🌍 UK/EU's Bizarre Plan: Moscow Surrender, Reparations & Eternal Sanctions?! 🤯 | Witkoff Meets Putin 🇷🇺

2 days ago

The UK and EU have unveiled a shocking proposal demanding Russia’s surrender, enormous reparations, and perpetual sanctions! 😳
Meanwhile, billionaire Steven Witkoff has an unexpected meeting with President Putin in Moscow 🇷🇺.
Alexander Mercouris dives deep into this major geopolitical development. 🎥
Stay tuned — the global chessboard is changing fast! 🌍

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Transcript

00:00:00Good day. Today is Friday, 25th April 2025. Today, Steve Wyckoff is in Moscow. In fact,

00:00:09he's meeting with Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia in the Kremlin, even as I am making

00:00:17this programme. Today, also, we received news that another Russian general has been assassinated

00:00:24in Moscow, not in Moscow, actually, but in a town close to Moscow by an improvised explosive device

00:00:34attached to a car. It looks almost certain that this is another assassination arranged by Ukraine's

00:00:44intelligence agencies. Ukraine, of course, has long since effectively admitted that he conducts

00:00:52assassinations on Russian territory. It began doing so, incidentally, before the beginning of

00:01:01the special military operation. As the US media has confirmed, Ukraine began its assassination

00:01:09campaign way back in 2014, when it was first authorised by Ukraine's former president,

00:01:18Petro Poroshenko. Anyway, it looks as if this was another, this successful assassination by Ukraine

00:01:27of a senior Russian general, not quite as senior as General Kirilov, who was assassinated some months

00:01:39ago. At least he doesn't seem to be quite so senior. But anyway, it is another assassination carried out

00:01:46in Russia, even as Wyckoff meets Putin in the Kremlin. Now, I will return to the topic of this

00:01:57assassination later in this programme. But I would say that over the last few hours, the British news

00:02:05agency Reuters has published two documents that were apparently circulating earlier this week during the

00:02:13meeting in the meeting in Paris and the meeting in London. And these two documents, one of which

00:02:21clearly originates, well, is originates from the United States, the document that the Americans brought

00:02:30with them to these two meetings. One document is American. The other document, which is clearly intended as

00:02:39the Ukrainian agreed Ukrainian European position, is a longer document, rather more complicated,

00:02:51and it sets out what might be said, what might be construed to be the joint Ukrainian European position.

00:03:01And this second document, I suspect, has been hammered out and discussed by Starmer, Macron and Zelensky,

00:03:13and their various officials, and almost certainly by the NATO Secretariat, and by the European Commission,

00:03:22including Ursula von der Leyen and Kaya Callas. They've obviously been working on this document for some time.

00:03:33And given that there are one or two overlaps between this Ukrainian European document and the American

00:03:44document, it's clear that the Americans on one or two points have attempted to bend a little to satisfy the demands

00:03:57made in the Ukrainian European document. Now, the American document, I should say, is quite different. In fact, the two documents

00:04:08are completely different. The American document describes itself as a framework document. It

00:04:20provides for a permanent ceasefire, but it sets out what some of the key provisions of the final settlement

00:04:29should be. And it is clearly setting out a mechanism towards achieving a final settlement of the conflict in Ukraine.

00:04:42I will anticipate by saying that though its clear starting point was the Kellogg plan,

00:04:52it's clear that it has been influenced significantly by the Russian positions, and that presumably is the

00:05:05results of Witgov's three meetings with Putin. It goes significantly further towards addressing Russian concerns

00:05:18than I had realised. And I would quickly add that there's been a fair amount of misrepresentation

00:05:26about this document in the British and European media, which I will turn to later.

00:05:34The European Ukrainian document is completely different. It might best be described

00:05:44as a proposal for an armistice, rather like the one that Germany agreed to on the 11th of November 1918,

00:05:55the end of the fighting in the First World War. Preparatory to the Treaty of Capitulation,

00:06:05that Germany was obliged to sign some months later at the conference in Versailles.

00:06:12It is, as I said, a completely different document, as we will see. I'm going to start

00:06:23first with the European document, because I suspect that this has been worked on for much longer than the

00:06:31American document has been. I suspect that various drafts of this document have been circulating for

00:06:39some time. I think the Americans were aware of the discussions. I suspect that the

00:06:47Americans, as I said, have known about this document. And as I said, it's clearly been hammered out

00:06:53as a result of discussions between the Ukrainians and the Europeans, which have been underway

00:07:04probably ever since that disastrous meeting between Zelensky and Trump in the Oval Office at the end of

00:07:15February. And I am going to anticipate and say that I believe, I now believe, that the Europeans and the Ukrainians

00:07:28assumed that this was the document that the Americans had come to discuss in Paris and London, that as far as the

00:07:37Ukrainians and the Ukrainians and the Europeans were aware, the ideas set out in this document were the only ideas

00:07:52that were currently being discussed within Western circles at all. When the American document appeared

00:08:06at the meetings in Paris, it came as a complete shock. As I said, it is completely different. And

00:08:15the vehemence of Zelensky's reaction and the extraordinary reaction that we saw from European governments in the

00:08:27hours afterwards is partly explained by the fact that this American document came as a complete shock. So let's

00:08:39start with the European document and see what it says. And this is the European document that was, as I said,

00:08:50clearly, I expect circulating for a long time. And I want to stress again, it's not a peace plan. It is rather

00:08:58an armistice, a military, an end of the military fighting, but one intended to lead to a negotiated outcome

00:09:09which would be in effect a capitulation by Russia. And this is what it says. It's with the title system, um, um,

00:09:18official sensitive Russia Ukraine deal framework ceasefire. The first chapter, the first title is ceasefire commit to a

00:09:28full and unconditional ceasefire in the sky on land and at sea. Now, the key word here is unconditional. As we know, the

00:09:36Russians have completely rejected the idea of an unconditional ceasefire. But the Ukrainians, the

00:09:43Europeans insist on one. So an unconditional ceasefire. Next, both sides immediately enter into

00:09:51negotiations on technical implementation with the participation of the United States and European

00:09:58countries. This is in parallel to the agenda and modalities for a full peace deal. Again, the key there is that the

00:10:08Americans and the Europeans, the Western powers will participate in the discussion about how to implement the ceasefire.

