Witkoff: an impartial mediator or an advocate for Putin?

It is truly fascinating that Witkoff, as an authorized representative of the state that guaranteed (or publicly assured) Ukraine's territorial integrity under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, is now attempting to justify why Ukraine should cede part of its sovereign territory to Russia.

The claim about “returning the territories to Russia” is something straight up from Russia Today and doesn’t hold up to any scrutiny. In fact, the Russian Federation is as young as modern Ukrainian statehood, both having been established in 1991. Neither the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, nor the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, nor the city of Sevastopol, have ever been part of Russia.

So, is Witkoff an impartial mediator or an advocate for Putin?

Ukraine has every right to demand that Washington remove Witkoff from the negotiations due to a loss of trust.

And finally, what about the ten universally recognized principles of international law, which, for better or worse, have been the foundation of the world order for the past 80 years? Do countries no longer care about them? China, North Korea, Iran, and other rogue states have already taken the message about impunity.

If so, then such actions do not prevent World War III. You are bringing it closer. At a staggering pace.

Source

About the author. Andriy Mahera, lawyer, former Deputy Chairman of Ukraine’s Central Election Commission 

The editorial team does not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.