OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The situation between Russia and Ukraine has passed the 100 day mark and President Joe Biden is now not ruling out that Ukraine may have to surrender some land.
It was on Friday, as he spoke on the May jobs report, when a reporter asked him about Ukraine and Russia.
“Mr. President, does Ukraine have to cede territory to achieve some peace?” the reporter said.
“You know, you’ve been always fair with me. The — from the beginning, I’ve said and I’ve been — not everyone has agreed with me — nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. It’s their territory. I’m not going to tell them what they should and shouldn’t do,” the president said.
“But it appears to me that, at some point along the line, there’s going to have to be a negotiated settlement here. And what that entails, I don’t know. I don’t think anybody knows at the time.
“But in the meantime, we’re going to continue to put the — the Ukrainians in a position where they can defend themselves,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has not appeared to be open to the idea of surrendering any territory.
“The territorial integrity of Ukraine should be guaranteed,” he said in March. “That is, the conditions must be fair, for the Ukrainian people will not accept them otherwise.”
“We’re not ready to concede any of our territories, because our territories are our territories: It’s our independence, our sovereignty; that’s the issue,” he said to Newsmax last week.
“If it’s all about ultimatums and ‘You have to concede a third of your territory, we’ll leave you calm and we’ll leave you alive,’ this is not something we can agree on,” he said.
Last month President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden were among a list of 963 people banned from entering Russia.
Russia issued a “black list” of foreign persons barred from entering its borders in response to sanctions placed on it by the United States and its allies, USA Today reported.
Other important names on the list include Vice President Kamala Harris, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and actor Morgan Freeman.
“We emphasize that the hostile actions taken by Washington, which boomerang against the United States itself, will continue to receive a proper rebuff,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “Russian counter-sanctions are forced and aimed at forcing the ruling American regime, which is trying to impose a neo-colonial ‘rules-based world order’ on the rest of the world, to change its behavior, recognizing new geopolitical realities.”
“Russia does not seek confrontation and is open to honest, mutually respectful dialogue, separating the American people, who are always respected by us, from the US authorities, who incite Russophobia, and those who serve them. It is these people who are included in the Russian ‘black list,’” it said.
Others on the list include former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Hillary Clinton.
Not on the list are former Presidents Obama, George W. Bush, or Donald Trump. But it does include many supporters of former President Trump, as USA Today reported.
Prominent names include: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York; Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.; Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
The list also included deceased politicians such as former Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev; and former deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Melissa Drisko.
Aside from politicians, tech executives such as Zuckerberg and Microsoft President Brad Smith were also banned, as well as journalists George Stephanopoulos of ABC News and Bret Stephens of The New York Times.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Academy Award winner Freeman was part of the ban because he was part of a September 2017 video “accusing Russia of conspiring against the United States and calling for a fight against our country,” which was about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