00:10:20Now notice that these are, of course, Ukraine's allies. So in discussing how the ceasefire is going to work,

00:10:28the Russians will be, would be expected to negotiate with the Ukrainians, but not just with the Ukrainians,

00:10:35but with the Americans and with the Europeans as well. It would be a negotiation which would be

00:10:43lopsided in Ukraine's favour. We're then told that there would then be ceasefire monitoring led by the

00:10:51United States and supported by third countries. We're not told which third countries, but bear in mind,

00:10:57the European countries would be involved in sorting out the technical implementation of the ceasefire.

00:11:06So logically and likely it would be then. And then we're told that Russia must unconditionally return

00:11:13all deported and illegally displaced Ukrainian children, exchange of all prisoners of war. The

00:11:19principle of all for all, Russia must release all civilian prisoners. Notice, notice that if we're

00:11:27talking about civilian prisoners or other civilians had had held by Ukraine or which incidentally there are

00:11:36some, there is no analogous requirement on Ukraine to release any of them. Then we proceed to the next

00:11:47section of this proposal, which is entitled security guarantees for Ukraine. Ukraine receives robust security

00:11:57guarantees, including from the United States, article five like agreement, whilst there is no consensus

00:12:08amongst allies on NATO membership. So the option of Ukraine one day joining NATO remains firmly on the table.

00:12:20In the meantime, until that is achieved, Ukraine will receive the same kind of security guarantees from all the

00:12:32NATO powers, including the United States. In other words, the United States will enter into a kind of alliance with Ukraine

00:12:43Ukraine and a commitment to defend Ukraine in the event that there is a further Russian attack on Ukraine, or perhaps more

00:12:54accurately, what the Western powers would say was a further Russian attack on Ukraine. That is not the same thing, because as I've

00:13:04said on many occasions, what would actually happen is that there would be what the Ukrainians would say was a breach of the

00:13:16ceasefire by the Russians. It might, in reality, be a breach of the ceasefire arranged by the Ukrainians. But in the context of an

00:13:28agreement like this, the Europeans certainly would support the Ukrainian interpretation of who was breaching the

00:13:36ceasefire. And they would say that in this situation, the United States and the Europeans are obligated to come to Ukraine's

00:13:44defence. Then the next section says no restrictions on the Ukrainian defence forces. So Ukraine can retain its armed forces at any level that it

00:13:54wants, and it can obtain equipment to arm those armed forces from whomever it wishes, including the United States, and of course, the European and

00:14:05other NATO powers. We are then told that the guarantor states will be an ad hoc group of European countries and willing non-European

00:14:16countries. No restrictions on the presence weapons and operations of friendly foreign forces on the territory of Ukraine.

00:14:23So, Starmer's and Macron's reassurance force can be deployed to Ukraine, and the Russians have no right to object to its

00:14:35presence. And then we're told that Ukraine pursues accession to the EU. Then we come to the question of territory, and we're

00:14:45told that territorial issues will be discussed and resolved after a full and unconditional ceasefire. So there is going to be no

00:14:53discussion about whether the Russians are entitled to remain in the territories that they control or in Crimea, whilst the

00:15:05negotiation until until there is a ceasefire. And there's no commitment here. There's no indication here as to what the final status of those

00:15:15territories will be. But bear in mind, by this time, Ukraine will be re-arming. It can be it can re-arm during the period of the

00:15:24ceasefire. It can have British and French and other NATO forces positioned on its territory during the period of the

00:15:33ceasefire. And in the meantime, of course, of course, also, it will have security guarantees, NATO type security guarantees, provided by the

00:15:46NATO powers, including specifically, the United States. We're then told that Ukraine will regain control of the Zaporozhyn nuclear power plant with

00:15:55the United States involvement. Now, I suspect that this was the original proposal. As we will see, this is one proposal that the

00:16:06Americans have taken up. It's a sleight of hand way of transferring the Zaporozhyn nuclear power plant to Ukrainian control. And they will also gain control of the

00:16:21Karhovka dam. And we're then told that Ukraine enjoys unhindered passage on the Dnieper River and control of the Kinburn spin. That is also a

00:16:32provision which, as we will see, is carried over into the American proposals. Anyway, that's already lopsided enough. We can see where all this is

00:16:47leading. And then we have a further section which is described as economics. Ukraine and the United States implement economic

00:16:56cooperation minerals agreement. Now, on the topic of that, last week, the Ukrainians and the Americans agreed a memorandum of

00:17:07intent to get this agreement agreed between them. This is apparently almost identical to the memorandum of intent that

00:17:17was supposed to be signed was supposed to be signed over the course of Zelensky's visit to Washington, the visit which ended in

00:17:26the row in the Oval Office. Now, at the time when we were told that the memorandum of intent had been agreed and

00:17:36signed, signed virtually, whatever that means, the Ukrainians said that there would still need to be significant

00:17:46discussions about its contents. But they were talking about a potential agreement being reached by the 26th of

00:17:55April, in other words, by tomorrow. A Ukrainian delegation has, in fact, been in Washington. They now say that there

00:18:04still remains an awful lot of work to do. And they can't say when this mineral rights extraction agreement is

00:18:14going to be agreed by. But it obviously won't be tomorrow. I don't think the Ukrainians have any

00:18:23intention to sign this mineral rights extraction agreement. Again, they've been stringing the Americans

00:18:29along, presumably, in order to lure them to go ahead with the proposal set out in the draft document, which I'm

00:18:39just been reading. Anyway, we're then told that Ukraine will be fully reconstructed and compensated

00:18:46financially, including through Russian sovereign assets that will remain frozen until Russia compensates

00:18:54damage to Ukraine. So Russia must pay reparations. And if it doesn't pay reparations, its frozen assets

00:19:01will be seized and will be handed over to Ukraine. And then we're told that US sanctions imposed on Russia

00:19:09since 2014 may be subject to gradual easing after a sustainable peace is achieved and subject to the

00:19:18resumption in the event of a breach of the peace agreement. Now, notice this only refers to US sanctions.

