UK Urges Zelensky To Hold Out For Better Terms In Peace Talks With Russia

So much for prioritizing lives over territory…

In a report from the Times of London that’s nothing short of shocking (especially considering the continuing stalemate in peace talks between Ukraine and Russia), senior British officials are urging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to instruct his negotiators to hold out and refuse to make concessions during talks with their Russian counterparts. The UK position reportedly contrasts with that of other European “allies”, like France and Germany, who have urged Zelenskyy to “settle” as soon as it’s feasible.

As anybody who has been paying attention to the talks already knows, headlines advertising a “breakthrough” have almost always been followed by headlines reporting the opposite. And while Wall Street and European governments have claimed that a breakthrough appears to be just around the corner (possibly coming as soon as two weeks from now), the British government is apparently determined to do everything in its power to prolong the conflict at the expense of Ukrainian lives, according to a report in the Times of London published Friday.

One senior British official is reportedly concerned that the Ukrainians are “over-eager” for peace.

A senior government source said there were concerns that allies were “over-eager” to secure an early peace deal, adding that a settlement should be reached only when Ukraine is in the strongest possible position.

During a phone call with Zelensky over the weekend, British PM Boris Johnson reportedly warned his Ukrainian counterpart that Russian President Putin is “a liar and a bully”.

In a phone call at the weekend, Boris Johnson warned President Zelensky that President Putin was a “liar and a bully” who would use talks to “wear you down and force you to make concessions”. Zelensky is also understood to have raised concerns about the progress of the talks and whether Moscow was exploiting them to reposition and strengthen its forces.

Meanwhile, in the latest sign of escalating conflict, Ukrainian forces reportedly carried out a cross-border raid on a Russian fuel depot on Friday, an attack that was so brazen that some on the Ukrainian side have denounced it as a “false flag” conducted by Russian forces to justify an escalation in Ukraine. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the strike certainly wouldn’t benefit the cause of peace talks, as the conflict has officially taken on a multinational dimension.