There must be a negotiated end to the Ukraine War. The alternative is nuclear armageddon.

The Russian demands are more negotiable than realised. Following the US-backed Maidan coup of 2014, and the subsequent 2014-5 Minsk accords, Russia gained the promise of autonomy for the two Russian-speaking provinces (oblasts) of Lugansk and Donetsk in Donbas, Ukraine.

But it did nothing to protect that autonomy, which was quickly violated by Ukrainian extremists.

Moscow has since upped its claim to demand independence for Lugansk and Donetsk and also for adjoining Zaporizhzhia and Kherson provinces where, as in most of Ukraine, Russian was the........

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