The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) issued a statement on Friday detailing their claims that the West has plans to ‘freeze’ the conflict in Ukraine and station 100,000 NATO troops in the country. On Thursday former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson discussed his idea of what a ceasefire would look like.
“The territories set to be distributed among the occupying countries have been outlined as follows: Romania will take the Black Sea coast; Poland will control the western regions of Ukraine; Germany will oversee the center and east of the country; and the U.K. will be responsible for the northern regions, including the capital,” the SVR statement said, according to TASS (the Russian News Agency). “A total of 100,000 so-called peacekeepers are planned to be sent to Ukraine.”
Notably, the Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis recently spoke on the possibility of deploying European troops to Ukraine and U.S. lame-duck President Joe Biden has green-lit the deployment of U.S. contractors to Ukraine.
Perhaps ironically, Johnson discussed a ceasefire in Ukraine on Thursday. In 2022 Johnson pressured Ukrainian ruler Vladimir Zelensky to ditch peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, sparking off the Russian ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.
The ‘ceasefire’ Johnson spoke of, however, included the ‘NATO-ization’ of Ukraine, a move that could potentially spark a world war under NATO’s Article 5.
“Mr. Johnson said that in the event of a ceasefire Ukraine should be told what security guarantees its military allies can offer it,” LBC News said Friday. “He suggested one option would be to invite Ukraine to join NATO. That would mean if the Kremlin launched another attack, the U.S., the U.K. and other members of the alliance would be obliged to help directly with the defense of Ukraine.”
One of Russia’s ‘red lines’ is Ukraine joining NATO, however in February NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reaffirmed that Ukraine will join NATO.
“Johnson believes that the West should determine the security guarantees that it can give to Ukraine. These include membership in NATO and the guarantee of its fifth article, which ‘has been preserving peace in Europe for 80 years.’ He added that it is for this reason that ‘the Baltic states are in NATO’,” Pravda said Friday.
Speaking on the removal of nuclear weapons from Ukraine under the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, Johnson discussed the ‘positive attributes’ he sees in a nuclear-armed Ukraine. U.S. and E.U. officials have reportedly already discussed giving Ukraine nuclear weapons.
“If they had nuclear deterrence weapons, they would not be killed in their own homes on Putin’s orders right now. We are also involved in this. We signed that memorandum. We are morally responsible for their situation,” Johnson said, according to Pravda on Friday.
Russia is reportedly not satisfied with the ‘peace plan’ being hatched by the West however. Notably, this Western ‘peace plan’ has a lot of similarities to Zelensky’s ‘victory plan’, which included de-facto war with Russia.
“Russian intelligence also noticed the active work of the Alliance with Western military-industrial companies – they are expected to invest in the Ukrainian military-industrial complex and send specialists and equipment to Ukraine,” Pravda said Friday. “The SVR made it clear that Russia is not satisfied with such a peaceful settlement option, which is being hatched in the West.”
Interestingly, the SVR statement comes directly on the heels of a report that the incoming U.S. President, Donald Trump, is mulling a halt to U.S. weapons shipments to Ukraine if the country doesn’t begin engaging in peace talks with Russia.
JUST IN: 🇺🇸🇺🇦 US President-elect Trump's team proposes halting all US weapons deliveries to Ukraine if it does not enter peace talks with Russia. pic.twitter.com/1UTgxb3Je7
— BRICS News (@BRICSinfo) November 28, 2024
Prior to his victorious election, Trump said that he may be able to end the war in Ukraine before even taking office. Even Zelensky himself has said that the war would end faster under a Trump presidency.
Notably, Trump has mostly remained silent in recent days, likely negotiating end-of-war settlement agreements.