Speaking in Helsinki on June 2 to welcome Finland as NATO’s newest member state, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was “dismissive of any talk of a ceasefire” in Ukraine, Hersh bemoaned, “something desperately needed by an increasingly besieged Ukrainian army and citizenry.”
“Now, over the coming weeks and months,” Blinken said, “some countries will call for a ceasefire. And on the surface, that sounds sensible—attractive, even. After all, who doesn’t want warring parties to lay down their arms? Who doesn’t want the killing to stop? But a ceasefire that simply freezes current lines in place and enables Putin to consolidate control over the territory he’s seized, and then rest, re-arm, and re-attack—that is not a just and lasting peace. It’s a Potemkin peace. It would legitimize Russia’s land grab. It would reward the aggressor and punish the victim.”
Hersh poined out that peace deals and cease-fires such as that achieved by Richard Holbrooke in Bosnia always involved compromising with your enemy. Often, battlelines are frozen and secured by international peacekeeping troops, just to put an end to unnecessary bloodshed and killing, Hersh pointed out. “Does America’s secretary of State not know—or want to know—the historical importance and success of international peace-keeping forces? Is he not aware of the work done by the diplomat Richard Holbrooke, controversial as he may have been? In 1995 he negotiated an end to the murderous ethnic violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina among Serbs, Croats, and Muslims. Their hatred for each other was as intense as the feelings now simmering among the citizenry and military in Ukraine for their Russian adversaries.”
When a free people like the Ukrainians have at their backs the
support of free nations around the world—nations who recognize their
fates and freedom—their rights and security are inextricably bound
together, the force they possess is not merely immense. It is
unstoppable,” Blinken concluded in Helsinki, Hersh wrote. “His real
message might be put more bluntly: I hate the Russians and let the blood flow.”