Words are weapons — Russian diplomacy is just – Latest News
Henry Kissinger as soon as wrote that a statesman’s hardest burden is making selections with out enough time or data, the place each mistake is irreversible.
I realized that fact not solely on the battlefield but additionally on the negotiating desk.
After a long time in uniform, I enrolled in 2019 on the Ostroh Academy to check worldwide relations. I believed it might be a break from battle, however as a substitute I found one other battlefield — diplomacy — the place phrases are weapons and resolve is the entrance line.
Author Valerii Zaluzhnyi found one other battlefield — diplomacy — the place resolve is the entrance line. X / @CinC_AFU
Strong flanks matter in statecraft as a lot as in warfare. When they collapse, the enemy will transfer to discover the opening.
As Ukraine defends its existence, we face an opponent who sees diplomacy not as dialogue however as a natural extension of its battle effort.
Russia’s negotiators, like its generals, battle to exhaust, confuse and divide.
Their goal is not peace however delay; not compromise in pursuit of accord however conquest via deception.
Ukraine has fought for survival for 11 years. Yet even now, some within the West urge us to barter with the people who got here to kill us.
They overlook two easy truths.
First, what is at stake is not just Ukraine’s destiny however Europe’s security.
Second, any “peace” with Moscow that rewards aggression is an invitation to additional wars.
The Kremlin speaks of negotiations solely when it feels stress and solely to buy time. Peace on Russian phrases is not peace — it is give up.
That is why calls to hurry into a complete peace deal are dangerously untimely.
Real peace can’t be achieved by signing papers whereas Russian missiles are murdering civilians.
It will take time, energy and an unshakable understanding of with whom we are dealing.
Russia’s so-called diplomacy is a deadly weapon system inherited from the USSR. It was designed to not remedy conflicts however to control them. To perceive it, one should research its architects.
Western diplomats known as Andrei Gromyko “Mr. No” for good cause. Getty Images
Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet international minister for more than 40 years, mastered the artwork of negotiation as psychological fight. Western diplomats nicknamed him “Mr. No” for good cause.
His mission was to stall, exhaust and dominate the dialog till the opposite facet yielded. Every pause was tactical. Every speech a check of endurance.
That custom continues in the present day within the individual of Sergei Lavrov.
Watch him in any worldwide discussion board: long monologues, selective quotations, infinite digressions meant to blur information and drain consideration.
This is the “tactic of exhaustion.” The objective is to make dialogue so complicated that fact loses that means and ethical readability fades.
Lavrov, like Gromyko earlier than him, embodies the Soviet legacy of negotiation as theater — a efficiency of energy meant to delay accountability.
Kissinger noticed that Soviet diplomacy mixed most calls for with minimal concessions.
The function was by no means to succeed in settlement however to legitimize the Kremlin’s beneficial properties and demand more.
Lavrov, like Gromyko earlier than him, embodies the Soviet legacy of negotiation as theater. Reuters
Modern Russia has tailored this to the age of propaganda.
Disinformation performs the position ideology as soon as did. The identical habits persist: deny, delay and deceive till fatigue units in overseas and cynicism grows at home.
Every encounter with Russian officers follows a acquainted sample.
First, they flood the desk with falsehoods and extraneous particulars, forcing opponents to spend hours correcting lies.
Second, they invoke ethical relativism — accusing the opponent of precisely what they carry to the desk: colonialism, hypocrisy or double requirements.
Third, they current aggression as response, occupation as safety and genocide as self-defense.
It is a cynical inversion of values, calculated to paralyze democratic societies.
Understanding this methodology is important not just for Ukrainian diplomats however for all who interact Moscow.
Negotiating with Russia is not a dialog; it is a contest of will.
The Russians check endurance, exploit empathy and interpret each gesture of goodwill as weak point.
The solely language the Kremlin respects is consistency backed by energy.
For Ukraine, diplomacy during wartime has change into as essential as army strategy.
Since the full-scale invasion’s first days, Ukrainian officers and diplomats have labored facet by facet to secure help, weapons and sanctions.
On the battlefield, readability of mission determines victory. At the desk, readability of precept does. Both require stamina, self-discipline and unity.
That is why Ukraine should practice its negotiators with the identical rigor as its troopers.
Preparation, psychological resilience and information of the opponent’s strategies are important.
We should anticipate manipulation, resist fatigue and keep the initiative.
As in fight, we can’t enable Russia to dictate the tempo or the phrases.
Our job is to show Moscow’s lies, not accommodate them.
Zaluzhnyi says the West should perceive negotiating with Russia is not a dialog; it is a contest of will. AFP through Getty Images
This requires understanding not solely what Russia says however how it speaks.
The “Gromyko method” depends on infinite verbiage to disguise aggression as cause.
The fashionable Russian strategy provides post-truth propaganda to the combination.
The West should stop mistaking this for real negotiation.
Every hour spent debating with Russian envoys who’ve no mandate for compromise is an hour stolen from defending freedom.
History gives classes.
In 1973, after years of attritional talks, the Vietnam peace accords had been signed. The negotiations lasted 5 years — 68 conferences between Henry Kissinger and his North Vietnamese counterpart.
Peace got here solely when the army steadiness modified on the ground, not as a result of the talks themselves produced it.
The lesson is clear: Diplomacy succeeds solely when backed by energy.
Today, Russia’s international ministry acts as an extension of its battle machine.
It buys time for rearmament, spreads lies to fracture alliances and makes use of worldwide establishments as shields for aggression.
Moscow’s envoys block resolutions, dilute sanctions and pose as mediators whereas their military targets civilians.
Ukraine doesn’t reject peace. We reject capitulation disguised as peace.
A just settlement should restore our territorial integrity, guarantee accountability for battle crimes and guarantee that no aggressor will ever again threaten Europe from Moscow.
Anything much less would betray not solely Ukrainians however the rules that keep the free world secure and free.
Ukraine will battle on each entrance — army, political and diplomatic — till justice and security are restored.
We is not going to let exhaustion exchange conviction or enable lies to erode fact.
Our energy lies not solely in our troopers however in our readability of function: peace via victory, not phantasm.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi is Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom and former Armed Forces of Ukraine commander-in-chief.
