Latest news with #WellesDeclaration
Arab News
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
How the road to Ukraine began in 1967
There is much angst among the Western liberal cognoscenti over the 'peace agreement' with Russia currently being foisted on the Ukrainian people by the Trump administration in Washington, chiefly on the ground that it is less a peace agreement and more a capitulation. Russia's reward for more than three years of naked aggression will be to keep the 20 percent of Ukrainian territory it now occupies, including the Crimean Peninsula it annexed in 2014. The only crumb of comfort for Kyiv is that, while the US will recognize Russian sovereignty over this captured territory, Ukraine need not — and nor need anyone else. With the possible exception of China, it seems unlikely that anyone will. Currently, the only countries that recognize Crimea as Russian are Afghanistan, Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela: peculiar company for the US to be keeping. Vitriol has been directed at Donald Trump in particular for his personal role in driving this process forward, and it is true that he and his various administrations have executed some bewildering U-turns on the issue. In 2014, when he was still best known as a reality TV host and the White House was no more than a glint in his eye, Trump was already expressing his admiration for Vladimir Putin: 'I think he's a very capable leader … what he did with Crimea is very smart.' Four years later, however, when Trump had been president for two years and had perhaps learned that being the powerful 'leader of the free world' came with certain responsibilities, his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made clear what the official view was: 'The US reaffirms as policy its refusal to recognize the Kremlin's claim of sovereignty over territory seized by force in contravention of international law.' Vitriol has been directed at Donald Trump in particular for his personal role in driving this process forward Ross Anderson What Pompeo was 'reaffirming' was the Welles Declaration, issued by a predecessor, Sumner Welles, after the Soviet Union annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1940. 'The people of the United States are opposed to predatory activities no matter whether they are carried on by the use of force or by the threat of force,' Welles said. Washington refused to recognize Moscow's sovereignty over the three Baltic states for 50 years, until the Soviet Union collapsed and they gained their independence. The declaration was followed in 1941 by the Atlantic Charter, signed by the US and the UK, in which Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill insisted that there should be 'no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned.' All this, Trump's critics say, has been official US policy for 85 years — until now. The charge against the president is that, in recognizing Russia's right to govern territory captured by force in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, he is upending the policy of every White House administration since Roosevelt's, including his own first term. But is he really? Surely I cannot be alone in detecting a whiff of hypocrisy here. Since 1967, excluding Trump, there have been 10 US presidents: Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. While most of them have paid lip service to various UN resolutions, all of them without exception have in practice accepted Israel's right to occupy and populate the territory it seized by force that year, along with the vast tracts of Palestinian land it has settled since. The 'freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned,' to repeat the grand words of the Atlantic Charter, appear no longer to matter. Since 1967, when Israel captured (and I make no apology for repeating 'by force,' since that is the key phrase in the original 1940 Welles Declaration) and annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, and occupied the West Bank, it has claimed the right to 5,640 sq. km of land stolen from Jordan, 365 sq. km stolen from Egypt and 1,200 sq. km stolen from Syria, and illegally settled more than 700,000 Israelis on land stolen from the Palestinian people. It did not stop there. Since it began its blood-soaked assault on Gaza in October 2023, Israel has reoccupied 30 percent of the Palestinian enclave, it has pushed troops farther into Syria and it occupies five strategic hilltops in southern Lebanon. Its justification for these land grabs (again, by force) is that, for security reasons, Israel requires 'buffer zones' — which is a curious irony given the ethnic composition of the people doing the grabbing: the right to 'lebensraum,' or 'living space,' was a key policy tenet of the Nazi party in Germany in the 1930s, used by Hitler to justify the invasion of Poland. And look how that ended. Unlike the Palestinians in the West Bank, settlers enjoy the luxury of being subject to Israeli civilian law Ross Anderson Unlike the Palestinians in the West Bank whose land they have stolen, who suffer under arbitrary military law, settlers enjoy the luxury of being subject to Israeli civilian law: evidence that Israel considers this stolen land to be part of Israel. If anyone doubts the malign intent behind any of this, I urge you to watch 'The Settlers,' a documentary by the filmmaker Louis Theroux broadcast last week by the BBC. The film is Theroux's second attempt to delve inside the heads of Israeli settlers. His first, 'The Ultra Zionists,' in 2011, was merely disturbing: the new one is positively chilling. Theroux describes people pursuing 'an openly expansionist ethnonationalist vision while enjoying the benefits of a separate and privileged legal regime.' One settler claimed to be living in 'the heart of Judea.' Another said: 'I believe that Gaza is ours and we need to be living there.' A rabbi said Lebanon should be 'cleansed of these camel riders.' Another settler declared: 'We were in this land planting vineyards before Muhammad was in the third grade,' displaying a level of gratuitously offensive religious bigotry and ignorance that beggars belief — this is about land, not religion. As for the historical claim, it has always been absurd: by settler logic, the tribal elders of the Lenape people, the original inhabitants of Manhattan who now live in Oklahoma and Wisconsin, have the right to establish a reservation on Fifth Avenue. Remember all this the next time someone tells you that Trump has overturned decades of settled US policy against the capture and occupation of other people's land by force: that ship sailed nearly 60 years ago.
