Putin’s Kyiv blitz sends message to G7 leaders: Russia does not want peace

Russian attacks on Kyiv involved hundreds of drones and missiles targeting residential districts across the city. Dozens of Ukrainian civilians were killed with many more injured. While this latest Kyiv blitz was by no means unprecedented in a war that has been marked by frequent Russian attacks on Ukraine’s civilian population. Like a mafia boss ordering elaborate killings to send coded messages, Putin has repeatedly scheduled major bombardments of Ukraine to coincide with international summits and gatherings of Western leaders || Read More:

Fresh Ukraine, Russia demands show no interest for actual peace ||

The memos presented by Ukraine and Russia at their direct talks in Istanbul on Monday make it absolutely clear that, absent a strong U.S. intervention based on a detailed U.S. peace plan, there will be no peace settlement in Ukraine.

It is not just that several of the positions on both sides are completely mutually incompatible; they suggest that at present neither side is in fact interested in an early peace.   READ MORE:

Why Trump is suddenly trying to shake off his Putin stupor ||

 Putin's playing Trump like a Stradivarius and this past week Trump seemed to realize for the first time that Vladimir isn't the loyal best pal he thought he was. Trump has been wrong about this from the very start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as any sentient being could have told him. He was right that Putin was thrilled that he was back in the White House but only because he knew that Trump would divide the allies, favor him over Ukraine and essentially help him achieve his goal. After all, Trump had said he was a "genius" and very "savvy" for invading in the first place. Trump's also extremely naive and ignorant, even after having already been president once. This was a big win for Putin.

Trump has spent most of his time in these first months pretending that he never said that he'd end the war in 24 hours and instead tried to muscle Zelenskyy into surrendering to Putin. Trump apparently believed that Vladimir Putin was his true friend, and I think he also truly believed that he could just pick up the phone once he was elected and his buddy (Vladimir Putin) would congratulate him and tell him that he couldn't wait to do a deal to end the war ||       READ MORE: