Ballots for the U.S. midterm elections are counted with a machine at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., November 9, 2022. REUTERS/Jim Urquhar
Republicans were edging closer to securing a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives early on Thursday, while control of the Senate hung in the balance, two days after Democrats staved off a Republican "red wave" in midterm elections.
Republicans had captured at least 210 House seats, Edison Research projected, eight short of the 218 needed to wrest the House away from Democrats and effectively halt President Joe Biden's legislative agenda.
While Republicans remain favored, there were 33 House contests yet to be decided - including 21 of the 53 most competitive races, based on a Reuters analysis of the leading nonpartisan forecasters - likely ensuring the final outcome will not be determined for some time.
Staff adjudicate ballots for the U.S. midterm elections at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., November 9, 2022. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart
The fate of the Senate was far less certain. Either party could seize control by sweeping too-close-to-call races in Nevada and Arizona, where officials are methodically tallying thousands of uncounted ballots.
A split would mean the Senate majority would come down to a runoff election in Georgia for the second time in two years. Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker both failed to reach 50% on Tuesday, forcing them into a one-on-one battle on Dec. 6.
Even a slim House majority would allow Republicans to shape the rest of Biden's term, blocking priorities such as abortion rights and launching investigations into his administration and family.
Political signs are seen the day after the midterm elections in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., November 9, 2022. REUTERS/Rachel Wisniewski
Biden acknowledged that reality on Wednesday, saying he was prepared to work with Republicans. A White House official said Biden spoke by phone with Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy, who announced earlier in the day his intention to run for speaker of the House if Republicans control the chamber.
"The American people have made clear, I think, that they expect Republicans to be prepared to work with me as well," Biden said at a White House news conference.
If McCarthy is the next House speaker, he may find it challenging to hold together his fractious caucus, with a hard-right wing that has little interest in compromise.
A neutral worker and a Republican and Democratic representative adjudicate ballots cast in the U.S. midterm elections at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., November 9, 2022. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Republicans are expected to demand spending cuts in exchange for raising the nation's borrowing limit next year, a showdown that could spook financial markets.
Control of the Senate, meanwhile, would give Republicans the power to block Biden's nominees for judicial and administrative posts.
MIXED RESULTS
The party in power historically suffers heavy casualties in a president's first midterm election, and Biden has struggled with low approval ratings. But Democrats were able to avoid the sweeping defeat that Republicans had anticipated.
Tuesday's results suggested voters were punishing Biden for the steepest inflation in 40 years, while also lashing out against Republican efforts to ban abortion and cast doubt on the nation's vote-counting process.
Biden had framed the election as a test of U.S. democracy at a time when hundreds of Republican candidates embraced Trump's false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
A number of election deniers won on Tuesday, but many who sought positions to oversee elections at the state level were defeated.
"It was a good day, I think, for democracy," Biden said.
Trump, who took an active role in recruiting Republican candidates, had mixed results.
He notched a victory in Ohio, where "Hillbilly Elegy" author J.D. Vance won a Senate seat to keep it in Republican hands. But several other Trump-backed candidates suffered defeats, such as retired celebrity surgeon Mehmet Oz, who lost a crucial Senate race in Pennsylvania to Democrat John Fetterman.
Meanwhile, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who could challenge Trump in 2024, won re-election by nearly 20 percentage points, adding to his growing national profile.
Following his appointment as commander of all Russian forces in Ukraine last month, General Sergei Surovikin stated that the situation in the zone of Russia’s special military operation is tense, as Ukrainian forces keep making attempts to attack Russian positions.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has agreed to the suggestion of Sergei Surovikin, the Russian Army general appointed commander of all Russian forces in Ukraine, to withdraw troops from parts of Russia's Kherson region to the left bank of the Dnepr River.
The decision was made as Surovikin delivered a report to Shoigu on the course of the special military operation.
General Surovikin told the defense minister that the establishment of defenses along the left bank of the Dnepr River would be the most rational option in the current circumstances. He warned that should the Kiev regime proceed with its plans to destroy the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric plant and dam, it could lead to disastrous consequences.