00:19:27The Europeans, the Europeans make no commitment here to lift sanctions at all. There's no suggestion

00:19:37that the Europeans are ever going to lift sanctions. The Europe, the document suggests that, well, even if

00:19:45Europe is not going to lift sanctions, not now, not ever, all of the sanctions that have been imposed on

00:19:54Russia will remain in place. Well, you know, if the Americans want to relax some sanctions,

00:20:01that's up to them. At the moment, there's any violations of the agreement and or at the moment

00:20:08there is some problem with the ceasefire, then the Americans are obliged to reinstate the sanctions that

00:20:17they have relaxed in full. Now, bear in mind what I said previously, with the structure of the proposal

00:20:25that we see here, that is almost inevitably going to happen. At some point or other, the Ukrainians will

00:20:34come round and say that there's been a breach of the ceasefire by the Russians. By that point,

00:20:41they will be re-arming their military. They will have British and French troops and other troops from

00:20:47other NATO powers on their territory. They will have security guarantees from the United States.

00:20:53they will be able not only to get the Western powers to fight on their side, but they will also get the

00:21:03NATO powers, the Western powers to re-impose, or at least the United States to re-impose the full extent of

00:21:15its sanctions on Russia. The European sanctions, of course, never having been lifted. And there is no reason

00:21:25to think that in that event, the sanctions would not remain in place permanently. Just saying. So this is

00:21:33the European-Ukrainian proposal, the one that was put to the Americans. It doesn't seem as if it has ever been

00:21:43been put to the Russians. As I say again, this is an armistice agreement like the one the Western

00:21:55powers imposed on Germany on the 11th of November 1918. It is the kind of armistice agreement that has,

00:22:06that is imposed by a victorious, by victorious powers against, upon a defeated power.

00:22:19This is what makes this entire proposal completely delusional.

00:22:26Obviously, the Russians are not going to accept a proposal of this kind. They would be insane if they

00:22:39did. And there is nothing about them to suggest that anybody in Moscow is insane in that sort of way.

00:22:47And the Europeans, and the Ukrainians, and by the way, the Americans too, if they ever endorse this

00:22:59proposal, would have no means to make to force the Russians to accept it. To repeat a point I had been

00:23:11making in programme after programme, the Russians are winning the war. Every day, they advance, they take more

00:23:22territory, they destroy more Ukrainian forces. We'll come to that shortly in the programme, later in the programme.

00:23:30So, this is an attempt, through this document, to treat the eventual winner of the war as a loser,

00:23:46and to make the loser of the war into a winner. And, well, one can just imagine

00:23:54how draconian the eventual peace agreement that came out of this process would be. As I said, this is an

00:24:07astonishing document. In almost every respect, it reflects an almost deluded quality in European and

00:24:18Ukrainian decision making. Now, I come back to what I said. It's clear that this document has been

00:24:25discussed, under discussion for some time. Macron has been talking about it, has been clearly involved

00:24:31in drafting it, I should say. So, of course, has Starmer. So have other European officials and the

00:24:38European Commission from NATO. The Americans have been kept informed about it. Apparently,

00:24:47on the eve of the meeting in Paris, the one that took place on Tuesday, there was great optimism in Europe

00:25:00that the Americans were coming on side. Now, I find this incredible, but right across the British media,

00:25:11there are claims about this, that the Europeans assumed that when the Americans came, when Kellogg,

00:25:22Rubier and Whitgoth arrived, the basis for discussion would be this document.

00:25:32And they were stunned and blindsided when the Americans came up with something completely different.

00:25:43And the American document is completely different. And this is the document I'm going to come to.

00:25:50Now, to repeat again, it is based, it derives from the Kellogg plan, but it is not identical to the Kellogg plan.

00:26:03Alistair Crook on the Conflicts Forum has said that the American proposal is 95%

00:26:14Kellogg. I would, having looked at this, put it slightly lower than that, put it actually a bit lower

00:26:20lower than that. I'd say it's 80% Kellogg. But there have been important adjustments which

00:26:30take it significantly further than what Kellogg first proposed, as we shall see.

00:26:37So, this is what the proposal the Americans brought with them says. It was presented apparently to the

00:26:48Europeans and to the Ukrainians on Tuesday. The Europeans were stunned and horrified by it. And

00:26:59Zelensky had a public tantrum when he saw it. He assumed that his representatives, Yermak and the others,

00:27:12were going to discuss the ceasefire proposal, which the armistice proposal set up in the European draft.

00:27:20And suddenly he found, as the Ukrainians found, that they were being presented with a document like this.

00:27:29Anyway, this is the American draft. Russia-Ukraine deal framework. Transmit verbally.

00:27:37So, you can see that it was provided in verbal discussions. Apparently the Americans did put it

00:27:45all down in a single sheet of paper, the key points. And anyway, we will now see what they are.

00:27:55The next thing is, we then read, overview, these terms represent the final offer from the United

00:28:05States to both sides. So, this is an ultimatum. It is couched in language of an ultimatum to the Russians,

00:28:16but also more importantly to the Ukrainians and to the Europeans. And one can fully understand, again,

00:28:25the sense of shock that the Europeans and the Ukrainians must have had when they read it. This

00:28:30is the final offer. Anyway, this is what the draft goes on to say. Ceasefire. Same title. Ceasefire. Again,

00:28:43I'm sure this is all taken from the European draft. Ceasefire. And then it says permanent ceasefire,

00:28:50full stop. Nothing else. And then it goes on to say both sides immediately engage in technical

00:28:59implementation negotiations. Now, immediately you can see the difference from the Ukrainian

00:29:05European draft because both sides immediately engage in technical implementation negotiations.