New York Post
25-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Trump envoy received with open arms by grinning Putin for what could be the final US peace talks
Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff with open arms and a wide grin Friday, photos show — as the two met in Moscow for what could be the last round of US talks to convince him to end his brutal war on Ukraine. Witkoff mirrored Putin's smile, greeting him like an old friend, the photos show. The envoy will be presenting the Russian leader with a proposed peace plan. President Trump has repeatedly insisted this week that he is ready to abandon the US role in the talks should Ukraine and Russia not agree to the proposal. 4 Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes President Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff with open arms to Moscow on Friday. via REUTERS Some insiders and experts, however, question why Trump would give up his efforts to achieve peace without first following through on threats to sanction Russia — or otherwise apply tangible pressure in any way. 'Where is the 'strength' in 'peace through strength'?' one former official from Trump's first administration told The Post. 'He's strong on Ukraine, but nothing for Russia?' 'The Russia 'collusion' was a hoax in Trump 1,' another added. 'But Trump 2.0, I'm not so sure.' 4 Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin smile at each other while shaking hands on Friday. KRISTINA KORMILITSYNA/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Ukraine has already spoken out against the proposed plan after agreeing to a previous one in London with European and US leaders. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said that the plan was suddenly switched out for one that included a red line for Kyiv: the recognition of Ukraine's Crimea as Russian. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine during Moscow's initial invasion of the country in 2014. A recognition of the territory as Russian would break both the Ukrainian constitution and longtime US foreign policy under the Welles Declaration that holds Washington will not recognize annexed territory as belonging to the aggressor. 4 Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff grins as he visits with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. AP Despite Kyiv agreeing immediately to a previous Trump-proposed temporary cease-fire — while Moscow rejected it — Russia has consistently and blatantly attempted to paint Ukraine as the party guilty for the dragged-out talks. Trump had hoped to end the war on his first day in office, which later became within his first 100 days — a deadline fast approaching next week. In recent weeks, he has grown increasingly frustrated with the war continuing to rage. 'The war has been raging for three years. I just got here, and you say, 'what's taking so long?'' he snapped at a reporter Friday who asked about Trump's self-imposed deadlines. On Thursday, he issued rare criticism of Putin in a Truth Social post, telling the Russian leader to 'STOP' his continued assaults on Ukraine as Trump's team attempts to work out a peace deal. 4 President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House on April 25. Getty Images 'I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV,' Trump raged, referencing overnight attacks that killed nine, including two children from the same family. 'Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!' Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said he didn't know if a peace deal would be signed 'by the end of the week' as Trump had hoped, according to the Kyiv Independent.
New York Times
25-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
The Terrifying Prospect of Trump's Peace Plan for Ukraine
Days after threatening to abandon peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, the Trump administration last week produced the outlines of a proposal to end the war between the two countries. The proposal, which is being viewed as President Trump's 'final offer,' completely blindsided Ukraine and America's European allies, and for good reason: It heavily favors the aggressor. Ukraine has already rejected it. In addition to reportedly freezing the current territorial lines, prohibiting Ukraine from joining NATO, and lifting sanctions on Russia that have been in place since 2014 when it annexed the Crimean Peninsula, the proposal offers Moscow a diplomatic gift that would set an extremely dangerous precedent: formal recognition of its control over Crimea. Acceding to Russian control of Ukraine would break with an over-eight-decade, bipartisan tradition of opposing the changing of international borders by force. This policy was first articulated in 1940, after the Soviet Union annexed the three Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The acting secretary of state, Sumner Welles, issued a statement that would come to have a profound impact on American foreign policy and international relations. 'The people of the United States are opposed to predatory activities no matter whether they are carried on by the use of force or by the threat of force,' Welles said. 