He stressed yet again that Kiev's missile strikes on the dam have been incessant, and on September 26, one of the spillway shutters was hit and damaged.
“There will be an additional threat to the civilian population and a complete isolation of the group of our troops on the right bank of the Dnepr. Under these conditions, the most rational option is to establish defense along the barrier line of the Dnepr River," he said, adding that the intensive discharge of water through the dam of the Kiev hydroelectric power plant and hydroelectric power plant downstream, which Ukraine has been carrying out since October 10, was also a cause for concern about the possible flooding of both banks of the Dnepr River.
While admitting that it was a difficult decision to make, the general stressed that the measure would help save the lives of Russian servicemen.
“We will save, most importantly, the lives of our servicemen and, in general, the combat capability of the group of troops, which is futile to keep on the right bank in a limited area. In addition, part of the forces and means will be freed up, which will be used for active operations, including offensive in other directions in the zone of the operation," he explained.
Defense Minister Shoigu agreed, emphasizing that the lives of Russian servicemen will always be a top priority.
"We must take into account the threat to the civilian population too. Make sure that everyone among the civilian population who want to leave can do it," Shoigu told Surovikin.
While the general said that the situation in the zone of the special military operation has generally stabilized, Ukrainian forces haven't abandoned attempts to attack Russian positions. However, Russian forces managed to fend off Ukrainian attacks in the direction of Krasny Liman and Kupyansk. Surovikin added that the attempted offensive by the Ukrainian forces on Kherson last night was repelled too. The Ukrainian side is suffering significant losses, he stressed, having lost 9,500 men, both killed and wounded, in the direction of Kherson since August.
"We are successfully resisting all enemy offensive attempts. In the course of repelling his attacks in this area, from August to October, the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost more than 9,500 servicemen, both killed and wounded, more than 200 tanks, 500 armored fighting vehicles, about 600 vehicles for various purposes and more than 50 artillery pieces and mortars. As you know, the attacking side suffers greater losses than the one that is on the defensive. In this case, the enemy's losses are 7-8 times more than ours. We think, first of all, about the life of every Russian serviceman," he stressed.
He also revealed that over 115,000 people have already been relocated from the area of hostilities in Kherson – the right bank of the river – to the left bank.
"People's lives are constantly in danger because of the shelling. The enemy is firing indiscriminately at the city, it is possible that they're using prohibited methods of warfare," Surovikin pointed out, adding that under such conditions, the city of Kherson and the surrounding settlements cannot fully function or be supplied.
Kherson region authorities have previously considered the possibility of Russian troops leaving Kherson city, the capital of the formerly Ukrainian region that joined Russia following a referendum in late September, to relocate to the left bank of the Dnepr River.
The city is located on the western bank of the river, which exposes it to potential Ukrainian attacks, while the eastern side – also known as the left bank – is more defensible, with the river serving as a giant natural obstacle. The late deputy head of the Kherson Military-Civilian Administration Kirill Stremousov said in early November that Russian troops are “likely” to move to the left bank – mostly in order to make sure that as many civilians as possible are safe. He also repeatedly urged everyone who has not yet left the region to do so as soon as they can.
"I'm always with the people, I understand that people should be the basis [of everything], because I am a Khersonite myself," Stremousov, who died in a road accident earlier on November 9, said.
Last month, General Surovikin described the situation in the zone of the special military operation, including Kherson, as “tense” and warned that the military may be forced to make “difficult decisions.”
Over the past few weeks, Ukrainian forces have repeatedly tried to attack Kherson, but the attempts were repelled. On Tuesday, Ukrainian troops, along with foreign mercenaries, made yet another attempt to launch an offensive on Russian positions in the Kherson region, but the attack was fended off, with the Ukrainian side being forced to retreat after suffering significant losses.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukrainian forces failed to gain any advantage in the region, with Russian troops successfully holding off enemy attempts to attack or gain new territories. On November 3, reports emerged saying that the Russian flags had been removed from government buildings in Kherson. However, the authorities explained that the government had been moved to a different city.
