Hopes for peace in Ukraine dashed by continued Kiev/NATO talk of war

Dmitri Kovalevich
Feb 11, 2026

NATO’s approach has been described as a case of “dancing on blood” and a policy of “war to the last Ukrainian.”

The beginning of February has been marked among Ukrainians by renewed hopes for peace. Hopes were raised by two days of talks between the Russian and Ukrainian governments in Abu Dhabi on February 4 and 5, with US government representatives also present. Such hopes arise every two to three months, but each time so far, they have proven futile as the clash with Russia (proxy war) by Western imperialism has only intensified.

Another failed round of talks

Odessa anarchist Vyacheslav Azarov notes that since 2022, there have been many encouraging assurances and convincing promises for peace, which then turned out to be nothing more than a way for the Ukrainian government to ease the pressure on it from a restive population desperate for an end to war. Azarov emphasizes, “The main thing that the war years have taught Ukrainians is total distrust in their governing institutions and reliance on themselves, meaning, in turn, prioritizing daily survival over any long-term plans. If, suddenly, an unexpected peace were to be announced, Ukrainians will still continue to charge their phones and power banks by whatever means are available, continue stocking up on bread, and, out of habit, avoid crossroads where military recruiters might be waiting to pounce and load them into minibuses for a sad ride to a military recruitment center.”

“The saddest thing about our situation is that none of our politicians are aiming to regain their broken trust. To do so would require too many changes in governance which the state, in debt and lacking agency, is unable to provide.”

The US administration stated at the end of January that “significant progress” had been made in a peace process for Ukraine and could move forward. But by early February, only an ill-defined and short-term truce on strikes against energy infrastructure facilities was achieved. January and now February have been brutally cold months in Ukraine and Russia, with nighttime temperatures dipping into minus-double-digit Centigrade. The modern, central, municipal heating systems in towns and cities across Ukraine, which date back to the Soviet era, are now out of service to a great many of the multi-story dwellings and other buildings.

The Ukrainian online publication Strana.ua initially believed that the second round of talks in Abu Dhabi could result in an extension of the moratorium on strikes against energy infrastructure facilities. At the start of the talks, Maxim Timchenko, CEO of energy company DTEK, complained at a meeting of the Western imperialist elite in Davos that Ukraine was on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe and therefore urgently needed a lasting energy truce.

The Ukrainian opposition Telegram channel Legitimny reported on February 1 on the eve of the renewed talks that if the governing regime in Kiev, headed by Volodomyr Zelensk,y refused to make certain concessions to Russia, Ukraine would face further, massive strikes. That is exactly what happened. Russia resumed attacks on the Ukrainian energy industry after an energy truce ended on February 3.

NATO’s empty talk

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte arrived in Kiev on February 3 but could only ‘reassure’ Ukrainians by stating the obvious: that winter is long but spring will eventually arrive. In a speech to the national legislature (Rada) that day, he could only offer cheap talk: “Winter is very long, but spring will come. Ukrainians, remain strong, I know that you are strong.”

At the Rada session, Rutte effectively opposed any truce. He said, “As soon as a peace agreement is reached, there will be NATO armed forces on the ground, aircraft in the air and naval forces at sea, from those countries that have agreed.” Other NATO members not directly participating in an occupation force would “help in other ways.” Rutte and NATO are, without doubt, aware that it is precisely the presence of NATO troops or bases in Ukraine, or the threat thereof, that is one of the prime causes of the military conflict in Ukraine. Rutte’s words may therefore be interpreted as a call for eternal war against the people and government of the Russian Federation.

The Ukrainian opposition Telegram channel Kartel commented on Rutte’s and NATO’s words about security guarantees for Ukraine, noting that there is talk of ‘guarantees and support from NATO’ in public, but behind the scenes, there is caution, a lack of available military resources, and a lack of political will.

The NATO Secretary-General has recently been frantically rushing between Trump and European leaders of NATO in order to maintain a strong façade of unity. But while openly fawning over the US president, calling him ‘daddy’ not so long ago, Rutte says he opposes the Trump regime’s rhetoric, claiming to switch its priorities from Ukraine and Europe to China and the Pacific Ocean.

Who really wants to destroy Ukrainians?

