In an interview with ABC This Week on September 10, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked about the possibility of negotiations with Russia. “You spent quite a bit of time with President Zelenskyy,” ABC’s Jonathan Karl said. “What is your sense? How does he see this ending? Does he see himself coming to a negotiating table with the Russians at some point? How does this end?”

Blinken responded, as the US consistently has, by implying that the Ukraine-US side has always been willing to take the diplomatic route and that it is Russia who has been unwilling to negotiate.

“And as to negotiations, Jon, it takes two to tango,” Blinken said. “And thus far, we see no indication that Vladimir Putin has any interest in meaningful diplomacy.” Blinken then added that “If he does, I think the Ukrainians will be the first to engage, and we’ll be right behind them.”

That answer took more than a little historical revisionism and more than a lot of nerve. Russia has three times engaged in meaningful diplomacy. All three took place in the early days of the war, and all three could have ended the war before the escalation and devastation. Russia first engaged in meaningful diplomacy with Ukraine in Belarus just three days after the war began. They then, once again, engaged in diplomacy mediated by then Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Most promisingly, Russia signed a tentative agreement with Ukraine during the negotiations in Istanbul.

The Istanbul agreement would have ended the war with Russia withdrawing to the positions it occupied before the war and Ukraine promising not to seek NATO membership and to make permanent neutrality a feature of its constitution.