In October, Russia informed the UN that Ukrainian forces were firing hundreds of missiles daily, mostly from US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), aiming at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric plant in the Kherson region.
Russian envoy Vasily Nebenzia warned that the destruction of the facility could result in the deaths of thousands of civilians and loss of thousands of homes, but the West chooses to ignore “any criminal acts” committed by the Kiev regime.
The same month, Acting Governor of the Kherson region Vladimir Saldo said that a “difficult, but right” decision had been made to relocate civilians from a number of municipalities from the right to the left bank of the Dnepr River to protect the population.
The caretaker governor explained that there was “an immediate danger of flooding in the territories due to the planned destruction of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric dam” by Ukrainian forces. The measure, he stressed, would help shield civilians from Kiev’s “banned methods of war,” while also helping to better defend the area from a Ukrainian offensive from the north.
He elaborated that Russian forces were setting up fortifications to repel the attack: "Where the military operates, there is no place for civilians.”
President Vladimir Putin, for his part, said earlier in November that relocating civilians from Kherson was a top priority, since Ukrainian forces were continuing to target the bridges crossing the Dnepr River, as well as the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric plant and its dam, threatening large-scale flooding.
The Kherson region officially became part of Russia in early October, together with the liberated areas of the Zaporozhye region and the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, after the people in those territories overwhelmingly supported the move in referendums.
Shoigu to Surovikina: "Send only military personnel with skills in their military specialization to the front lines. To units managed by mobilized military personnel, appoint officers capable of assembling a military team and organizing tasks in any situation"
Republicans made modest gains in U.S. midterm elections but Democrats performed better than expected, leaving control of Congress and the future of President Joe Biden's agenda unclear on Wednesday morning.
Many of the most competitive races were too close to call and Republicans acknowledged that the election was not producing the sweeping 'red wave' victory they had sought.
The results appeared to show voters punishing Biden for presiding over an economy hit by steep inflation, while also lashing out against Republican moves to ban abortion.
And poor performances by some candidates allied to Donald Trump indicated exhaustion with the kind of electoral and governing chaos fomented by the former Republican president, raising questions about the viability of his possible run for the White House in 2024.
While Democrat's performance defied expectations, they still face the possibility of losing their meager majorities to Republicans in the House of Representatives and maybe even the Senate, putting Biden-s legislative agenda in jeopardy.
Biden had framed Tuesday's election as a test of American democracy at a time when many Republicans embrace Trump's false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
A number of so-called election deniers who backed Trump's claims were elected to office on Tuesday, but fears of violence or other major disruptions by far-right poll watchers at voting stations did not materialize.
In the House, Republicans were favored to win a narrow majority that would allow them to block Biden's legislative priorities and launch investigations into his administration and family.
By early Wednesday, Republicans had flipped a net six Democratic House seats, Edison Research projected, one more than the minimum they need to take over the chamber. That number could change as more final results roll in.
But Democrats were doing much better than many had expected and seemed to have avoided the kind of heavy midterm election defeat that often plagues sitting presidents of either party.
In a critical win for Democrats, John Fetterman flipped a Republican-held U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania, beating celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz and bolstering his party's chances of holding the chamber.
The mood at the White House improved as the night wore on, with once-nervous aides celebrating Fetterman's victory.
Control of the Senate depended on tight races in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada, where ballots were still being counted.
The Georgia race appeared to be headed for a runoff vote on Dec. 6 because both the Democratic and Republican candidates were falling short of the 50 percent needed for victory.
REPUBLICAN PLANS
If the Republicans do take control of Congress, they plan to seek cost savings in the popular Social Security and Medicare retirement and healthcare programs run by the government. They also want to make permanent expiring tax cuts under a partisan 2017 law enacted by Republicans.
At the same time, they have said they want to undo Biden's major achievements addressing climate control and prevent possible efforts to expand social programs to include childcare subsidies so more parents can hold jobs, for example.