'Unless the doctrine in which these principles are inherent once again governs the relations between nations, the rule of reason, of justice and of law — in other words, the basis of modern civilization itself — cannot be preserved.' More than 50 countries followed America's lead in refusing to recognize the puppet governments installed by Moscow in the three annexed countries. The United States maintained its nonrecognition policy after allying itself with the Soviet Union in June 1941. Later that year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Britain produced the Atlantic Charter, envisioning a postwar world order governed along liberal principles like self-determination, democracy and free trade. The two nations also expressed their 'desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned.' Over the next 50 years, the United States stayed true to the letter and the spirit of the Welles Declaration, acknowledging the exiled governments of the Baltic States as the legal sovereigns of the territories they did not actually control. Along those lines, offering de facto recognition of Russia's control over Crimea, as the Trump plan proposes with regard to Ukraine's eastern regions, would be a reasonable concession. Russian troops and military matériel are facts on the ground that cannot be wished away. But the U.S. providing formal recognition of the Crimean annexation would overturn the policy of every American president since Roosevelt, including Mr. Trump. In 2018, during his first administration, secretary of state Mike Pompeo reiterated the basic tenet that the United States would not legitimize territorial aggrandizement by recognizing Crimea as Russian territory. 'As we did in the Welles Declaration in 1940, the United States reaffirms as policy its refusal to recognize the Kremlin's claim of sovereignty over territory seized by force in contravention of international law.' Nothing that has occurred over the past nearly 7 years justifies a repudiation of this commitment to principle and tradition. Alas, longstanding principles and traditions have never had much influence on Mr. Trump's decision making. The most charitable explanation for this impetuous plan is that it's a product of his impatience with diplomacy and desire to win a Nobel Peace Prize. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Mr. Trump repeatedly said that he would end the war within 24 hours of being inaugurated. When that didn't happen, he tasked an envoy, the retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, with solving the conflict within 100 days. The likelier motive for Mr. Trump's proposed acquiescence to Russian colonialism is that it's a genuine reflection of his worldview, namely, the principle that might makes right. Mr. Trump either doesn't know or doesn't care that this conflict began 11 years ago when Russia launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. That this act was gravely immoral, never mind illegal, does not factor into Mr. Trump's geopolitical calculus. Threats to run for a third term notwithstanding, Mr. Trump is a lame-duck president, which makes him more prone to take rash actions on the international stage. As his own threats to take over Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal suggest, he is sympathetic to the idea of big countries taking over smaller ones, and he is behaving far more erratically in the realm of foreign affairs than he did in his first term. That he might become the first American president to confer legitimacy on the annexation of another country's territory is a real, and terrifying, possibility. The war in Ukraine is not, as another British prime minister once said about a European territorial dispute that quickly escalated into the most destructive conflict the world has ever seen, just a 'quarrel in a faraway country, between people of whom we know nothing.' Assenting to Russia's annexation of Crimea would have global consequences. Other dictatorships, having witnessed the world's leading democracy endorse such a flagrant violation of the most basic principle governing the relationship among sovereign states, would feel emboldened to do the same. 'Giving Russia de jure recognition of occupied territories would send the world the signal: Go ahead, invade a sovereign country, change its borders; it's all good,' the former Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves told me. If the United States were to recognize Crimea as Russia it would join the august company of Afghanistan, Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela. Those who support bestowing an imprimatur of legality upon Russia's annexation of Crimea contend that, like the territories Russia controls in its other frozen conflicts, the land Ukraine has lost is never coming back. The same, however, was said about the Baltic States. For most of the Cold War, the prospect of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania regaining their independence seemed remote, if not fantastic. In 1975, The Times reported that, while American officials doubted that 'formal recognition' of the Soviet occupations would 'come soon,' they believed it was 'inevitable.' Yet the United States and its allies persisted in refusing to accept the subjugation of the Baltic States, and when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, they were liberated. Today, they are members of the European Union and NATO with consolidated democracies, market economies and increasingly confident places on the world stage. After 11 years of grinding conflict, it's entirely understandable that Mr. Trump wants to end this war. But he must not mistake a temporary cessation of hostilities — which is all that his proposal would achieve — with a just and lasting peace. Unless Ukraine is provided with an explicit security guarantee (which in all likelihood means NATO membership), Russia will just bide its time until the moment is opportune for it to invade again. Whether Mr. Trump is in or out of office when this happens, it will destroy his legacy.
