cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/43626010
Any peace deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine will only last if Moscow makes real concessions, including limiting the size of its armed forces and curbing its growing military budget, the EU’s top diplomat has said.
In an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera published on Friday, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, warned that without meaningful concessions from Moscow, Europe risks facing new conflicts elsewhere.
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The problem for peace is Russia,” Kallas said, adding: “Even if Ukraine received security guarantees, without concessions from the Russian side, we would have other wars, perhaps not in Ukraine but elsewhere.”
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Kallas said that Kyiv and its allies “certainly welcome the momentum toward peace that the U.S. administration is showing,” but cautioned that Russia lacks a “genuine will for peace.”
“It [Russia] is constantly bombing Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructure,” she told Corriere della Sera, stressing that “first we need to see a ceasefire.”
She said that in order to achieve sustainable peace, it is necessary to ensure that “Russia does not attack again”, adding that this requires clear concessions from Moscow.
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"We need concessions from Russia, whether that means limiting its army or restraining its military budget,” said Kallas, who served as Estonia’s prime minister from 2016 to 2021.
Moscow has significantly increased its military budget in recent years, diverting vast resources toward the defense industry to sustain its war in Ukraine.
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In the meantime, Ukraine is helping shrink Russia’s army.
Russia should completely denuclearize given the promise that nobody will ever invade in the future. We promise.
They are in the right path already
Russia will never voluntarily make itself weaker. Even if they said they would, there’s 0 chance that they would actually follow through.
They did comply with the terms of the SALT treaty, with only a bit of marginal fuckery. But then, a certain raving idiot walked away from perfectly good arms reduction treaties in his first term.
Both sides have to perceive a benefit from the treaty, and you need a rock-solid inspection regime. I have friends who were SALT arms inspectors. There was almost no room for deception in the process of decommissioning.
Of course, now, Putin’s off his leash, as is the raving idiot in the US, so it’ll be a while until there are any sane people who are willing to negotiate.
Russia voluntarily went and threw their entire soviet stockpile in the trash, making themselves weaker. They’ve pulled all sorts of moves that make russia weaker, because putin thought it was making him stronger. Russia is throwing all its manpower away right now. People don’t grow on trees, no matter how ruthless the dictator may think he is.
People don’t grow on trees
Except Tarzan.
Because things didn’t go according to plan. They didn’t do it on purpose thinking, yeah let’s invade Ukraine to make our military weaker, because that would be good for <insert reason>.
They thought and planned for it to be over quickly, just like what happened with Crimea, but they were very wrong.
It’s not about what they thought, it’s about what they did. It’s the actions taken that count.
In a hypothetical well-crafted treaty (which I agree Russia would never sign) there would be penalties attached to breaking the conditions. Sanction snap-backs, for example.