Republican push-back against increasing Washington's borrowing authority next year without major spending cuts also has begun to materialize. A Republican-run Congress could also block aid to Ukraine, although analysts say they are more likely to slow or pare back the flow of defense and economic assistance.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy had hoped to celebrate a resounding victory that would propel him into the top job of speaker.
Supporters wait for results at the Republican Party of Arizona's 2022 U.S. midterm elections night rally in Scottsdale, Arizona, November 8, 2022. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Instead, he had to settle for a promise to his supporters: “When you wake up tomorrow, we will be in the majority and (Democratic Speaker) Nancy Pelosi will be in the minority," he said on Tuesday night.
Only 13 of the 53 most competitive races, based on a Reuters analysis of the leading nonpartisan forecasters, had been decided, raising the prospect that the final outcome may not be known for some time.
U.S. stock index futures ticked lower on Wednesday as investors kept a close eye on the results in expectation of a divided Congress that would make it harder for the passage of drastic policy changes.
NO 'RED WAVE'
The party that occupies the White House almost always loses seats in elections midway through a president's first four-year term, and Biden has struggled with low public approval.
But Republican hopes for a 'red wave' of victories faded as Democrats showed surprising resilience in several key races. Democrats were projected as the winners in 11 of the 13 close contests that had been decided.
"Definitely not a Republican wave, that's for darn sure," Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham told NBC in an interview.
Trump, who took an active role in recruiting Republican candidates for Congress and is strongly hinting at a third run for the presidency in 2024, had mixed results.
He notched a victory in Ohio, where author J.D. Vance won a Senate seat to keep it in Republican hands. But television host and heart surgeon Mehmet Oz failed to win his Pennsylvania Senate race, and Doug Mastriano, another Trump ally, was handily defeated in the Pennsylvania governor's race.
Trump allies also were struggling in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada Senate races, where ballots were still being counted.
Meanwhile Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who could be a main Republican challenger to Trump in 2024, added to his growing national profile, defeating Democratic challenger Charlie Crist by nearly 20 percentage points, Edison projected.
The Senate was still a toss-up, with the pivotal battles in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada still in play. The Georgia Senate race could end up in a runoff, possibly with Senate control at stake.
Democrats currently control the 50-50 Senate with Vice President Kamala Harris able to break any ties.
Thirty-five Senate seats, all 435 House seats and three dozen governors races were on the ballot.
More than 46 million Americans voted ahead of Election Day, either by mail or in person and state election officials caution that counting those ballots will take time.
Democratic governors also fended off strong Republican challenges in Michigan and Wisconsin, two states likely to remain political battlegrounds in the 2024 presidential race.
The primary issue weighing on Democrats was stubbornly high annual inflation, which at 8.2% stands at the highest rate in 40 years.
Voters in California, Michigan and Vermont approved referendums enshrining abortion rights in their state constitutions. Deeply conservative Kentucky looked poised to reject a constitutional amendment that would have declared there was no right to abortion.
A man was detained on Wednesday in the northern English city of York after he appeared to throw eggs at King Charles III and the queen consort, Camilla. The man, who had joined crowds gathered to greet the royal couple on their visit to the city, was restrained by police and heard yelling, "This country was built on the blood of slaves," according to local media reports.
A man has been detained by police after appearing to throw eggs at the King and Queen Consort during a walkabout at Micklegate Bar, in York.
The King and Queen Consort are visiting Yorkshire where the monarch will unveil a statue of his mother, the late Queen.
The 23-year-old was heard shouting “this country was built on the blood of slaves” as he was being detained by around four police officers after throwing eggs at the monarch - none of which hit.
The protester also booed the King and Queen Consort as he started to throw the eggs.
Patrick Thelwell was bundled to the ground by four police officers while screaming "this country was built on the blood of slaves". Meanwhile, onlookers shouted "God save the King" and "shame on you".
In an online biography, Thelwell boasts of his long involvement in Left-wing politics, which began in 2015 when he campaigned to oust Tory MP Esther McVey from her seat on Merseyside due to her views on benefits.