Euronews
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Zelenskyy hits back at Trump's claims he is prolonging war by not ceding land to Russia
ADVERTISEMENT Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has issued a veiled rebuke to his US counterpart Donald Trump's accusation that he is prolonging the war by refusing to cede territory to Russia. After peace talks in London with representatives from the US, UK, France and Germany, Zelenskyy thanked participants in a post on X, saying "it is exactly such joint work that will lead to lasting peace." He also said that Ukraine would always act in accordance with its constitution, and that he was "absolutely sure that our partners in particular the USA will act in line with its strong decisions." In his post, he linked to a press statement issued by Trump's then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in which he slammed the Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, reminding Moscow that "no country can change the borders of another by force." "As we did in the Welles Declaration in 1940, the United States reaffirms as policy its refusal to recognize the Kremlin's claims of sovereignty over territory seized by force in contravention of international law," the statement read. Earlier on Wednesday, Trump lashed out at Zelenskyy, saying the Ukrainian leader is prolonging the "killing field" after he pushed back on ceding Crimea to Russia as part of a potential peace plan. "This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago under the auspices of President Barack Hussein Obama, and is not even a point of discussion," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. "Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory but, if he wants Crimea, why didn't they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?" Trump added that "inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy's" is making "it so difficult to settle this War." "He has nothing to boast about!" Trump said. "The situation for Ukraine is dire — He can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country." President Donald Trump speaks with reporters at the White House, 23 April, 2025 AP Photo Zelenskyy's statement "will do nothing but prolong the 'killing field,' and nobody wants that! We are very close to a Deal, but the man with "no cards to play" should now, finally, GET IT DONE." On Tuesday, Zelenskyy ruled out the idea of Kyiv ceding territory to Moscow in any deal before talks in London between US, European and Ukrainian officials. "There is nothing to talk about — it is our land, the land of the Ukrainian people," Zelenskyy said. During similar talks in Paris last week, US officials presented a proposal that included freezing the frontline and allowing Russia to keep control of occupied Ukrainian territory, according to a European official familiar with the matter. Related Putin open to direct 'discussions' with Ukraine as international pressure mounts Russia's Easter truce in Ukraine was a 'charm offensive' for Trump, France says A planned meeting on Wednesday involving top US, British, French and Ukrainian diplomats to push forward a peace deal was pared back at the last minute, when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio cancelled his participation. ADVERTISEMENT "We've issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it's time for them to either say 'yes' or for the United States to walk away from this process," Vice President JD Vance told reporters in India. He said it was "a very fair proposal" that would 'freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today,' with both sides having to give up some territory they currently hold. He did not provide further details of the proposal. A senior European official familiar with the ongoing talks involving the American team said a proposal that the US says is "final" was initially presented last week in Paris, where it was described as "just ideas" and that they could be changed. ADVERTISEMENT A Ukrainian soldier walks past damaged buildings in central Pokrovsk, 23 April, 2025 AP Photo When those ideas surfaced in media reports several days later, Ukrainian officials were surprised to find that Washington portrayed them as final, according to the official. Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Ukraine is ready for any format of negotiations that might bring a ceasefire and open the door to full peace negotiations, as he mourned nine civilians killed when a Russian drone struck a bus earlier in the day. "We insist on an immediate, complete and unconditional ceasefire," Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram page, in accordance with a proposal he said the United States tabled six weeks ago. Ukraine and some Western European governments have accused Putin of dragging his feet on that proposal as his army tries to capture more Ukrainian land. ADVERTISEMENT Western analysts say Moscow is in no rush to conclude peace talks because it has battlefield momentum.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ukraine's possible territorial losses may be 'formalized without recognition by US,' Kellogg tells Fox News
U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, said in an interview with Fox News on Feb. 13 that "formalizing Ukraine's territorial losses" in a potential peace deal "will not equate to recognizing them." "I think there will be a certain agreement on the potential loss of territory. But, look, you don't have to admit it," Kellogg said. He also supported U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's view that restoring Ukraine's 2014 borders would be an "unrealistic objective" and that the Trump administration's priority is on ending the war as soon as possible. Experts and officials in Ukraine and Europe have criticized Hegseth's comments for undermining Ukraine's leverage before peace talks with Russia have even started. Kellogg referenced the 1940 Welles Declaration, which rejected Soviet ownership of the Baltic states despite their occupation, implying that a similar approach could apply to Ukraine. "When the Soviets segregated the Baltic countries, we never said they owned the countries. We said there was just a sort of domination," he said. Meanwhile, Zelensky and U.S. Vice President JD Vance are during the top European security conference, which will take place between Feb. 14 and 16. The U.S. delegation will also include Kellog and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Though the details of the expected Vance-Zelensky meeting have not been disclosed, Kellogg previously said that U.S. officials would talk in Munich about Trump's "goal to end the bloody and costly war in Ukraine." Kellogg is scheduled to visit Ukraine on Feb. 20, while Trump mentioned plans to meet with Zelensky soon, though he did not specify the location or timing. Read also: 'A push for Ukraine's capitulation' – Baltic, Eastern Europe react to Trump's rush to negotiate peace with Putin We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