Fugitive legislator Artem Dmitruk (since 2024) has called the NATO Secretary-General’s speech in the Verkhovna Rada a case of “dancing on blood” and a policy of “war to the last Ukrainian.”

According to the legislator, Rutte’s visit has nothing to do with diplomacy or real support for Ukraine. On the contrary, Dmitruk considers the visit a “gesture from a dying civilization.” The speech to the Rada was a ritual of the West: saying beautiful words in front of the cameras while Ukrainians are dying, the country is being destroyed, and the people are treated as expendable.

“Without their manipulation of Ukraine, the Western countries are powerless against Russia,” writes the former deputy of Zelensky’s ‘Servant of the people’ electoral machine, now resident in London. According to Dmitruk, in a bid to avoid its own demise, the West is using other people’s blood in order to protect its interests, in this case, the blood of Ukrainians who are dying in others’ interests, not their own.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the same thing in a recent interview with Turkish media, according to the online PolitNavigator. Lavrov stated, “Do we view this conflict as a broad confrontation between Russia and the West? Yes. Ukraine is a pawn, a tool used by the West to build a foothold on the borders of the Russian Federation in order to pose a direct threat to our security.”

“We know that this work began immediately after Ukraine became independent. The country was being groomed for NATO membership, although it is well known that Ukraine’s post-Soviet independence was founded on the assumption of a policy of neutrality and non-alignment with military blocs,” Lavrov stated.

The main issues that couldn’t be sorted out during talks in Abu Dhabi were the status of the Donbass region and of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The two people’s republics of Donbass made up some ten per cent of the pre-2014 territory of Ukraine. During the talks, Zelensky declared that his regime would never cede Donbass territory nor cede control of the ZNPP “without a fight.”

Despite the bombast of his statement, the ZNPP has been under Russian control since early 2022. Only Russian nuclear specialists are at work there, while the Ukrainian Armed Forces have periodically shelled the complex in order to generate the specter of a nuclear disaster, of which “something must be done” to prevent.

Simply put, it is not possible for Zelensky to ‘put up a fight’ to regain control of the nuclear complex. Everyone in Ukraine knows who controls the ZNPP; Zelensky’s’ bravado is viewed as merely clowning around.

As for the remaining, dwindling territory of Donbass still in Ukrainian hands, that is, large parts of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Zelensky’s words are a mere reminder once again that his reckless claims mean that more Ukrainian and Russian soldiers are condemned to die there. This is, apparently, his goal.

Dmitry Kostenko, secretary of the Verkhovna Rada’s Defense Committee, stunned Ukrainians with his statement in late January that they now have only two life choices: die or destroy Russia. Many have concluded that, in essence, the legislator is wishing death upon his entire people.

The IMF tightens economic noose

On February 3, the 15th (overdue) session of the Rada (whose electoral mandate expired nearly two years ago) commenced in Kiev. The main issue facing legislators was the deterioration of life for Ukrainian citizens from the war, with accompanying cuts to government spending in exchange for new loans from Western financial institutions. According to the publication Delovaya Stolitsa, the Cabinet of Ministers and deputies must first approve new taxes and tariffs before the IMF and the European Union will grant further loans. The publication warns that in such a scenario, the Ukrainian treasury will be completely empty by April.

Creditors are demanding that Kiev urgently introduce new sales taxes while taxing individual entrepreneurs more heavily. According to the Ukrainian publication Zerkalo Nedeli, Ukraine is faced with a painful choice: comply with the IMF’s demands and receive vital loans by undertaking new tax blows against millions of small entrepreneurs.

According to legislator Alexander Dubinsky, in order to prevent a budget collapse, 1.3 million pensioners (10% of the total number) were not paid their earned pensions in January. “They were required to prove that they do not receive a pension in the Russian Federation. Such a process is impossible during the current war because the Ukrainian regime does not accept the authenticity of documentations from Russia, while affected pensioners were not even forewarned.” Dubinsky writes that this administrative twist of hand allowed authorities to save about eight billion UAH in payments in January alone, just about enough to make a scheduled payment to the IMF of US$200 million equivalent.