He has been president of the University of York gardening society and, on a blog where he regularly writes about climate change, says he is preparing to study for a PhD in Interdisciplinary Global Development.
Thelwell stood as a Green Party candidate in the 2019 local elections for the Hull Road Ward in York, which is now controlled by Labour.
He has previously joined protests blocking London Bridge and a road leading to newspaper printing presses. Then PM Boris Johnson called the stunt 'completely unacceptable'.
After this morning's incident, King Charles continued with a traditional ceremony which sees the sovereign officially welcomed to the city of York by the Lord Mayor. It was last carried out by his mother, the Queen, in 2012.
Charles and Camilla appeared unfazed after the egging as they continued their walkabout and greeted some of the crowds.
He has previously joined protests blocking London Bridge and a road leading to newspaper printing presses. Then PM Boris Johnson called the stunt 'completely unacceptable'.
After this morning's incident, King Charles continued with a traditional ceremony which sees the sovereign officially welcomed to the city of York by the Lord Mayor. It was last carried out by his mother, the Queen, in 2012.
Charles and Camilla appeared unfazed after the egging as they continued their walkabout and greeted some of the crowds.
The royal couple were in York to attend the unveiling of a statue of Queen Elizabeth II, the first to be installed since her death, as part of a brief tour of Yorkshire.
Speaking at the ceremony at York Minster, Charles said: 'The late Queen was always vigilant for the welfare of her people during her life. Now her image will watch over what will become Queen Elizabeth Square for centuries to come.'
The 2m sculpture weighing 1.1 tons and made from lepine limestone from France was designed to celebrate the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee and was completed in August, a month before her death.
Today, North Yorkshire Police confirmed a 23-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of a public order offence. The force said a 'well-rehearsed' security operation had been in place for the visit to ensure the royal couple's safety.
File - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaking at Georgetown University in Washington, Oct. 17, 2019. - Copyright AP Photo/Nick Wass, File
Since Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004, the Silicon Valley company has steadily hired more employees. At the end of September it had amassed its largest-ever number of workers, totaling 87,314 people.
But on Wednesday, the company — now renamed Meta — began cutting jobs, and deeply.
Meta said it was laying off more than 11,000, or about 13 percent of its work force, in what amounted to the company’s most significant job cuts. The layoffs were made across departments, though some areas, like recruiting, were affected more than others.
“Today I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history,” Zuckerberg said in a letter to staff.
Zuckerberg said he too had anticipated rapid growth even after the pandemic ended. “Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected,” he said in his letter.
“Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that”.
“I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here,” Mr. Zuckerberg wrote in a letter to employees. “I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.”
The scale of the cuts — nearly triple what Twitter announced last week — represent a stunning fall for a once high-flying company whose ambition and room for growth had seemed limitless. It grew rapidly and spent lavishly over the years, accumulating users, buying companies such as Instagram and WhatsApp, and showering its employees with envious perks. Not even scrutiny over its data privacy practices and the toxic content on its apps could dent its financial performance, as its stock continued climbing and its revenues soared. At one point last year, Meta was valued at $1 trillion.
But the company has struggled financially this year as it has tried to move into a new business — the immersive world of the so-called metaverse — while also grappling with a global economic slowdown and a decline in digital advertising, the main source of its revenue. New competitors like TikTok emerged to capture a younger audience while Meta’s services lost their sheen. Last month, Meta posted a 50 percent slide in quarterly profits and its second straight sales decline. Its stock has dropped roughly 70 percent this year.
Mr. Zuckerberg, 38, attributed the cuts to growing too quickly during the pandemic, when a surge in online commerce led to a big spike in revenue. Like changes at other businesses, he said he thought the shift would be permanent, leading him to significantly increase spending.
“Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected,” Mr. Zuckerberg said on Wednesday. “I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.”
The reduction in the size of Meta’s work force marks an attempt to rein in some of the exuberance that came to define an era of success in Silicon Valley. Mr. Zuckerberg said budgets would be reduced, including some employee perks, and the company would cut back on real estate. A hiring freeze was extended until March.