00:29:12negotiations. Those negotiations are to be bilateral between Ukraine and Russia. There is no reference

00:29:23here to the Americans and the Europeans participating. In the European draft, to go back to the European

00:29:31draft, the European draft was both sides immediately entered into negotiations on technical implementation

00:29:39cooperation with the participation of the United States and European countries. So the Americans will not be

00:29:52involved, nor importantly, will the Europeans be either. And then we move on to the question of security

00:30:03guarantees. And we're told Ukraine receives robust security guarantees. Guarantor states will be an ad hoc

00:30:14grouping of European states plus willing non-European states. The United States, however, is not mentioned. The

00:30:25United States is not giving Ukraine security guarantees. Again, if we go back to the

00:30:33European-Ukrainian draft. Ukraine receives robust security guarantees, including from the United States,

00:30:45Article 5-like agreement. So the Americans say, no, we are not giving Ukraine security guarantees. And then the

00:30:55American draft goes on to say this. Ukraine will not seek to join NATO. Now, there's flat leaked

00:31:03contradiction. It contradicts the Ukrainian-European draft, which leaves open the possibility of NATO membership. It merely refers to the

00:31:14fact that for the moment, there is no consensus among allies on NATO membership. Now, the European draft then spoke about the

00:31:24fact that there would be no restrictions on the Ukrainian defence forces. There is no reference to the Ukrainian

00:31:32defence forces in the American document. So it might be that there will be restrictions put in place at some

00:31:41time. And we're then told that there would be no restrictions on the presence weapons and operations of friendly foreign

00:31:52forces on the territory of Ukraine. The American draft is silent on that question also. Now, the reason it is silent about these

00:32:02two things is obviously because the Americans know that the Russians would strongly object

00:32:08to both of them. So that is clearly

00:32:15another difference. The Russians say they will not agree to increases in the size of the Ukrainian armed

00:32:23forces. On the contrary, they want the Ukrainian armed forces significantly reduced. And the Russians, of course,

00:32:30have categorically ruled out the presence of troops from NATO countries on Ukrainian territory. So the Americans

00:32:40are silent on those questions. They're not ruling it out. But of course, they're not actually

00:32:46ruling it in, in a way that, since this is an ultimatum, presented not just to the Europeans and to the

00:32:57Ukrainians, but also to Russia, it would require the Russians to agree to things like that, things that,

00:33:05as we know, they would never agree to. And then we're told that Ukraine may pursue EU membership. Frankly,

00:33:12given what we read next, EU membership is all but inconceivable from this point onwards,

00:33:23because then we come to the question of territory. Now, the Ukrainian European drafts

00:33:32make no reference to territory, other than the fact that the territorial negotiations start

00:33:41from the line, on the basis of the line of control, but they clearly

00:33:48are aimed eventually at Ukraine regaining all of its territory, including Crimea, which is not mentioned

00:33:59in the Ukrainian European draft. The American draft says this, territory, U.S. provides

00:34:06de jure recognition of Russian control of Crimea. The U.S. provides de facto recognition of Russian control of Lugansk.

00:34:18The U.S. provides de facto recognition of Russian-controlled parts of Zaporozhye, Donetsk and Hassan.

00:34:28Now, remember, this is an American proposal. What it says is that the United States recognises formally,

00:34:37juridically, that Crimea is part of Russia. But it actually goes beyond that, because it also provides

00:34:44a measure of American recognition that Lugansk region is also under Russian control, part of Russia,

00:34:56and that those parts of Zaporozhye, Donetsk and Hassan are also under Russian control. Now, the point about that is that U.S. recognition,

00:35:06in effect, makes it very difficult to see how Ukraine could take military action ever to regain these territories.

00:35:20Now, note again that this is an American draft. It is an American proposal put ultimately to Russia.

00:35:30It's presumably the draft that Witkoff has taken with him to Moscow, and which he is currently presenting to Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

00:35:46This document does not say that the Russians have limited their territorial claims in Ukraine to the territories in Zaporozhye, Donetsk and Hassan region, which they control.

00:36:06There was that article that appeared a couple of days ago in the Financial Times, which said that they had,

00:36:13that the Russians, that Putin had told Witkoff at the previous meeting, that the Russians were not seeking to recover the whole of the territory of the four regions.

00:36:30There's nothing in this document to suggest that. What this document says is that the Americans are making a take it or leave it offer

00:36:42to the Russians as well as to the others. If the Russians are content to accept that the territory that they will retain control of in Ukraine

00:36:54will be limited to those parts of Zaporozhye, Kherson and Donetsk region that they currently control,

00:37:02then the United States will extend a measure of official, if not formal, recognition to that effect.

00:37:15Now, what the actual difference between de jure recognition and de facto recognition is?

00:37:23Well, there's a lot of discussions about that. All kinds of international lawyers have all sorts of things to say.

00:37:31In my opinion, in practical terms, to the extent that we are talking about this particular document,

00:37:41it makes no difference at all. It's just that the Americans are recognising that there is really no issue

00:37:50about Crimea being a part of Russia. They accept that there are separate territorial claims about

00:37:57Zaporozhye, Kherson, Donetsk and Lugansk, but they recognise the rights of the party in control.

00:38:08Now, that would mean, for example, as I understand it, that American companies could operate

00:38:15in these four regions, those parts of those four regions, which are under Russian control,

00:38:22so that Visa and MasterGard, for example, could actually process transactions there.

00:38:33But just saying. So anyway, then we're told that Ukraine regains territory in Kharkov region.

00:38:39We don't know precisely which territory, but let's assume that it's all of it.

00:38:43Then the next are the two parts of the European Ukrainian proposal, which the Americans have

00:38:50taken up. They've adopted them into their plan. As I said, I think this is intended to soften the pill

00:39:03for the Ukrainians and the Europeans. So we're told that Ukraine regains control of the Zaporozhye

00:39:09nuclear power plant through the nuclear power plant, through U.S. control and administration of the

00:39:13plant with electricity distributed to both sides and also the Kharkovka.

