Let us not mince words: the “conditions” set by Mr. Zelensky’s allies are not a path to peace. They are a checklist for surrender dressed in the language of diplomacy.
The United Kingdom, ever eager to play the global statesman, now finds itself the designated choreographer of a dance that leads nowhere. For those who have forgotten their Gibbon, let me remind you: when a power in decline clings to ultimatums, it is not strength but the final spasm of a dying order. The five conditions—no doubt crafted in the drawing rooms of Whitehall and the think-tanks of Washington—are a fantasy.
They presuppose a Russian capitulation that will never come. History teaches us that wars end when one side accepts reality, not when it issues demands from a position of weakness. This is 1938 all over again, but with the roles reversed: the appeasers are now the ones demanding concessions they cannot enforce.
Mr. Zelensky’s allies would do well to study the Congress of Vienna, where diplomacy meant compromise, not a list of grievances. The UK’s leadership in this farce merely confirms that Britain, once the empire that governed the waves, now governs only headlines.
The real question is not whether Russia will accept these conditions, but whether the West has the courage to face the end of its own hubris.