Mr. Zuckerberg said the company would focus on a smaller number of “high priority” areas, including artificial intelligence, advertising and the metaverse.
On Tuesday, Mr. Zuckerberg met with executives to discuss the layoffs, two people who took part in the meeting said. One person who was present said the chief executive took responsibility for the cuts, saying his company had scaled up too quickly. Meta had also canceled travel plans for employees to ensure they were available to meet with managers, should their team be affected by layoffs, three other people said. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported Mr. Zuckerberg’s meeting with executives on Tuesday.
For those who lose their job, Meta said it would pay severance of 16 weeks of an employee’s base pay, along with two additional weeks for every year a person worked at the company.
After the layoff announcement, Meta’s stock price rose nearly 4 percent in premarket trading.
Meta joins other tech companies, such as Snap, which have laid off employees as economic conditions have grown more challenging. While many of these companies boomed during the coronavirus pandemic, some of the largest ones have reported financial results in recent weeks that showed they are feeling the fallout of global economic jitters. Last week, Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, laid off roughly half of the company’s 7,500 employees, saying that the social media service was losing $4 million a day.
“These cycles of boom and bust are incredibly destructive within organizations because people employed there feel like they don’t know where they stand,” said Sandra J. Sucher, a management professor at Harvard. By rapidly hiring across all departments during the pandemic, Mr. Zuckerberg had set up his company to need reductions in staff, she said.
Mr. Zuckerberg has been telegraphing that Meta would have to clamp down on costs, starting with cutting back on many of the lavish perks that employees once enjoyed. In March, he announced the company was trimming or eliminating free services like laundry and dry cleaning. He also scaled back the company’s free dinner offerings, making it harder for employees to take home dinner for themselves and their families.
In July, Mr. Zuckerberg warned employees that the company was experiencing “one of the worst downturns that we’ve seen in recent history” and, in September announced a hiring freeze.
Last month, he warned that “teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year.” He added that the company would “end 2023 as either roughly the same size or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today.”
In its earnings report last month, Meta disclosed that Reality Labs, the part of the company working on the metaverse, had $3.67 billion in operating losses. Reality Labs also experienced its lowest revenue since the final quarter of 2020. The company expects the operating losses for Reality Labs to increase next year.
Global support for the United States’ policy course is on the decline, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday commenting on the results of the US midterm elections.
"The initial results of the elections in the United States and yesterday’s hysterical ‘ultimatum’ by Ukraine’s green leader in a green unwashed T-shirt is proof that the familiar world of grandpa Biden is slipping away, global support for US policy is on the decline, and betting on a ‘stoned hetman’ was a huge mistake," Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel on Wednesday.
Voting at the US midterms has come to an end. Americans cast their ballots for all 435 members of the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate.
In addition, governors of 36 states and three US overseas territories were elected. Local experts do not exclude the possibility that the ruling Democratic Party may lose control of the House and Senate after the elections, giving way to the opposition, the Republicans.
US Reportedly Prodded Ukraine’s Zelensky to Ditch Putin-Out-of-Power Condition For Russia Talks
Previously, US newspaper reports cited "Ukraine fatigue” increasingly becoming manifest in some countries, as they suggested that the administration of US President Joe Biden was privately encouraging Kiev to demonstrate readiness to negotiate with Moscow.
The Joe Biden administration prodded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to rethink his stance on talks with Russia, US media reported, citing White House insiders. Furthermore, the “nudging” was ostensibly done to appease both Democrats and Republicans, who have argued the need for a more “diplomatic” stance regarding the conflagration in Ukraine, particularly ahead of the November 8 midterm elections.
As Zelensky outlined five conditions for negotiations with Moscow on resolving the Ukraine conflict during a nightly televised address posted on YouTube on November 7, such as “restoring territorial integrity,” “respecting UN Statute,” “paying off all damages caused by war,” “punishing each war criminal,” and “guarantees this won't happen again,” the president of Ukraine conspicuously omitted any reference to Vladimir Putin. Previously, the Kiev regime rejected any negotiations specifically with Russia’s president, the American media outlet underscored.