00:39:18Now, there is no way that the Russians will accept that. They've already rejected it outright,

00:39:25by the way. But I would add that this is, though it is close to being

00:39:35the same proposal that you see in the ukrainian european draft it doesn't contain an important

00:39:43difference so the ukrainian european draft draft speaks of ukraine regains control of the

00:39:51zaporozhia nuclear power plant with u.s involvement whereas the american draft

00:40:00says that you gain ukraine regains control of the zaporozhia nuclear power plant through u.s

00:40:09control and administration of the plant so the plant is recognized as ukrainian but the united

00:40:18states operates it and then we're told that the electricity generated by the plant will be

00:40:25distributed to both sides so it takes a european ukrainian proposal puts it in the agreement the

00:40:39proposed the american proposal but it does offer a significant gesture to the russians as well they

00:40:47would still receive electricity provided by the zaporozhia nuclear power plant of course this is

00:40:53all academic because the russians would never agree to this and then we're also told that ukraine

00:41:00enjoys unhindered passage on the deeper river and control of the kinburn spit the kinburn spit is a

00:41:07small part of herson region it's the very very far end of the eastern bank of the nipa river

00:41:20the ukrainians have made many attempts to recapture it from the russians ever since the russians

00:41:27gained control the russians have repelled successfully everyone and then we're told and then it comes to

00:41:35economics again the subtitle is taken from the ukrainian european draft united states and ukraine will

00:41:43implement economic cooperation minerals agreement that's the same then ukraine to be fully reconstructed

00:41:50and compensated and compensated financially but we're not told by whom we're not told that it will be the

00:41:57russians and there is no reference here to the use of frozen russian assets and then we come to

00:42:09the part that must have made european as well as ukrainian stomachs turn sanctions on russia

00:42:20resulting from this conflict since 2014 will be removed now that isn't just american sanctions

00:42:28that is european sanctions also and by the way japanese in south korean sanctions it would also mean

00:42:39that the russians get their frozen assets back the billions hundreds of billions of dollars that belong

00:42:46to the russian central bank that that would be those would be returned as well and there is of course

00:42:56no snapback there's no snapback provisions in this so if there's future breaches of this agreement even if they're

00:43:08blamed on the russians well that will not result in the sanctions against russia being automatically reinstated

00:43:18in fact clearly the united states has no intention of reimposing sanctions and then we are told

00:43:26u.s russian economic cooperation on energy and other industrial sectors so an economic partnership

00:43:37between russia and the united states to follow as i said these two drafts are completely different

00:43:47from each other now in a interview which sergey lavrov gave that's the russian foreign minister gave

00:43:59to face the nation um on cbs yesterday um of which by the way we have not had full details

00:44:10lavrov spoke warmly about trump he said he's the first western politician who takes shows signs of

00:44:20addressing the root causes of the conflict specifically nato membership and he said that

00:44:27um there is in fact movement on a deal movement is heading in the right direction we're not however

00:44:37there yet there are still things to be agreed or fine-tuned as he put it and looking at this american

00:44:44draft one can begin to see why now this does address many of the russian security concerns as i said there's

00:44:55no this this this this agreement does speak of ukraine remaining outside nato for example it also does

00:45:09recognize to a significant degree the actual realities on the ground the crimea is indeed russian

00:45:17that um the territory that the russians control in the four regions is essentially russian as well

00:45:25there are still issues which going back to putin's proposals of the 14th of june

00:45:332024 which still needs to be resolved from a russian point of view to repeat again the russians

00:45:40have given no hint at any point that they are looking or intending to give up their claims

00:45:47to the remainder of the four regions but the russians have said that if they can achieve their objectives

00:45:56through peaceful negotiations they will do so clearly the russians are telling themselves that they can

00:46:04achieve possession of the remainder of the four regions and protections for the rights of russians and

00:46:15various other changes in ukraine through negotiations as part of the negotiating process

00:46:23that would follow that would be based on this framework agreement despite the ceasefire that was in place

00:46:32all of course based on the assumption that the ukrainian military does not get rearmed or things of that kind

00:46:43so i could see why the russians might look at this and tell whitgoth based on this proposal yes

00:46:54we can see that significant progress is being made you're starting to move in our direction we appreciate

00:47:02that we might even in light of this be prepared to think about the ceasefire and move in that direction

00:47:10also obviously there's an awful lot that needs to be worked out if a ceasefire

00:47:17is to be effective yesterday the russian foreign ministry spokesman made a lengthy statement

00:47:30public statement in which she went through all the various breaches of all the various ceasefires

00:47:36that ukraine has entered into and how it has never honored any one of them including the recent energy

00:47:43truce and putin's easter ceasefire so there's clearly a lot of work to be done and clearly now

00:47:50having seen this american draft that statement by the russian foreign ministry spokesman was made

00:47:58in anticipation of discussions that would take place presumably with whitgoth today about how the ceasefire

00:48:07might be implemented there are lots of gaps large ambiguities lots of things that have not been agreed

00:48:18here and um which still remain to be sorted out and discussed but the russians would say this is a step

00:48:29forward it is a important step in the right direction it does take us further towards peace and well that then

00:48:43brings us back to the reaction of the ukrainians and the europeans now as i said the ukrainians

00:48:51having assumed that the european proposals which as i said they've clearly worked on were going to be the

00:48:59proposals that were going to be discussed are obviously in shock and they have rejected this american

00:49:10proposal outright now it is important to say that they're not merely rejecting they're not merely rejecting

00:49:19the crimea provision in this proposal they are rejecting the entirety of the proposal they will not

00:49:31agree that they should not seek membership of nato they will not agree to american

00:49:40de facto recognition of russian control of lugansk and of the russian controlled regions in zaporozha donetsk

00:49:49and has on um as far as they're concerned that is ukrainian territory or so they will insist they're

00:49:58absolutely going to get it back they understand that if the united states does confer

00:50:05even this sort of recognition to russian control of this territory then there is no prospect

00:50:14of um ukraine ever getting it back and the idea that all the sanctions american and european would be

00:50:28lifted and that the russians and the americans would move forward and engage in economic cooperation on

00:50:36energy and other industrial sectors this is economic cooperation between two equal powers

00:50:44it is completely different from the entirely lopsided and indeed extractive minerals agreement which the

00:50:54americans are trying to force on ukraine well this must be profoundly shocking to them and the fact that

00:51:01they're getting no guarantees from the united states no promises of deployments of british and french troops

00:51:08no promises that their military is going to be re-equipped all of that must be horrifying also the europeans

00:51:17must be shocked as well because it's clear that they were starting to to think

00:51:23and tell themselves that they'd manage to patch things together with the between the ukrainians

00:51:32and the americans after the february oval office row they probably they have clearly been telling

00:51:41themselves that american grumbling about the fact that the russians had not agreed to the unconditional

00:51:50ceasefire was a sign again that the americans were starting to tilt

00:51:57towards the europeans and now they find to their shock that the opposite is true that the americans actually

00:52:08have indeed been engaging in substantive negotiations with the russians and they're starting to make

00:52:16moves in the direction that the russians want them to go so those horrified reactions that i spoke about

