Let me equally forcefully condemn the Russians’ faith in negotiations. The problem is how opaque all of these negotiations are. Those of us who follow the proce

Let me equally forcefully condemn the Russians’ faith in negotiations. The problem is how opaque all of these negotiations are. Those of us who follow the proceedings have to read tea leaves and grasp at straws listening to houe-long Lukashenko videos to find where he says something about the talks. Luckily, we just have the negotiators like Arakhamia and Podolyak come out and discuss what happened. Looks like the Russians were not empowered to decide anything without consultation with Moscow, and the conversations were stilted. Of course, I personally condemn Putin for refusing to meet with Zelensky. For invading when Macron was about to organize the next Normandy format meeting in March. But also, no one on the Ukrainian side taking this seriously to begin with. Because millions of lives are at stake, that is either incompetence or malice. Arakhamia is a DJ who wears a baseball cap to show how much disdain he has for Russia and how much faith he has in the proceedings. One of the people sent by Zelensky to the talks was assassinated by Ukrainian special forces. They say he had been under investigation for a while for being a Russian spy. Well, in that case what kind of incompetence is it to put him on such a team? This should be the most important team in the country! If they get a peace agreement they can be the heroes of Ukraine! The political system is broken in many ways, and the fact that closed door negotiations and lack of transparency by elected officials is tolerated, is a huge problem. I am mad at the political class in general, for refusing to truly listen to each other. It would have been better if Donetsk and Lugansk had surrendered like Kharkiv did, and try to resolve their grievances through peaceful diplomatic channels. None of this would be happening. I apply the same consistent reasoning everywhere.