However, days of talks between Kiev and Washington that included an in-person visit to the Ukrainian capital by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan ostensibly brought a change.
The report rushes to rule out any speculation that US officials directly instructed Zelensky and his aides to alter their position. However, it does hint that Kiev was told to display readiness for talks in order to be seen as embracing the “moral high ground” in the eyes of the coalition of Western countries that have poured money and weapons into propping up the Ukraine regime.
“That doesn’t mean they need to go to the negotiating table right now. We don’t even think right now is the right time based on what Russia is doing. But they must show a willingness to resolve the conflict because no one wants this conflict to end more than Ukraine,” a WH official was cited as saying.
This comes as an earlier US report suggested that concerns were mounting in parts of Europe, Africa, and Latin America over the soaring food and fuel prices being driven, in part, by sanctions on Russia over its ongoing special operation in Ukraine. Accordingly, the disruptive effect the conflict and the so-called collective West's reaction to it has been wreaking has prompted increasing "Ukraine fatigue" among some US partners.
Volodymyr Zelensky’s refusal to negotiate with Vladimir Putin was also said to be generating concern in parts of Europe. As polls ahead of the November 8 midterms revealed eroding support among Republicans for continued assistance to Kiev’s military, Democrats and Republicans have ostensibly been pressuring the Joe Biden administration to push for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict.
In a U-turn that reflected growing concerns over the fallout from the Ukraine crisis, a group of 30 Democratic lawmakers from the US House of Representatives sent a letter to President Joe Biden in late October, urging him to fundamentally change the administration’s strategy with respect to Kiev.
"We urge you to pair the military and economic support the United States has provided Ukraine with a proactive diplomatic push, redoubling efforts to seek a realistic framework for a ceasefire," the 30 Democrats, led by Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in the letter.
The authors of the letter warned that "the alternative to diplomacy is a protracted war, with both its attendant certainties and catastrophic and unknowable risks."
Furthermore, there have been growing divisions among congressional Republicans on whether to proceed with military assistance to Ukraine, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy saying in October that a GOP-controlled House wouldn't write a "blank check" to Kiev.
Hints From 'Big Brother'
Some US allies in Europe are becoming increasingly concerned that a protracted conflict in Ukraine may entail a rising burden for some of them, Joseph Camilleri, emeritus professor at La Trobe University in Melbourne, told Sputnik.
Three aspects are worth noting, the professor underscored: the cost of providing economic and military aid to Ukraine; the eventual cost of reconstruction, which Europe may likely have to shoulder in part; and skyrocketing prices on energy and foodstuffs.
Bearing in mind that the Biden administration has been strongly committed to repairing the fractured US alliance system, a dragged-out conflict in Ukraine was fraught with more fissures, one of Australia's leading international relations scholars underscored.
Even if reports of the Biden team urging Kiev to reassess its stance on talks with Russia are true, the Ukrainian authorities are unlikely to actually take the hint and restart negotiations in the immediate future, Joseph Camilleri said.
“However, in due course, Ukraine will have no option but to pay close attention to US advice,” he added.
Speculating on whether the fact that Ukraine does not appear to be able to move towards resuming negotiations without hints from its "big brother" in Washington, Joseph Camilleri conceded that the US is obviously extremely influential in how Kiev handles the conflict.
However, he added that there are powerful political currents within Ukraine itself that Zelensky has to consider carefully before changing his current stance on Russia negotiations.
After the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, a spate of talks was conducted between Moscow and Kiev. After the last round of the negotiations concluded in Istanbul on March 29, the talks have since stalled. In late September, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow was still open to talks with Kiev and called on Ukraine to put an end to hostilities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in turn, stated that Kiev was ready for dialogue with Moscow, but only if another president came to power in Russia. In response, the Kremlin said that Moscow would wait for a change in the stance of Ukraine's current president or his successor.
