Ex-Pentagon Analyst: West Nixed Ukraine-Russia Peace Deal, Now Seeking Way Out

Davyd Arakhamia, leader of the Servant of the People faction in the Ukrainian parliament has spilled some beans about the March 2022 Russo-Ukrainian talks, hinting that it was then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson who brought the negotiations to naught.

Davyd Arakhamia's account of the March 2022 events has challenged the Kiev regime's official narrative on why it nixed the Russo-Ukrainian peace talks. While the official excuse was the alleged "Bucha massacre" which was later debunked by Russia as a hoax, it appears that it was UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson who derailed the peace initiative.

Per Arakhamia, the Russians were ready to end the conflict if Ukraine committed to neutrality and gave guarantees that it would not join NATO. "When we returned from Istanbul, Boris Johnson came to Kiev and said: 'We won’t sign anything with them at all, and let’s just fight'," Arakhamia recalled in an interview with the Ukrainian TV channel 1+1.

"The public reiteration of this US and UK push for more war being made now indicates that the West is looking for an exit narrative," retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former analyst for the US Department of Defense, told Sputnik. "Johnson is an excellent public scapegoat for both the UK and the US. I expect he won’t be the only one, as rogue military officers and others in Ukraine will also be blamed for giving 'bad' advice to Zelensky. That is, if the West chooses to protect Zelensky at this late stage, and try not to place the entire Ukrainian disaster on Zelensky’s head."

Still, she does not rule out that the unfolding "truth-telling" by various players is actually aimed at "removing Zelensky and ending the war with as little Western humiliation as possible."

Kwiatkowski's stance is shared by Dmitry Evstafiev, a political scientist and High School of Economics (HSE) University professor, who told Sputnik that it's easier for the West to boot Zelensky rather than persuade him to hold peace talks with Russia after the Ukrainian president legally prohibited bargaining with Moscow.

Evstafiev's remarks came in response to German newspaper Bild report claiming that the US and Germany are considering the plan of forcing Zelensky into holding talks with Russia by slashing military supplies to Kiev. The newspaper also cited a "plan B" under which the conflict would be "frozen" with new "quazi-borders" along the contact line.

"I am concerned that the Western warmongers are not coordinating with Poland, Germany and Lithuania on post-war plans for Ukraine and for Zelensky, and we may see a divergence of objectives and methods," Kwiatkowski said.

"Typical of a proxy war, the proxies suffer from beginning to end, and the war promoters simply disappear into the next crisis," the Pentagon analyst concluded.