Russian Federation Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio are holding a meeting today in Saudi Arabia. It is the first meeting between the two nations in years, since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Images of Rubio, flanked by America’s Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, sitting opposite Lavrov and President Putin’s advisor Yuri Ushakov have been published as talks began.
The Russians have made known they are going into this meeting with a hard bargaining approach. Russia is extremely wary of the US and the collective West in general, after being intentionally deceived in 2014 by Then Ukraine President Poroshenko, then German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and then-French President Francois Hollande, at the Minsk Conference in Belarus back in the year 2014.
At that conference, Ukraine and the Ukrainian states of Luhansk and Donetsk, bargained to broker a peace deal in the presence of Germany, France, and Russia. The sides bargained for nineteen hours straight and came away with the "Minsk Agreement" to settle the then-ongoing conflict between Ukraine's national government in Kiev, and the two states of Luhansk and Donetsk.
It turned out the entire Conference was an intentional DECEPTION on the part of Ukraine, Germany, France and the collective West. Years later, when the actual shooting war began between Ukraine and Russia, both Merkel and Hollande admitted in two separate TV interviews, the entire Minsk Conference was "a ruse to buy time for Ukraine to arm for war against Russia." Both Merkel and Hollande admitted it in those words, in two separate TV interviews.
Upon hearing Merkel and Hollande admit they attended the peace conference with the intent to deceive Russia, all credibility of France, Germany, and the collective West, went right out the window. How could Russia trust __anything__ the West said, after being intentionally deceived at a peace conference?
Moreover, what kind of persons attend a peace conference with the INTENT to deceive and arm for war; psychopaths?
As a result of the intentional deception, the Russians saw no avenue in which to pursue peace, and settled-in to waging their Special Military Operation to Demilitarize and De-Nazify Ukraine. That operation is ongoing to this day.
In the years since that operation began, Ukraine has lost at least one million soldiers. At least eight hundred thousand are known to have been killed and upwards of at least 200,000 have been permanently disabled with limbs blown off and traumatic brain injuries, on the Ukraine side alone.
In a recent exchange of dead bodies, Russia turned over about 700 dead soldiers to Ukraine. Ukraine turned over about seventy to Russia; making the kill ratio about 10 Ukrainians for every Russian.
In the meantime, the collective West has armed Ukraine with all manner of weaponry, from rifle ammunition, to artillery shells, to tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery guns, shells for those artillery guns, rockets, and missiles and lately, even fighter jets - yet the Russians have overcome almost all of it.
Things have gotten so bad for Ukraine and its Western sponsors, that the entire collective West is now incapable of supplying the amount of ammunition and artillery shells needed to continue the war. Russia, on the other hand, has stepped-up its military-industrial production, and now produces seven times more military output than all of NATO combined!
As these numbers demonstrate, Ukraine has no hope at all of winning the conflict, and is losing on the battlefield terribly. Every day, Russian Army troops win more and more land, as Ukraine troops are forced to retreat farther and farther back.
Enter US President Donald Trump.
With the November U.S. election being won by Trump, and his inauguration just four weeks ago, the entire US approach to this conflict is suddenly and dramatically changing. Trump made clear on the campaign trail that he wants this war to end, and today's meeting between the US and Russia is being undertaken by the Trump Administration toward that goal.
Some in the US call this "giving-in to Putin" but such people seem to be completely ignorant of the realities on the battlefield. The simple truth is that Ukraine never stood a chance against Russia, and the collective West isn't nearly as strong as it thought itself to be.
The fact that the West is running out of war-fighting ammunition and other armaments makes clear it is the West that is incapable of continuing the fight.
Sadly, several leaders of Western nations seem to be delusional about their own war fighting capabilities; insisting the war go on. They flatly refuse to acknowledge the factual reality that they have already lost and have no hope of turning things around.
Moreover, the economic damage taking place in the collective West is smashing economies from the US and Europe. In spite of this disastrous economic reality, those same leaders - especially in Europe - again flatly deny reality; making it appear that the leaders of some European Nations are suffering from a severe case of "denial" and are in need of psychiatric intervention.
Today's meeting between the US and Russia is NOT being attended by either Ukraine or European nations. Ukraine has no legitimate elected President; Zelensky's term of office expired last May. Zelensky canceled elections but continued trying to be President, thereby making him nothing more than a Dictator who has no authority to negotiate anything with Russia.
As for the Europeans, many - BUT NOT ALL -- European leaders are viewed by Russia as being "unfaithful to their word" as evidenced by the Minsk Conference, and so the Russians see no reason to include them at all.
Similarly, the Americans see no need for European leaders to take part in this meeting because it is the United States that has the most to lose if the Russia-Ukraine conflict breaks-out into western Europe.
The US realizes that European countries have cheated the US for decades by not spending the two percent (2%) of their GDP on defense as they agreed to do, causing the US to increase its spending, and deploy more of its resources into protecting Europe for decades.
The US also realizes that certain European Leaders have been shooting their mouths off about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, knowing full well their mouths could only be backed up by AMERICAN lives.
The US does not appreciate European Leaders mouthing-off to Russia while those Europeans hide behind the United States military. As such, the US itself excluded Europeans from today's meeting.
For their part, the Russians are in no mood at all to "pause" the conflict because, after the Minsk deception, Russia knows that any "pause" would just be a move to re-arm Ukraine and re-start the conflict.
This is going to be a difficult negotiation with the Russians. Russia has no reason AT ALL to trust the US or Europe, and frankly, Russia is winning on the battlefield. So if the US and Europe try to hardball the Russians, then the Russians can just politely say "no," walk away from the negotiations, and keep right on steam-rolling Ukraine until there is no more Ukraine.
In such a case, the US and the West will still be unable to supply enough weaponry and ammunition to save Ukraine, so the clear outcome would be a decisive victory by Russia and a humiliating defeat for the West.
The West knows this, and so has very good cause to negotiate fast.
How today's meeting in Saudi Arabia go, remains to be seen. But it is absolutely crucial that this meeting produce tangible results that can be verified by the Russians, to try to rebuild trust.
If today's meeting "goes south" the world will be right back at the precipice of an abyss - World War 3.
