BREAKING NEWS: Russia agrees to direct bilateral talks with former Ukrainian leader Yanukovych
Last edited Thu Aug 21, 2025, 09:08 AM - Edit history (1)
In what the White House has hailed as a “major breakthrough” in peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced he has agreed to direct, one-on-one negotiations with the individual who they believe to be Ukraine’s “true and legitimate sovereign leader.”
That individual happens to be none other Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian President who left office in 2014 and fled to Russia after massive protests against him erupted throughout the country due to claims of his rampant corruption and subservience to Moscow’s heavy influence.
The Kremlin all but ruled out any chance that Putin would engage in any direct talks with Ukraine’s current president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“Zelenskyy is the fruit of the poisonous tree,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a statement issued to the press. “He is the bastard child of Western powers who eleven years ago engaged in an illegal coup of Ukraine’s last true leadership and installed their own puppet to act in accordance with their own whims and desires.”
Zelenskyy was democratically elected Ukraine’s president in 2019, five years after the events of what has commonly been referred to as the Maidan Revolution took place. He succeeded Petro Poroshenko, who came to office in May 2014 in elections that were likewise deemed fair and democratic by international observers.
Yanukovych himself was elected in 2010, but soon fell into disfavor with the Ukrainian people after allegations of corruption swirled. During his time in office it is believed he and his allies may have pocketed up to $37 billion from the nation’s treasury.
In 2013, Yanukovych spurned a proposed trade deal with the European Union in favor of closer relations with Russia. Large protests against Yanukovych in Kyiv’s Independence Square erupted as a result. The protests were initially peaceful, but Yanukovych ultimately sought to crack down on the movement with his Berkut special police force.
Undeterred by Yanukovych’s violent crackdown, the protests continued through February 2014. A night of sniper shootings left over 100 people dead on the square, all while Yanukovych was already reportedly packing up his belongings at his luxurious suburban Kyiv estate. Yanukovych left Kyiv by helicopter the night of February 22, 2014, ultimately landing in Russia where the Kremlin had granted him asylum.
He has not left Russia or returned to Ukraine since.
Four days after Yanukovych abdicated power, Russian military under secret cover seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, later annexing it as its own territory. Shortly thereafter, separatist forces in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions—heavily supplemented and supported by the Russian military—began an armed conflict against the Ukrainian government. That conflict in Ukraine’s eastern regions simmered all the way up to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Yanukovych—now residing in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don—was asked to comment on the developments and whether he’d agree to Moscow’s offer.
“Sure, why not?” Yanukovych reportedly said. “It is not like I have much else going on at the moment. It will probably be a lot of fun, to be honest.”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration—fresh off a summit with Putin in Alaska as well as a meeting with Zelensky and European leaders in Washington—has enthusiastically viewed Putin’s offer to meet with Yanukovych as a positive step towards ending the years-long conflict.
“It’s a great thing, a wonderful, beautiful thing,” President Donald Trump said to a group of gathered reporters. “I honestly don’t care who Putin meets with, so long as it stops this terrible, horrible war that was started by Biden and Zelenskyy, and it would never have ever started if I were President. I can tell you that now.”
DETAILS AT ELEVEN.
= new reply since forum marked as read
AI would have put this together in less than 5 seconds.
I spent all of 15 hardworking minutes of my life writing this. 
It's OUR fault if we don't recognize your satire. 
It's all his own work 
It's "Weird Al" Yanvovic.
Ready to use the famous "Russian Accordion Torture" negotiating tactic against Putin.
I was just thinking last night (in my thinking moments) that the current state of affairs MUST HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY PADDY CHAYEVSKY, if not Rod Serling and his brilliant staff of writers and guest writer Ray Bradbury.
It is truly a Twilight Zone episode played out IRL.
Now, as to identifying an article as satire, I usually do that, because my writing can be ultra dry.
So, I posted this gem:
Zelenskyy inks BIG DEAL with Krasnov. (From the Alfredo Fettucini News Agency)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220573303
An article that I spent some time writing and preparing a graphic that IMNSHO, is “mighty fine”
And it got all of 5 rec’s.
Not that I’m counting, but I do like to see “what registers” and various means to improve my communication skills.
HONESTY DOESN’T WORK.
People REALLY, REALLY, REALLY love clickbait.
Even here.
Such titles as:
• Wow!
• This!
• Breaking News!
Give me a break.
Look at this lovely graphic,
Notice the fantastic transformation of the name NOBEL into NOBLE.
This was not just typing alternate text.
It was a challenge.
Now, I’m not saying that we should be subtle with the mentally-challenged MAGA world out there. You’ve sometimes got to be brutally direct with them, like this:
Uncle Jeffery is gone. Let’s play strip-checkers
If I label a post as satire, or give some outrageous “source” it’s not a compliment.
You now have 6 recs.
The struggle is real...
I'd post lots more, but anything posted on the web goes straight to photo agencies (where you can buy back your work or pay an army of lawyers to get it back) or to the AI machine.
Too bad, those rotten apples spoil it for everyone.
