It was only yesterday when I thought we were a week, maybe only days away from having peace between Ukraine and Russia.
Now, I question if it will even happen before the end of the year.
In response to all the reports about the peace plan, Russia decided to launch another massive attack against Ukraine, while insisting that it has not made any concessions to Trump for a deal to be made.
This all got started over the weekend because Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) could not keep his mouth shut.
Rounds claimed that when he saw the terms of the peace deal, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that it was basically a Russian wish-list, and it had not been crafted by the United States.
Rubio appeared peeved after his statement, as he immediately posted to X, “The peace proposal was authored by the U.S. It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”
The State Department also commented, calling Rounds’ account “blatantly false.”
Trump did not help the case by claiming that Russia had made key concessions to get the deal done.
The president made the comments in response to reports that Special Envoy Steve Witkoff had been coaching up Russian aides on how to get him to approve the deal.
Witkoff reportedly told the Russians to compliment Trump over the Gaza peace agreement and refer to him as a man of peace to get him on their side. He also reportedly stated, "Here’s what I think would be amazing. Maybe he says to President Trump: you know, Steve and Yuri discussed a very similar 20-point plan to peace and that could be something that we think might move the needle a little bit. We’re open to those sorts of things."
Trump dismissed the report as Witkoff simply doing whatever needed to be done to get a deal, while his detractors say that this just represents more cowering to Russia.
Why people are not giving canned answers to the media until this is signed is beyond me, and that includes Trump. We have seen this before, as Russia went off last time when the president claimed that a deal was imminent.
Russia responded this time much the way it did prior by launching a massive attack against Ukraine, as well as denying that any concessions took place. Sergei Ryabkov, a Russian deputy foreign minister, stated, “There can be no talk of any concessions or surrender of our approaches to the key aspects of resolving the problems facing us, including in the context of the special operation [in Ukraine].”
As far as the latest attack is concerned, Russia hit the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia with a massive drone strike, with at least 19 people wounded, and they are still sorting through the rubble.
By no means am I suggesting that anyone should cower to Russia, but I am saying that administration officials should be giving canned answers and keep the real details quiet until we have a deal in place. Once the papers are signed and the war is over, say whatever you want, but stop poking the bear, or this money suck is never going to end.