00:52:30yesterday i explained expressed yesterday in my video my bafflement at the vehemence of the european reaction

00:52:40well we can now see why because they thought they were on the brink of a major diplomatic victory

00:52:50of course they cannot have believed that the russians would ever agree to their proposal but their

00:52:58assumption was that the russians would reject the proposal and the americans would blame the russians for

00:53:04the failure of the negotiations and then ever everything would then go back to where it was anyway all of

00:53:13that suddenly is looking far less likely and the tantrums and fits and the agonized wringing of hands that you

00:53:26see across europe the reasons for it are now becoming clear now to repeat again zelensky has rejected this

00:53:38entire proposal outright and the proposal is actually framed if we go back to the original provision these

00:53:49terms represent the final offer from the united states to both sides so zelensky has rejected

00:53:59an american ultimatum he has done it in the strongest and indeed the most insulting language

00:54:07and nonetheless the americans for the moment at least are still pressing on they've taken this

00:54:14proposal presumably to wick off so to to moscow with wick off wick off is now as i said meeting with putin i'm sure

00:54:22the russians have already seen the proposal um unlike zelensky putin will come back and say look

00:54:31there's things here which i can't agree with but this does represent real progress very much the same thing as

00:54:38what lavrov said in his interview to cbs so it's likely to be another cordial meeting between wick golf

00:54:49and putin um bloomberg is saying that wick golf is going to try and get the russians to agree

00:54:57that they should to lift the restrictions that the russians should drop their demand that

00:55:03restrictions should be placed on the size of the ukrainian armed forces and on its ability to

00:55:09re-equip i am confident that putin will reject that he will say this is obviously something that cannot

00:55:17happen he will make the point that that would just undermine the ceasefire and put

00:55:25the russians in the position that they have always warned about of negotiations being spun out in

00:55:32definitely without the ukrainians having any real incentive to come to a final settlement because

00:55:39they would be in the process of rearming it's the point putin made when he spoke to trump on the 18th

00:55:48of march when putin first proposed the unconditional ceasefire to him and i can't imagine that putin

00:55:56will have changed his stance on this on the contrary i would say that the fact that the ukrainians would

00:56:05not be able to rearm during the period of the ceasefire would be for putin an essential guarantee

00:56:13to ensure that if there was a ceasefire the process of negotiations would go forward but as i said i could

00:56:21see that the russians would feel that this is a step in the right direction it's not the final agreement

00:56:30but it is movement towards them

00:56:37but we come back to the fundamental point the russians might be minded to work with this

00:56:46the ukrainians are not and over the last few hours ever since zelensky spoke they have been reiterating

00:56:58and arguing and complaining about the american proposal and saying time after time that they are not going to

00:57:08agree to any part of it and european governments have scrambled to support them so mark

00:57:16ruter the nato secretary general now he's reasons for going to for trying to speak with trump

00:57:24administration officials are becoming clear mark ruter is trying to lobby on the ukrainians behalf

00:57:32he's presumably trying to get the americans to go back on this final proposal of the united states

00:57:39and to return to the ukrainian european proposal um starmer and macron arguably are doing the same

00:57:55all of european diplomacy is currently being um

00:58:00um is now currently working diplomacy is the right word um is is trying to work to achieve that

00:58:10to get the americans to change their minds

00:58:15but the mood across the european media is deeply pessimistic and it looks as if they don't expect it to

00:58:26happen so given that the ukrainians are rejecting this proposal given that the russians are saying that

00:58:32they're prepared to work with the proposal well i'm sure we'll say that they're prepared to work with the

00:58:38proposal it doesn't as i said fully satisfy them but it's a step in the right direction they're not going to

00:58:45reject it outright in the way that zelensky and the europeans are doing anyway what is now going to happen

00:58:56now to repeat again we're told that this is a final offer from the united states to both sides one is

00:59:03likely to give it some degree of conditional acceptance the other has already given it outright

00:59:14rejection the united states marco rubio donald trump colonel kellogg steve whitgoff have all said that if

00:59:26the proposal is rejected then the united states is going to walk away it's going to say enough's enough

00:59:35it's going to pull out of the entire process of the negotiations and leave the europeans and the ukrainians

00:59:43and the russians to sort it out between them is that what the united states is actually going to do

00:59:53well we're beginning to get some suggestions that it might be um british military officers have been

01:00:01giving comments to the media um that ukraine is on the brink of running out of the weapons that it was

01:00:10supplied by the biden administration in the last weeks that it was in office and of course that takes

01:00:18us all the way back to a comment made by kirill obudanoff back in august um so about a couple of

01:00:27months ago that come mid-summer uh ukraine's military position would begin to become desperate unless a peace

01:00:35agreement was achieved um in the meantime without american weapons ukraine's ability to keep fighting

01:00:47is going to rapidly diminish and of course we know that the russians are on the brink of a major offensive

01:00:57the europeans also are getting further suggestions from the americans that they are in the process of

01:01:07withdrawing support built citing the german newspaper usually very well informed about politics in germany

01:01:17itself and build citing has built item has historic connections to what will soon be the ruling cdu

01:01:27party in germany the party of friedrich mouse it is saying that the united states is refusing to provide

01:01:34germany with the data information that would be needed to make the tourist missiles effective

01:01:45so that probably explains why um mounts is now reported as having second doubts about the supply of tourist

01:01:56missiles to ukraine because effectively they're becoming unoperable um there are other reports that the

01:02:08the united states is revising its stance it's apparently no longer well it is no longer involved in

01:02:18investigating war crimes by by the russians notice that the american draft makes no reference to the

01:02:27return to ukraine of ukrainian children that the russians have supposedly abducted or civilian prisoners that

01:02:35the russians have supposedly imprisoned there's nothing about that in the american draft and well it's difficult to

01:02:46read the american draft without getting a feeling that a sense that at some point the trump administration

01:02:56donald trump himself have has aims or intends to lift sanctions on russia in order to move forward

01:03:11with the economic cooperation on energy and other industrial sectors that the american draft is referring to i'll be

01:03:24very interested to know by the way which industrial sectors this is supposed to refer to

01:03:31might it be aerospace just saying space exploration the russians have a very well worked out space

