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While outwardly expressing full support for Ukraine, behind closed doors in Berlin and Washington plans are being hatched to force Ukraine into talks with Russia to freeze the war on its current front lines, German newspaper BILD said in a report published on Nov. 24.

Lithuanias Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis warned of this yesterday, Bloomberg reported.

Read also: Zelenskyys advisor on talks with Russia and presidents bad mood interview

The German federal government has now set itself the main goal of putting Ukraine in a strategically good negotiating position, BILD said.

The country should negotiate with (Russian dictator) Vladimir Putin's regime about its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The White House and the Chancellery are coordinating on this, government sources told BILD.

Neither German Chancellor Olaf Scholz nor U.S. President Joe Biden want to directly call on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to bargain on the future status of the Russian-occupied territories at the negotiating table, BILD said.

Read also: Frozen war frees Russia to rearm, threaten NATO within 6 years, German military analysts warn

Instead, both countries as Ukraine's largest arms suppliers have decided to force the government in Kyiv into talks with Putin's regime by restricting the quality and quantity of their arms deliveries. They can do this because no other Western country supports Ukraine nearly as much as Germany and the United States, BILD said.

Zelenskyy should come to the realization that things cannot go on like this, a German government insider told BILD.

He should address his nation of his own free will and explain that negotiations need to be carried out.

If constricting weapons supplies fail to bring Ukraine to the negotiating table, Washington and Berlin have a Plan B, a source in the German government told BILD.

What Berlin and Washington are striving for as an alternative to negotiations is a frozen conflict, without agreement between the conflicting parties, the source said.

That would mean that even if Zelensky and Putin dont (want to) talk to each other, the line of contact would solidify and become closed a new quasi-border between Ukraine and Russia.

Read also: Ukraine and Germany begin negotiating security guarantees

Its like Minsk, only without Minsk, said the insider sarcastically, referring to the fragile and ineffectual peace treaty between Ukraine and Russia concluded in 2014.

German CDU party MP Roderich Kiesewetter, a former Bundeswehr (German armed forces) General Staff officer, agrees that this might be among the plans of the United States and Germany.

Its becoming increasingly obvious that the Chancellery does not believe in a Ukrainian victory and does not want it at all, Kiesewetter told BILD.

The arms package that Pistorius brought to Ukraine is not an expression of the goal of Ukraine must win. Rather, it symbolizes that there is so little support that Ukraine is being pushed into negotiations, a 'Minsk 3.'

But according to military expert and ECFR researcher Gustav Gressel, Washington and Berlins plans will not work.

Its a misconception in the West that if you put more pressure on Zelenskyy to sit down at the negotiating table, serious negotiations will then take place, Gressel told BILD.

Putin doesn't want to negotiate, he wants to win this war."

Read also: Slowing arms supplies could force Ukraine into negotiations with Russia, Lithuania warns

"By keeping Ukraine weak, we invite Putin to continue to believe in his victory and work on it. Only when Ukraine gets on the winning track will Russia become willing to negotiate. But Ukraine hasnt been able to do that, and delayed, non-existent and far too small arms deliveries are part of this problem."

When contacted by BILD for the story, the German Federal Chancellery denied that Germany was pursuing its own goals with its support for Ukraine.

It is clear to the Federal Government: It is up to Ukraine to determine the military and political goals in its defensive fight against Russian aggression, a chancellery spokesman told BILD.

Germany stands firmly on Ukraines side. We will support Ukraine for as long as necessary to defend itself against Russian aggression. It is about defending sovereignty and territorial integrity and therefore the survival of Ukraine. Were in constant and close communication with our international partners.

Kiesewetter is not buying it, according to BILD. Regarding the federal government, he told BILD: Were deliberately not delivering what Ukraine needs to liberate occupied territory, such as Taurus or other Leopard 2 battle tanks, but are limiting ourselves to the defense of a rump Ukraine.

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US and Germany plan to force Zelenskyy to negotiate through choking off arms supplies BILD - Yahoo News

[1/2]Ukrainian trucks are parked near the Poland-Ukraine border, near the village of Korczowa, Poland November 19, 2023. REUTERS/Yan Dobronosov/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights

KYIV, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Ukraine's top truckers union said on Friday its hopes of a rapid end to Polish trucker protests at the border were fading, as Kyiv prepared to evacuate its hauliers stranded in Poland.

Two Ukrainian drivers have died and thousands of trucks have been stuck for days in the winter cold as Polish truckers have blocked the roads to four crossings on the border, a key route for Ukrainian trade during Russia's full-scale invasion.

"Frankly speaking, the more we talk to them the less hope we have," Leonid Kostiuchenko, president of the Ukrainian Association of International Carriers, said in an interview on national television.

"I spoke to the leader of the protesters and his attitude is that we will block for such a long time that you will... celebrate New Year in a queue. I don't understand this humour."

The Polish truckers say they are losing out to Ukrainian companies who offer a cheaper rate and are now transporting goods within the European Union, and not just back and forth to Ukraine.

They launched their blockade on Nov. 6, protesting that Ukrainian truckers are exempt from requiring permits to cross the Polish border, a policy change put in place during the war.

The Polish protests coincide with concerns in Ukraine that the European Union may not agree next month to launch formal accession talks for it to join the 27-member bloc, a key objective for Kyiv.

If the protests drag on for weeks longer, the disruption to trade could affect Ukraine's fragile, wartime economy.

The price of motor vehicle gas (LPG), which is widely used to fuel cars, has already surged 30% due to the protests, one fuel analyst said this week.

Some 3,000 Ukrainian haulers are backed up at the border on the Polish side waiting to cross at four checkpoints, Kostiuchenko said.

