Source: The Federalist
by Hans Mahncke
“The proposed Ukraine peace deal has shaken the political class that insisted escalation with Moscow was the only acceptable course. How, they ask, can Russia possibly walk away with concessions? Part of this is simply material: Russia has ground out battlefield gains and retains the manpower and resources to sustain the war indefinitely. But that is only one dimension of it. The fuller answer reaches back long before the first tanks crossed the border. It began a decade earlier, when a small clique of Washington insiders decided Russia would be the villain in every story and Ukraine the instrument to make it so. From the 2014 Kiev coup to the Russia-collusion hoax to the Ukraine impeachment fiasco, the same actors built a narrative architecture that rewired the entire geopolitical landscape and made war not just possible but almost inevitable.” (12/02/25)