01:03:41exploration program with china by the way might the americans be looking or wanting to get a

01:03:47cut in the cut in who knows but anyway i i do get the sense that this is ultimately where donald trump

01:03:57himself wants to go but in the meantime despite the fact that zelensky and the ukrainians have rejected

01:04:08these proposals outright and are not going to go back on them there is another report i believe it's also in

01:04:16bill zaitan that the ukrainians it's also been reported in the british media by the way that the ukrainians

01:04:22are now um preparing themselves

01:04:28for the prospect of having to continue the war despite a complete cutoff of u.s intelligence and military supplies

01:04:40so despite all that despite the fact that the ukrainians are unlikely to change their stance as i said we

01:04:51see that for the moment at least trump is still talking about negotiating and yesterday he made a

01:05:00he posted a comment on his true social account criticizing the russians criticizing putin himself for the missile

01:05:12strike on kiev now i should say this was the biggest missile strike i think that the russians have conducted

01:05:21against kiev since the start of the special military operation i when i did my program yesterday i did not

01:05:31fully grasp the extent of it the russians of course as they always do have not provided us with a huge

01:05:41amount of detail as to what it was exactly that happened and what the targets were but there are reports

01:05:52that the russians used up to 10 kinzhal hypersonic missiles over the course of the attack and that they also

01:06:03used ballistic missiles as well and large numbers of ballistic missiles as well now the ukrainians of course

01:06:10are saying that these were north korean ballistic missiles and they're complaining that these

01:06:15missiles have become much more accurate they might be north korean ballistic missiles i don't know

01:06:24my guess is that they are more likely to be russian-made iskandar missiles but if they're north korean

01:06:33i won't be terribly surprised anyway the point is that it does seem that these missiles did do a great

01:06:43deal of damage now the ukrainians are confirming that they were able or claiming that they were able to

01:06:50shoot down around half of the geranium drones that flew over kiev and can i just say we've now had

01:06:59clarification about the nature of the geranium drones there's been lots of speculation about geranium drones

01:07:09operated geranium 3 drones with jet engines operating in the skies over ukraine the latest word is that

01:07:18that isn't really true that these are the usual the standard geranium 2 drones in terms at least of their

01:07:25um engine um but that they're now flying at much higher altitudes and are now engaging in diving attacks

01:07:36on targets in order to evade ukrainian air defenses which are essentially heavy caliber machine guns

01:07:45and that this enables these drones to operate much more effectively um anyway and then it's the

01:07:53dive attack that is creating the sounds the new sounds that people are hearing anyway the point is that

01:08:03the ukrainians claim that they shot down around half the drones and a significant number

01:08:11of the air-launched cruise missiles the kh-101s and the calibras but if you read ukrainian reports there is an

01:08:20immense amount of hand-wringing about the attack even from ukrainian officials with admissions that the

01:08:32attack was basically unaffected by kiev's air defenses that most of the missiles got through and hit their

01:08:42targets and that considerable damage is done now there is a lot of rumor and speculation about what

01:08:49exact damage was done and what i'm going to report now should be taken purely as a rumor it is not

01:09:00confirmed and it may not be true but on the op on the other hand some of the reports do seem to be

01:09:10fairly well some of the um sorry some of the sources that are reporting this claim

01:09:15do suggest that it might be true uh and are fairly reliable sources anyway reports are saying

01:09:27that several missiles

01:09:34destroyed fell upon and destroyed an important ukrainian command bunker located beneath kreshatik street kreshatik is

01:09:46the major street in kiev it's kiev's main main street it's the one um the tourists see

01:09:57and visit mostly when they go to kiev and anyway that these missiles crashed through and

01:10:05smashed through into the bunker and that important command staff and personnel were killed in this

01:10:14bunker and of course inevitably and i want to stress again this is not confirmed there are even some

01:10:21suggestions that western personnel that western personnel were located inside this bunker and that they too

01:10:27were killed anyway there has been profound shock about all of this

01:10:33this anyway the point is ukraine the very weakened position what happens now does trump

01:10:46take the ukrainian no for an answer the ukrainians despite all of this all the things that we are

01:10:55seeing the descent of the missiles the fact that they're able to penetrate through ukrainian air defenses

01:11:02deal out this immense damage the fact that the russians continue to advance across the battlefronts i'm not

01:11:10going to do a military update on this program but i will say that um it looks as if the village of

01:11:16gornal in korsk region is now mostly under russian control and that the russians have made significant

01:11:23further advances especially in the konstantinovka area but as i said this is discussions for another day

01:11:31anyway what do the americans do do they actually walk away as they've said are they intending to wash

01:11:39their hands of this affair whitkoff has had a meeting with dmitriev in moscow prior to meeting putin

01:11:48the meeting that he is having with putin in the kremlin dmitriev and ushikov will be there with putin

01:12:00there's been comments about the fact that whitkoff appears to be accompanied by only one american official

01:12:09but the meetings with dmitriev do point to a desire to get some kind of economic cooperation

01:12:19between the united states and russia underway is that what donald trump intends to do was his complaint

01:12:29about the russian attack on kiev merely an attempt to give the impression that he's preserving balance

01:12:37he said throughout the last couple of days that he's not on the russian side he's not on the ukrainian

01:12:44side he's just trying to stop the war um and that um he's unhappy about missile strikes on kiev

01:12:56because this isn't really helpful to stopping the war at the present time is it just that is it just

01:13:04an attempt to re maintain balance or will donald trump

01:13:10will donald trump reverse will he bend to the pressure that the europeans on behalf of the ukrainians

01:13:25and no doubt the neocons in washington are bringing to bear upon him will he row back

01:13:34on what he has already agreed with the russians will he say well the conditional acceptance by the russians

01:13:41of whitgov's proposal is not enough only a complete acceptance will do and that the ukrainians are

01:13:51clearly the victims of russian aggression and for that reason the united states will go back and will

01:13:58continue to support them well i don't know and a lot will depend on what happens over the next couple of

01:14:06days now trump has also said that it is going to be in the next couple of days that the final decisions

01:14:14about how to end this war will be made um that might point to the 30th of april

01:14:24as the final cutoff point that's five days from now we shall see but i don't expect the russians

