US diplomacy is on the defensive following the leaking of documents that have exposed NATO’s role in the Ukraine war and the failure of its pathetic ‘Summit for Democracy’ to mobilise what American politicians call the “free world” behind US imperialism’s drive to prolong the conflict against Russia and confront China across the Pacific. This week the spotlight is on China following the recent fruitful summit with the French leader and the arrival of Brazilian President ‘Lula’ da Silva for talks with the Chinese leadership.

The only ‘peace plan’ the Americans have got to offer is a ludicrous demand for Russia’s unconditional withdrawal from Crimea and the Donbas and the prosecution of Vladimir Putin as a “war criminal”. Although their chief Ukrainian lackey, Vladimir Zelensky, likes to pose as an heroic war-leader in the West, in his own country more and more people are voting with their feet – fleeing abroad to avoid conscription or deserting to avoid the senseless sacrifice on the front. The Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko says that according to “insider information”, people on both sides of the front in Ukraine “do not want to fight” and are already beginning to negotiate – company commanders, platoon commanders, combatants – at a local level.

Meanwhile the relentless war of attrition continues, with Russian troops battling to drive the Ukrainians out of their remaining outposts in Bakhmut and day and night barrages across the entire 1,200 km front.

In China all eyes are on the visit of the Brazilian delegation led by President Lula da Silva and his meeting with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The talks mainly revolved around strengthening Brazil’s economic, trade and political ties with the people’s government, but China’s 12-point peace plan clearly will also be high on the agenda. Lula has repeatedly expressed his willingness to serve as a mediator, saying that Brazil could “make an extraordinary contribution to end the war”.

Soon after he returned to high office Lula tabled an initiative of his own called the ‘Peace Club’, which proposed the formation of a multilateral organisation including countries such as China and India to mediate conflicts and called for respect for China’s prominent role in safeguarding world peace and mediating international conflicts.

But the Americans and their lackeys are not interested in peace at the moment. They still think they can defeat the Russians in Ukraine and they are doing their best to stone-wall all the Global South’s efforts to end the conflict.

Leaked documents reveal that the USA does not expect peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in 2023. Reports that 50 British special forces personnel are active in Ukraine “give the lie to the claim that NATO forces are not at war with Russia”, says Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German commenting on the secret Pentagon files leaked online in recent weeks that provide intelligence on a range of sensitive security matters, including Ukrainian air defences, Russian military activities, and US assessments of the conflict. The files reveal that Britain and other NATO members, including the USA, France, Latvia and the Netherlands, have deployed dozens of special forces personnel to Ukraine.

But “this is actually non-news”, says Alexei Podberezkin, military expert and director of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) Centre for Military and Political Studies. “We have already seen this in the public domain and read about it. Such information was provided by the military too. And they talked not only about mercenaries, but also about [foreign] officers of the special services who not only carried out training, education, and preparations, but also participated in combat operations. Therefore, I was not surprised.”

The apparent leak has added nothing to the intellgence concerning Western military personnel on the ground in Ukraine already gathered by Russia, says Podberezkin. Some of these foreign fighters surrender. Their chatter is being intercepted by the Russian military, he noted, adding that one cannot hide the presence of foreign special ops and mercenaries in Ukraine.

Editor: Zhong Yao、Zheng Yifan

From: http://www.newworker.org/archive2023/nw20230414/lula_lands_in_china_for_peace.html（2023-4-14）