Deputy Infrastructure Minister Serhiy Derkach said late on Thursday that Ukrainian truckers were suffering in bitter, sub-zero temperatures and that there were no food supplies, basic sanitary conditions or ambulances at the scene.

"For our part, we have started collecting data for the evacuation of our drivers. We have already run out of time to agree on compromises," Derkach wrote on Facebook.

However he added that "local authorities" in Poland had authorised the protests to continue.

"Therefore, we will evacuate everyone who expresses such a desire, and we are distributing evacuation forms to drivers and carriers," he said.

The truckers union says two Ukrainian truckers have died in their vehicles since the beginning of the blockade. The exact cause of their deaths is unknown, though Polish media have cited police as saying one of them was not connected to the protests.

Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Gareth Jones

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Ukraine ready to evacuate stranded truckers in Poland - Reuters

Newly appointed Head of the Ukraine's State Security Service Vasyl Maliuk looks on during a session of Ukrainian parliament, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine February 7, 2023. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights

Nov 24 (Reuters) - A Ukrainian sea drone attack on Russia's Crimean bridge in July had "overturned" naval operations and forced Moscow to resort to ferries to move weaponry, the head of Ukraine's main intelligence agency said in a video broadcast on Friday.

Vasyl Maliuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said the second of two major attacks in August had seriously disrupted operations on the 19-km (12-mile) bridge, Europe's longest, and dented the notion of Russian invincibility.

"We have practically overturned the philosophy of naval operations," Maliuk said in the first of a series of televised documentaries entitled "SBU, the Special Operations of Victory."

"We have destroyed the myth of Russian invincibility. The country is a fake. The bridge is doomed. Plenty of surprises lie ahead and not just the Crimean bridge."

Maliuk outlined how the attack, endorsed by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, involved five "Sea Baby" seaborne drones -- remotely controlled from Kyiv, 1000 km (600 miles) to the north.

Video clips showed a fiery explosion on the bridge and technicians cheering the outcome in a control room.

The documentary said reports submitted by agents showed that six of eight supporting structures were destroyed and two damaged and Russian forces switched to ferries to supply their troops with weapons.

Russia said the July attack killed two people on the bridge linking the Crimean peninsula with the Russian mainland by road and rail. Traffic has since been operating on the bridge, though Russian officials say repair work is still proceeding.

The bridge was completed amid great fanfare in 2018, four years after Moscow annexed the peninsula, proclaiming it Russian territory forever.

The attack on the bridge is one of a number of Ukrainian offensive actions in the Black Sea, including a missile assault on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol in September.

Zelenskiy said this month that Ukraine has seized the initiative from Russia in the Black Sea and, thanks to the use of naval drones, forced Russia's naval fleet and warships to pull back.

Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksandr Kozhukhar; Editing by Josie Kao

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Ukrainian sabotage of Crimea bridge 'overturns' naval operations -intelligence head - Reuters

A Ukrainian politician said Russia proposed ending the war if Ukraine abandoned its NATO ambitions.

Russia made the proposal during peace talks soon after the full-scale invasion began.

"There is no, and there was no, trust in the Russians that they would do it," the politician said.

Russia offered to stop its invasion of Ukraine on the condition that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government abandon its ambition to join NATO, the Kyiv Post reported.

David Arakhamia, the leader of the Servant of the People party and the head of the Ukrainian delegation in the talks, said that Russia had proposed a resolution to the conflict in spring 2022.

The peace talks took place during the early stages of the full-scale war on the border of Ukraine and Belarus and in Turkey.

The Russian delegation reportedly proposed ending the war if Ukraine dropped its NATO aspirations and took a neutral position.

Arakhamia said that a shift toward neutrality would require a constitutional change, considering Ukraine's current constitutional commitment to NATO membership.

Arakhamia told Natalia Moseychuk, a Ukrainian journalist, that Russia saw Ukraine's neutrality as a key condition for a potential peace agreement. "They really hoped almost to the last that they would put the squeeze on us to sign such an agreement so that we would take neutrality. It was the biggest thing for them," he said.

Arakhamia said there was a lack of trust in Russia's sincerity. "There is no, and there was no, trust in the Russians that they would do it. That could only be done if there were security guarantees," he explained.

Signing an agreement without such assurances, Arakhamia argued, would leave Ukraine vulnerable to a potential second incursion because it would have given Russia an opportunity to regroup and prepare for another round of military aggression.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's unexpected visit to Kyiv on April 9, 2022, had an impact on the potential cease-fire. Johnson advised against signing any agreement with Russia and encouraged Ukraine to continue the fight. Arakhamia recalled Johnson's stance, saying Ukraine "shouldn't sign anything with them at all and let's just fight."

While both sides expressed readiness for a meeting between Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, discussions abruptly halted when Russian troops retreated from Kyiv. The withdrawal exposed the extent of apparent war crimes committed, including the Bucha massacre.

Three days after Johnson's departure from Kyiv, Putin publicly declared that talks with Ukraine had "turned into a dead end."

NATO expansion has been underway since the beginning of the war, with the formerly neutral Finland joining in April.

Business Insider reported in January that Putin's decision to invade Ukraine was a miscalculation because the war backfired by uniting NATO in support of Ukraine.

While the bloc has been a crucial ally to Ukraine, there is a reluctance to initiate Ukrainian membership while the country is at war. The US opposes extending NATO membership to Ukraine in the immediate future to avoid escalating the West's tensions with Russia.

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Russia offered to end its invasion of Ukraine if it dumped plans to join NATO, but Kyiv feared a double cross, says negotiator - Yahoo News

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