Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that he is prepared for a long grind in Ukraine and showed no indication that he would be willing to part with his newly annexed territory.

Putin said it is obvious that the West is perfectly content with using Ukrainian forces as cannon fodder and brushed off claims that his military was somehow faltering. He said the annexation of Zaporizhia, Donbas, and Kherson were major victories that the Western media and its politicians ignore.

It is worth noting that at the same time Putin was talking about a long conflict, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believes peace will be achieved in 2023.

“I believe the Ukrainians will be the most influential next year as well, but already in peacetime,” Zelensky told the annual Politico 28 ranking gala.

Putin said the West is fighting for global domination on Friday, and fears that the more countries that join in with Ukraine to fight against Russia the war will keep spreading. Ramping up that fear, on Friday NATO General Jens Stoltenberg said, “If things go wrong, they can go horribly wrong,” and “I fear that the war in Ukraine will get out of control, and spread into a major war between NATO and Russia.”

TRENDPOST: We have long noted that any mention of peace negotiations has effectively been banned in the West and the war will continue to expand the longer it continues. We remain in a stalemate: Ukraine said it will not give up an inch of land to Russia, and Moscow said it will not give back the regions it annexed.

Those who talk about diplomatic relations with Russia continue to face criticism from allies.

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, is the latest victim because he still talks to Putin on occasion and floated the idea that the West should consider Russia’s security concerns and potentially offer security guarantees in the effort for peace.

“This means that one of the essential points we must address—as President (Vladimir) Putin has always said—is the fear that NATO comes right up to its doors and the deployment of weapons that could threaten Russia,” he said. 

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defense council, told The Kyiv Post, “Someone wants to provide security guarantees to a terrorist and murderous state?”

TRENDPOST: Ukraine and Poland have been portraying Russia as a terrorist state that cannot be trusted since the beginning of the conflict. Imagine the world if only countries that like each other can negotiate. 

The world is being pulled into a war based on regional rivals that have axes to grind. It should be these countries pushing for peace, even if it is imperfect. But Poland and Ukraine believe this is their last, best chance to defeat Russia for generations.

The Trends Journal has reported extensively on how the U.S. is at war with Russia, but it will not be officially declared until a nuclear explosion. (See “U.S. AT WAR WITH RUSSIA: SPECIAL FORCES ARE ON THE GROUND IN UKRAINE” and “U.S. DISREGARDS RUSSIA’S WARNING…AGAIN, SAYS UKRAINE CAN TARGET TERRITORY SEIZED BY RUSSIAN FORCES.”)