Ukraine Forced to Model Peace

Ukrainians understand, in a way that many of us have only recently understood, that the use of the term, the moniker, the mantra “peace” itself has been repurposed to serve other meanings. When Druidy Don’s Disinfolklore is talking about “Ukraine must make peace” — “We must hit Ukraine like we would hit a mule until it wants to make peace” — what he is really saying is: we want Ukraine to capitulate and surrender.

Source: Hot-take: Ukraine’s delegation to Saudi Arabia Peace talks (Substack, March 2025)

The absurdity of the Peace archetype reaches its apex in 2025. Ukraine — the country being invaded, bombed, and occupied — is tasked with demonstrating that it wants peace. Russia — the country doing the invading, bombing, and occupying — faces no such requirement. The asymmetry is the archetype at work: “peace” has been redefined as something Ukraine must perform, not something Russia must practice.

Druidey Don’s special envoy made the strategy explicit: hit Ukraine like a mule until it wants to make peace. This is not a diplomatic formula. It is a Coercive Control technique: the abuser demands that the victim demonstrate willingness to reconcile while the abuser continues the abuse.

What Russia and Druidy Don are colluding in doing is trying to portray Ukraine as weak, as a damsel in distress, when Ukrainians are having to manifest a desire for peace in order to service Druidy Don’s addiction to serving Russia’s interests. However, I do not detect or pick up any appetite for peace at any price in Ukraine.

Source: Hot-take: Ukraine’s delegation to Saudi Arabia Peace talks (Substack, March 2025)

No one in the world wants peace more than Ukrainians. But equally, no one in the world understands what it will take to bring peace better than Ukrainians.

Source: Hot-take: Ukraine’s delegation to Saudi Arabia Peace talks (Substack, March 2025)

Ukraine’s negotiators understand the game. They are not naïve. The same team that navigated Paris 2019 and rejected the Steinmeier Formula now navigates Saudi Arabia 2025. They will not capitulate. But they must perform the desire for peace — must manifest it publicly — to manage international pressure from those who remain under the spell of the archetype. It is a high-wire act: appearing to seek peace while knowing that the word itself has been weaponised against them.

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