After the United States and its allies refused over and over to negotiate on existential security concerns, like the expansion of NATO membership to countries on Russia’s border and the deployment of advanced missile systems to Eastern Europe, Russia launched the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

The basic logic was that the longer the war drags on, the greater the human and economic cost to Russia, and therefore the more likely it is that the United States will achieve its long-standing goal of overthrowing the Russian government — or at least severely diminishing its power. “We want to see Russia weakened,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin openly stated in April after a visit to Kiev.

U.S./NATO escalation came not only in the form of ever-increasing amounts of aid, it also involved more and more powerful types of weaponry as the fighting went on. As Russia’s opening offensive of the war stalled, instead of taking the opportunity to negotiate peace, U.S. officials pressed Ukraine to launch major counter-offensives.

When it came to the delivery of tanks, even Washington’s NATO allies were reluctant. [...] Immediately following their success with tank deliveries, the most hardline elements in the West began to push to go even further and send fighter jets. This is not the behavior of people who have even the slightest interest in a peaceful resolution.

The war appears to have, at least for now, settled into a grinding stalemate [...] If the war continuing means that there is a chance that they could achieve one of their two central goals by weakening or overthrowing the Russian government, then the number of lives lost and upended are of no consequence whatsoever to the Pentagon warmakers.

And Russia claims to have been open to a negotiated settlement since before fighting even commenced. In a major national address on Tuesday, Vladimir Putin stated, “in December 2021, we officially submitted draft agreements on security guarantees to the USA and NATO.

Sounds like one to me

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