By Chris Menahan – Information Liberation
The Biden administration’s push for Ukraine to strike Russia with US-made long-range missiles, expand conscription and fill their country with US-made land mines came right as a new Gallup poll found the majority of Ukrainians now want a quick, negotiated end to the war.
From Gallup, “Half of Ukrainians Want Quick, Negotiated End to War”:
After more than two years of grinding conflict, Ukrainians are increasingly weary of the war with Russia. In Gallup’s latest surveys of Ukraine, conducted in August and October 2024, an average of 52% of Ukrainians would like to see their country negotiate an end to the war as soon as possible. Nearly four in 10 Ukrainians (38%) believe their country should keep fighting until victory.
Ukrainians’ current attitudes toward the war represent a decisive shift from where they stood after it began in late February 2022. Surveyed in the months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Ukrainians were defiant, with 73% preferring fighting until victory.
The closer Ukrainians are to the front lines, the more they want the war to come to a negotiated end:
This is the backdrop for which Biden’s handlers gave Ukraine permission to strike Russia with US-made long-range missiles.
From The Washington Post, “Biden approves antipersonnel mines for Ukraine, undoing his own policy”:
President Joe Biden has authorized the provision of antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine, two U.S. officials said, a step that will bolster Kyiv’s defenses against advancing Russian troops but has drawn criticism from arms control groups.
The move comes in the wake of the White House’s recent authorization allowing Ukraine to use a powerful long-range missile system to strike inside Russia — part of a sweep of urgent actions the lame-duck Biden administration is taking to help Kyiv’s faltering war effort.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Moscow will retaliate for the latest missile strikes from the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS. Shipping antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine is also potentially controversial, though among a different group: More than 160 countries have signed an international treaty banning their use, noting that the indiscriminate weapons can cause enduring harm to civilians. But Kyiv has sought them since Russia invaded nearly three years ago, and the Kremlin’s forces have deployed antipersonnel land mines liberally on the front lines, impeding Ukraine’s progress as it seeks to reclaim its own territory.
[…] Biden had been reluctant to supply Ukraine with the mines in the face of concerns within his own administration and from a wide range of anti-mine advocates who say the risk to civilians is unacceptably high. But Russia’s battlefield progress in recent months has forced the White House to find fresh ways to help Kyiv, especially following the victory of President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to steer the conflict toward a swift conclusion.
Ukraine could have negotiated a peace deal two years ago and this whole war would have been over but instead the US bribed Zelensky with $175 billion in US aid to fight to the last Ukrainian and drag the war out for years to inflict maximum short-term pain on Russia.
Our occupiers know they failed at stopping Russia and their decision to approve Ukraine’s long-range strikes and fill their country up with land mines is likely being viewed a “negotiating tactic” but it won’t help anything and will simply inflict more misery on Ukrainians and Russians who are ready for a truce.