US President Joe Biden is said to have submitted a peace plan to Russia and Ukraine. The answer to that apparently influenced his tank decision.
US President Joe Biden is said to have submitted a peace plan to Russia and Ukraine. This is said to have been submitted to the two countries via CIA channels, the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” (NZZ) reported on Thursday. Accordingly, Biden instructed the head of the CIA secret service to explore in Moscow and Kyiv how willing one was to negotiate. Kyiv was offered land for peace and Moscow peace for land.
The Schweizer Zeitung cites talks with two German foreign politicians from the government and opposition, who wish to remain anonymous. According to this, US President Joe Biden instructed CIA chief William Burns in mid-January to explore the willingness to negotiate in Kyiv and Moscow. Biden has offered Moscow to keep about 20 percent of Ukrainian territory. However, both countries refused. Ukraine has repeatedly stated that it insists on the return of all occupied territories, including Crimea. Moscow, on the other hand, still seems convinced that it can win the war and annex at least parts of Ukraine permanently.
Two camps in US government?
According to the US portal “Newsweek”, the White House has denied the Swiss report. The report that Russia had been offered a fifth of Ukraine’s was “not accurate,” a spokesman told the magazine. Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, told Newsweek that the report was “interesting” but that he “could not comment on speculation”.
As early as mid-January there had been reports that CIA boss Burns had been in Kyiv for talks. Nothing was known about the content. Washington denied an alleged visit to Moscow. According to the “NZZ” report, Biden’s idea may have already been discussed. Biden apparently tried to end the war as quickly as possible with the peace plan. This not only costs the US billions of dollars, but also ties up resources.
Both the CIA and security advisor Jake Sullivan are said to prefer a quick end to the war because they would rather devote themselves to the threats from China. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, on the other hand, are in favor of massive military support for Ukraine.
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Failure is said to have put pressure on Scholz
The failed background talks may have been a reason for Biden to abandon his reluctance to supply Abrams tanks. That, in turn, could have caught Chancellor Scholz off guard. As recently as January 24, the day Scholz announced the delivery of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, the Foreign Office had issued instructions to diplomats, t-online reported. Around 5 p.m., the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin sent an official language regulation for diplomats to all German diplomatic missions abroad – i.e. embassies, consulates general and consulates. “The federal government has not yet made a decision on the issue of supplying battle tanks from Germany,” it said unequivocally. Classified information for official use, not intended for the public. The communiqué was also read in the German embassy in Washington. Shortly after the Scholz announcement, the instruction was apparently withdrawn.
Most recently, Russia had rejected a ten-point plan submitted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the G20 summit in December. According to the Kremlin, a possible peace plan for Ukraine must recognize Russia’s annexation of the four regions in the east and south of the country. “There can be no peace plan for Ukraine that does not take into account today’s realities on Russian territory,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russian news agency Interfax.