01:14:36to move from their positions i certainly don't expect them to create a major upgrade of the ukrainian

01:14:43armed forces as i said that would be completely illogical in terms of what they have been saying

01:14:49and arguing over the last couple of years and what has happened from their point of view over the course

01:14:58of the conflict and i don't expect the ukrainians to retreat from their outright rejection of

01:15:08the american proposal so logically that looks to be where we're heading we're heading towards a situation

01:15:15where the americans probably within the next week or so will make the decision finally to walk away

01:15:25and since it will be the ukrainians who will have rejected the proposal

01:15:33it looks as if the americans at some point will move forward and lift their own sanctions and begin the

01:15:42economic cooperation on energy and other industrial sectors that presumably whitgolf and dmitriev are

01:15:51talking about now as i said nothing is ever certain nothing can be assumed until it's happened certainly not

01:16:02in a complex negotiation like this but anyway reuters his publication of these two draft documents

01:16:12has provided a great deal of clarity about the situation that we're in today i am going to make

01:16:22one rather bold prediction which is that we are now definitely starting to enter the end game in the war

01:16:31as i said i don't expect the ukrainians to shift their position i don't believe that zelensky is capable

01:16:39of shifting his position of shifting his position as i said in my program yesterday david sachs the american

01:16:47entrepreneur who is now um working to some in some respects for the um administration he said that

01:16:58zelensky's outburst over crimea the easiest thing for him to concede shows that he is basically not

01:17:06interested in peace that he is not capable of engaging in negotiations um

01:17:14donald trump's son donald trump jr re posted that comment of david sachs with approval elon musk has ridiculed

01:17:28zelensky's zelensky's latest comment latest claim that every dollar of aid provided by the united states

01:17:37to ukraine can be accounted for an absurd comment by zelensky by the way and i wonder what on earth

01:17:46possessed him to say it zaharova the russian foreign ministry spokesman has also said that all of the

01:17:55the various violations of the ceasefire of the various ceasefires that the ukrainians have undertaken

01:18:01and zelensky's own stance and behavior shows that he is not somebody that can be negotiated with and

01:18:10who can be looked to to make peace so logically the americans based on what they say should walk away

01:18:20and if they don't and if the conflict continues i can't believe that they will come back to the

01:18:31conflict with any degree of conviction it won't be like biden blinken and sullivan all over again since

01:18:40i brought up the mention of sullivan i ought to just say that he has apparently admitted in a recent

01:18:47interview that the attackums missiles that were supplied to ukraine turned out to be a major

01:18:54disappointment something i've been saying for months anyway it's not going to be like them all over again

01:19:05this american proposal paper shows how disillusioned with the conflict in ukraine

01:19:17the americans have now become even if the americans do somehow manage to pull the americans back

01:19:30the americans are not going to come back with enthusiasm they're going to become frustrated

01:19:36and irritated at various points they're going to become more and more grudging about providing ukraine

01:19:44with assistance all of this at a time when russian power on the battlefronts is waxing

01:19:54given that this is so if the americans walk away the war will end more quickly

01:20:01if the americans don't walk away and continue to provide the ukrainians with assistance the war will

01:20:10continue rather longer but the outcome the eventual outcome a russian victory will surely be the same

01:20:22anyway that's the one prediction i'm going to make in this program up to this point always assuming of

01:20:32course that as i said something doesn't happen over the next 24 hours that reverses everything the

01:20:39russians say something that the americans don't like something of that kind anyway there we are that's

01:20:48where we are with the conflict in ukraine at this particular time now the last thing i get to talk about

01:20:56briefly is this murder of this russian general on russian territory now this has clearly been prepared

01:21:04over a long time so one can't say that the timing necessarily would have been connected to these

01:21:12ongoing negotiations but the fact is that the authorities in kiev must have known that the

01:21:21assassins were working to assassinate this general were closing in on their target and they nonetheless

01:21:32authorized the assassins to go ahead they didn't try and countermand and call off the assassination at

01:21:41the last moment in my opinion that makes this yet another provocation of the sort that the ukrainians

01:21:50have conducted many many times it's an attempt to provoke the russians to provoke putin ushikov and

01:21:59dmitriev into saying to whitkov look the people we're dealing with in kiev are straightforwardly terrorists

01:22:09there cannot be any negotiations with them we can't obviously even debate peace proposals coming from

01:22:18you whilst they do these sorts of things causing the american russian negotiations to break down

01:22:29which at this particular junction would work to ukraine's advantage that i think is probably what this was all

01:22:40about as i said the plot will have been prepared well in advance but the final decision to go ahead

01:22:49must have been made over the last few hours or could have been countermanded over the last few hours

01:22:59and and the and that wasn't done so anyway i don't expect that this is going to shake the russians of their course at all

01:23:11anybody who follows the way the russian government works will know that but perhaps possibly the ukrainians don't

01:23:23anyway wikov and putin as i said are meeting they've been meeting over the time that i have been making this

01:23:33program quite possibly you will know more about this meeting than i do now when i am making it by the time it has

01:23:44been published we might have in some information about what has taken place but anyway this is this video

01:23:55is based on what i know at the moment and there really isn't very much more i can say now there's lots

01:24:03of other things going on in the world we see the first tentative steps on the american chinese sides

01:24:10to um de-escalate the tariff war donald trump has talked about how tariffs the tariffs on china

01:24:19have reached and the tariffs by china have reached unsustainable levels

01:24:24and i expect that at some point over the next couple of days we will be seeing some steps taken to bring

01:24:32the tariff war back under control um there is a very concerning outbreak of fighting between india and

01:24:42pakistan with all sorts of threats being made by each country against the other but these important

01:24:51topics very important topics are ones that i'm going to have to leave until my next program so this is

01:24:59where i finish today more from me soon let me remind you again you can find all our programs on our

01:25:05various platforms locals rumble and x you can support our work by patreon and subscribe star and by going to

01:25:13our shop links under this video last but not least if you've liked this video please remember to tick the

01:25:19like button and to check your subscription to this channel that's me for today more from me soon

01:25:26have a very good day

🌍 UK/EU's Bizarre Plan: Moscow Surrender, Reparations & Eternal Sanctions?! 🤯 | Witkoff Meets Putin 🇷🇺 | Forbidden News

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