Rubio in Atlanta doubts a quick Ukraine peace: Donbas "will not end Russian appetite"

This piece has two parts: the news with its source, followed by the Sardaana News editorial position.

What happened

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, closing two days of G20 foreign ministers’ talks in Atlanta that ended October 31, said he did not know whether a negotiated peace in Ukraine was achievable, RFE/RL reports. “I don’t think anyone here is claiming that we’re on the verge of a negotiated settlement,” he said.

Three European officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told RFE/RL that Rubio privately doubted a peace deal in the coming months and doubted that Vladimir Putin would attend December’s G20 summit in Miami. Publicly, Rubio said Moscow had neither announced nor confirmed attendance.

“Russian appetite” won’t end with Donbas

According to the officials cited by RFE/RL, Rubio privately warned that Russia acquiring all of Donbas “will not end Russian appetite.” He reportedly called Ukraine’s NATO membership unrealistic in the short term. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Contacts with Lavrov

Rubio defended inviting Sergei Lavrov to Atlanta and Putin to the summit: “How can you have a negotiated settlement between Russia and Ukraine if you don’t have the ability to talk to both Russia and Ukraine?” He also cited Russia’s nuclear arsenal. He held no formal meeting with Lavrov; they briefly discussed possible leader contacts at APEC.

Lavrov’s presence led several delegations to refuse the family photo, which was canceled. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas accused Lavrov of false narratives and said Russia did not appear ready for peace. Lavrov criticized Europe’s “arrogant boycott.”

Black Sea and losses

Washington hopes for a narrower goal: a Black Sea cease-fire. Rubio estimated around 20,000 Russians are killed each month and called it “a very deadly and destructive war.” The meeting ended without a joint communique.

Sardaana News editorial position

The authorities of the US and some other countries are either very stupid or pretend not to see the threats: Russia is repeating the path of Nazi Germany in 1937, on the eve of the Second World War.

Russia — more precisely its “deep people,” ethnic Russians — has always considered itself above neighboring peoples, especially Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Belarusians, Moldovans and Georgians. Uzbeks, Armenians, Kyrgyz, Chechens, Tatars, Bashkirs, Buryats, Yakuts, Tuvans, Khakas and Tajiks it always despised for being fewer in number than Russians. Russians also despised Ukrainians and Belarusians — their own blood relatives.

The collapse of the USSR and the independence many peoples won from Russian rule, with states of their own, left a deep trauma among Russians: they could not accept that other peoples can live on their own without them. The success of Ukraine and other countries — especially Kazakhstan and the Baltic states — greatly agitated Russians.

Vladimir Putin is only a mirror of the Russians. That is why he said “the collapse of the USSR was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe.” He means for Russians; for the rest of the world, and especially for other peoples, it was freedom.

Russia’s attack on Ukraine is only the tip of the iceberg: Russia wants to reclaim the entire former Soviet region by force. Its appetite, of course, does not end with Donbas — as even Rubio says above. The Kremlin wants all of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltics, Kazakhstan and beyond. Many experts forecast a very hard war between Russia and Kazakhstan. There will be an attempt to seize Belarus — possibly a war there too. There will be an attempt to seize Estonia, which is territorially more vulnerable than Lithuania and Latvia.

Russia does not plan to seize Poland, but war with Poland may start earlier than with Kazakhstan. Poland’s interest is to preserve Ukraine as an independent state, which contradicts Russia’s position. More and more weapons from other countries — South Korea, Japan, NATO members — reach Ukraine through Poland. There is a risk of a direct Poland–Russia clash, and possibly an attempt to settle the “Suwałki” question by force.

The US and others do not grasp the scale of war propaganda in the minds of Russian schoolchildren and youth — modeled on Nazi Germany and Japan before WWII. Schoolchildren are now taught: Ukraine is our enemy; the USA is enemy number two after Ukraine; Kazakhstan is a cardboard state and will be ours; Belarus is cardboard too and will be ours; the Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Tajiks and Moldovans all the more so; we will take the Baltics in three days. This propaganda reached schoolchildren only in 2022, but since 2014 it has run among staff of the Interior Ministry, FSB, Investigative Committee, prosecutor’s office and Rosgvardia. Anti-American hysteria has reached its peak. In parallel, Russia blames “world Jewry” for all its economic woes — much like Germany in 1938. Hatred of Jews in Russia has reached a dangerous point.

The US and others also ignore that Russia’s rulers cannot stop the war — not only because they believe their own propaganda, but because without victory they cannot stop. Russia has staked everything, its whole future, on an attempt to return to the USSR. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers are dead, the economy is ruined. The price is too high, and without a result the Kremlin cannot end the war. Putin is trapped — like a rat driven into a corner.

Meanwhile China has reaped colossal profit from this situation: it has gained control over many of Russia’s resources and has become, in effect, its sole trading partner, while Russia has become dependent.