No negotiations, no peace, but what about NATO?

Presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris says she will not talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin without Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.

Ukraine’s war, which is NATO’s war, is going badly. NATO’s future is in doubt.

Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelensky, who was just forced to cancel a forthcoming “peace summit” (officially postponed to a future time) because no one wanted to come, has made it clear he will not negotiate with Moscow under any circumstances.

Zelensky understands that any concession he might make to Russia would be fatal for him. As his army is beginning to disintegrate, Zelensky is relying on the Azov Brigade, an elite unit that some say is trying to wipe clean a neo-Nazi ideological stain from its predecessor unit’s history. Because Zelensky is unlikely to move, various “peace formulas” being floated in Europe won’t change anything or influence the outcome.

The basic Euro-idea is to try and freeze the conflict, concede that Russia will continue to occupy parts of Ukraine for now and bring Ukraine into NATO – or, if that isn’t possible, provide some other sort of security guarantees for the future.

Under this approach, Ukraine could rebuild its military, gets its economy back on track, and confront the Russians some years in the future when the prospects are better.

The Russians don’t have to reject the latest idea because, thanks to Zelensky, it is dead on arrival. Of course that won’t stop Europe and some in Washington from pushing the proposalanyway, while shoveling more arms to Ukraine, hoping the Ukrainians can hold out until well after the US elections.

Should Ukraine go belly up before the end of October, it would be chaos for the Democrats in the US and also would likely