Earlier, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva advised Ukrainians to ‘roar like lions’ in the morning to warm up and keep warm. It wasn’t intended as a joke. This same official also recommends that subsidies for heating and electricity for low-income groups in Ukraine, including pensioners and large rural families, be reduced.

Ukrainian legislator Maxim Buzhansky commented, “I read about the IMF chief’s advice to cancel subsidies for electricity and heating and instead–no, this is not a joke–‘roar in the morning and become a lion’. It seems to me that the unbridled desire to join all possible global structures has played a cruel joke on us. Our citizens are being offered to become guinea pigs, ‘roaring in the cold’ in place of paying for heating they can barely afford anyway.”

The advice of the head of the IMF, which is systematically squeezing ordinary Ukrainians of their lifeblood, has once again shown the cynicism of this organization and the stupidity of its advice, legislator Danylo Hetmantsev has written. He mocks the advice of the IMF chief, who “roared like a lion” before the Rada but “didn’t help much” with alleviating the cold.

Relying on mercenaries

The main problem on the front line for Kiev has long been a shortage of personnel. Of the 30,000 people mobilized each month through conscription, 20,000 desert and only 10,000 remain in the army, according to Alina Mikhailova, head of the Ukrainian military medical service ULF. Of those 10,000, she says, many are “crooked and twisted” and unable to “run away and hide behind fences” (in her words). She adds, “This will only get even worse.”

A deserter from the city of Kharkiv tells the Ukrainian publication Assembly about the conditions in which many of those conscripts who do not manage to escape are being held. “Close to the village of Malinovka [Kharkiv region], there is a training center called ‘Figurovka’. It is a former holiday camp, but today it is a concentration camp for the military. I have been to various training centers since 2015, and this one is hell on earth. Everything resembles a penal colony. The area is fenced off with barbed wire and guarded around the clock by armed guards. If you try to escape, they literally shoot to kill. There are even graves in the forest for those who tried to escape unsuccessfully,” says the former Ukrainian soldier.

Those Western politicians and fans of the Kiev regime who talk about ‘brave Ukrainians fighting for freedom and democracy’ should see such places and listen to the enslaved soldiers. But definitely they would deny what they see as being a case of ‘Russian propaganda’.

Given the shortage of personnel in Ukraine, the option of mobilizing foreigners into the armed forces is now being actively considered. It should be noted that at the end of January, the Zaporizhzhia Recruitment Center officially contracted air transportation services worth 333 million UAH (US$ 7,750 equivalent). “The documents state that the contract covers services related to the transportation (issuance of identity documents, visas, travel documents, insurance, transportation, etc.) of foreign or stateless military candidates from foreign countries, as well as their food and accommodation,” writes Strana on January 30. This is only in one city. Civilian aircraft have not flown in Ukraine since 2022, so this can only be payment for the transport of foreigners who can be lured under some pretext to Ukraine from neighboring European countries.

There are approximately 100,000 foreign men living in Ukraine who have never been citizens. As a rule, they are immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Ukrainian military spokesperson Denis Yaroslavsky says that the General Staff is considering the idea of conscripting foreigners who hold residence permits in Ukraine, and many members of the legislature support this. In his opinion, half of them may leave as a result of attention from military recruiters. However, the problem for foreigners threatened by this change in law is that many of them simply won’t have time to leave.

The next stage in replenishing the dwindling ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine may well, then, become such abductions of people from other homelands, as European colonizers did for centuries in Africa in their time.

The Telegram channel TrackANaziMerc identifies mercenaries, many of whom are ideological Nazis who have flocked to Ukraine from all over the world. Most of those who have died in battle came from Colombia, Brazil, and Russia.

The several hundred Russians who are listed are mainly ideological neo-Nazis who fled to Ukraine after the total crackdown in Russia on marginal organizations suspected of sympathizing with neo-Nazism. As for the Latin American mercenaries, many of them were lured to Ukraine with generous promises, while others are cadres of drug cartels undergoing combat training in Ukraine, particularly in drone warfare, as reported last year by Ukrainian media.

The Trump administration in Washington has declared a ‘war on drug cartels’. In reality, it ignores how Ukraine is serving as a training ground for real drug cartels. Instead, the administration is using its declared pretext as a means to gain greater control over the natural resources of Latin America.
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