In late March 2022, following a blitzkrieg advance by the Russian army in which it conquered 27 percent of Ukraine in just a few weeks and with Kyiv partially surrounded by over 1,100 Russian tanks from three directions on both sides of the Dnipro River, Russian President Putin made Zelensky an offer he couldn't refuse. The terms of the Russian deal were that Ukraine had to agree to neutrality outside of NATO and partial demilitarization, disband its ultra-nationalist militias and political parties and grant equal rights to its Russian minority. Ukraine could retain its independence and sovereignty with security guarantees from all five members of the UN Security Council and join the EU. In exchange, Russia would withdraw its troops from 100 percent of Ukraine's prewar-controlled lands leaving Ukraine in control of all but seven percent of its internationally recognized territory. After initially expressing his willingness to take the deal, Zelensky changed his mind, under pressure from UK PM Boris Johnson and then President Joe Biden, and was a no-show to the signing ceremony in Istanbul on April 9th, 2022. I warned at the time that if Zelensky rejected the Istanbul Agreement, Russia's peace terms would grow much harsher, and Russia would proceed to annex 3-4 Ukrainian oblasts and that is exactly what happened five to six months later. Now, Zelensky says he would be happy to give up 20-25 percent of Ukraine's territory after he has lost over a million troops killed in action, another million maimed and severely wounded, 36-42 percent of Ukraine's population and 25 percent of its GDP. This leaves Ukrainians wondering what the point was of Zelensky unnecessarily prolonging his unwinnable war with Russia only to lose three times more territory. The reason was that Zelensky knew doing so was the only way he could retain his dictatorial powers and embezzle enough Western aid money to achieve his goal of becoming a billionaire oligarch so hundreds of billions of dollars would keep pouring in. He knew the moment it ended he would have to hold democratic elections and flee the country to avoid prosecution and imprisonment on corruption charges. President Trump is absolutely right when he says that the diminutive 'dictator without elections' is to blame for the outbreak of the war and the destruction of his once great country!

Former Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Ukraine) actually just posted something I agree with. Former British PM Winston Churchill absolutely could have shortened World War Two by four to five years. All he had to do was accept Hitler's surprising peace offers in July 1940 or May 1941 to withdraw German forces from 81 percent of German-occupied Europe (and North Africa) in exchange for an end to the war with the UK and a free hand to lead his long-planned 'international crusade' against the Soviet Union. Doing so likely would have saved the lives of six million Jews who died during the Jewish Holocaust. Similarly, Zelensky could have ended the war in April 2022 by signing the Istanbul Agreement mandating the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Ukraine's pre-war controlled territories in exchange for Ukraine's neutrality outside of NATO and partial demilitarization. History is constantly repeating itself and those who fail to learn from the mistakes of history are condemned to repeat them.