allowed a critical roll? Someone didn't think out there theory before publishing it
Not a necessary requirement nowadays, it appears. People tend to eat up whatever they are offered. Also, “is it a lie if you yourself believe it?” comes to mind. I actually do not know anymore what is simple propaganda vs people deluding themselves into this alternative reality and actually believing the rubbish they talk about. Go figure.
While I believe in coincidences (arguably more so than otherwise occurrences), this is an interesting one. Yermak is gone and I posted above that he is no longer heading to meet the Americans for further discussions. He also stated the following in an interview to the Atlantic, revealed yesterday:
Volodymyr Zelensky, in the next phase of talks to end the war in Ukraine, intends to draw a red line at the most contentious issue on the table: the Russian demand for Ukraine’s sovereign territory. As long as he remains the nation’s president, Zelensky will not agree to give up land in exchange for peace, Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Andriy Yermak, told me today in an exclusive interview.
“Not a single sane person today would sign a document to give up territory,” said Yermak, who has served as Zelensky’s chief of staff, lead negotiator, and closest aide throughout the full-scale war with Russia.
“As long as Zelensky is president, no one should count on us giving up territory. He will not sign away territory,” he told me by telephone from Kyiv. “The constitution prohibits this. Nobody can do that unless they want to go against the Ukrainian constitution and the Ukrainian people.”
On the question of land, Ukraine is prepared to discuss only where the line should be drawn to demarcate what the warring sides control. “All we can realistically talk about right now is really to define the line of contact,” Yermak said. “And that’s what we need to do.”
And
In our interview, Yermak responded at length for the first time to the investigation and the resulting calls for him to step aside. “The pressure is enormous,” he told me. “The case is fairly loud, and there needs to be an objective and independent investigation without political influence.”
By appointing him to lead Ukraine’s negotiating team despite the scandal, Zelensky made clear to the people of Ukraine that Yermak continues to enjoy his trust, he said. The people of Ukraine “see that I have been beside the president all these years during all the most difficult, tragic, and dangerous moments,” Yermak said. “He trusted me with these negotiations that will decide the fate of our country. And if people support the president, that should answer all their questions.”
Ukraine’s chief negotiator, in an exclusive interview, says conceding sovereign territory is off-limits in peace talks.
www.theatlantic.com
So he is now gone (maybe) and everyone should probably be surprised he lasted so long despite the tremendous pressure on Zelensky to let the guy go. What is clear is that there is no one in his surroundings that Zelensky trusts more (or even comes close?) than Yermak. Unless my memory is failing me, there were reports from as long as a couple of years ago now that Biden administration suggested to Zelensky that this dude needed to be gone and articles titled “Black cardinal of Ukraine” or something like that, etc.
What we also know now:
I think it was Miller who also reported that Budanov is meeting the US crew as well, but not really relevant, perhaps. But the coincidental events I mentioned at the beginning of the post… I cited a NYP article a few days ago, in post #13,207, where the following was reported regarding the 28-point plan:
“The plan was drawn up immediately following discussions with one of the most senior members of Zelensky’s administration, Umerov,” one of the officials said. “So Umerov agreed to the majority of this plan, and he made several modifications to it, which we included and presented it to President Zelensky.”
Along with the Telegraph report cited above about Trump’s intent to recognize (still unclear in what way) parts of Ukraine as Russian territory (if at all true, of course; though the WSJ seems to reporting the same ideas now), these things stop being coincidental, perhaps? “Big coincidence - small coincidence” scene from Seinfeld comes to mind, but this is my choice of gif to use here:
The more mind-blowing (not really though) thing:
It seems that a whole bunch of “statesmen” accused of corruption and other “mischiefs” in both UA and RU are (at least “planning”) heading to the frontline. Is it the case here or his way to save face and power? Who knows. Miller also reported that he attempted to interview numerous people “in-the-know” about Yermak and was declined due to their uncertainty whether it is actually over for him or he will still retsin his power and ear of Zelensky. He also posted this:
Another turn of the page here. Interesting times for those following the region for a while.
Last thing in this post (I will make another one after). I saw some (many?) people suggesting that pressuring Zelensky this way and assuming he would accept the whatever deal due to the weakness is actually counterproductive and it only makes it that much harder for him to accept the said deal due to the internal politics, etc. I think this is a wrong read of the situation. One read is that this is not just pressure to accept the plan, but get read of the guy and deal with the next one. This would also be in line with Putin’s statement (yet again) that it is impossible to sign any deal with Zelensky because he has no legitimacy, which is on top of the fact that he simply refuses to deal to the liking of Trump. To note here, while Euros talk and complain, they do not matter as far as the deal with Ukraine is concerned. Also of note, they are also now linking security guarantees to Europe to the deal as well, however ridiculous (and pathetic) it sounds:
Anyway, “nothing about without” is a whole lot of nonsense from a party that reduced itself to this level in the process. Funny enough, if any deal goes through “behind their back”, their leverage of using the Russian assets is going to be gone. I won’t be surprised that in a rush to avoid that they will try and agree to something irrational they will have to deal with later but without explicit “security guarantees” for themselves. I compared the behaviour to one of a child recently and there so much more to it - like when children whine themselves out of things they had before the event because they chose to whine instead of dealing with the situation amid the calls to do so by a parent.
Anyway…
united24media.com
