Seymour Hersh Reports There Are Backchannel Communications Between Russia & the West

Seymour Hersh put out a report today that made a few interesting points.

First, he says that, according to several sources in the Democratic Party apparatus, big donors and other officials in the party are worried about Biden’s chances in the November election against Trump. There is discussion of replacing him at the convention if his upcoming debate performance against Trump is disastrous.

He also says that according to one US official he spoke to, there have been ongoing backchannel discussions still occurring between Russia and the west and that one such discussion occurred just prior to Putin’s announcement last week of the terms of a possible ceasefire and peace negotiations:

One well-informed American official told me that there has been, as always, some informal communications about concessions between Moscow and the West that both sides could accept. For example, he said, there is Russia’s ambition to attack and seize Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, twenty miles south of the Russian border. Now under siege amid heavy fighting on its outskirts, the historic city could be saved from massive destruction if both sides agree to consider it an independent free territory as was Trieste, a disputed city bordering Italy and Yugoslavia, for seven years after World War II. I was also told that Putin’s speech came after a series of highly secret backchannel communications between some in the West and Russians whose aim was to spare the pending Russian attack on Kharkiv, which is also a major transportation hub.

The official said that the likelihood of significant Ukrainian battlefield success remains low, given Russia’s vast supply of troops and materiel. Despite Ukrainian and American reports of successes near Kharkiv, he added, last Sunday 300 members of one of Ukraine’s most elite units, the 92nd Assault Brigade, which was established twenty-five years ago, was surrounded and captured by Russian troops, with 150 deaths and little word in the Western press.

“Biden just declared war on Russia and nobody cares,” the official said of the president’s recent decision to escalate the reach of American missiles supplied to Ukraine. “It is a theatrical performance.”