“We are ready to fight forever in Ukraine,” says Russia’s top negotiator—then cites a fake Napoleon

May 17, 2025 - 01:01

Vladimir Medinsky, head of Russia’s delegation in peace talks with Ukraine, rejected calls for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire in an interview with Russian state TV host Yevgeny Popov. He blamed the collapse of the 2022 negotiations on “direct Western interference” and backed his claims with selective—and often inaccurate—historical analogies.

Misused historical analogies

Medinsky framed the Ukraine war using distorted references from 300 years of Russian history:

He said Western interference in the 1870s Treaty of San Stefano (after the Russo-Turkish War) led to the Balkan Wars and ultimately World War I.
He compared Ukraine to the Vietnam, Korean, and Soviet-Finnish wars, claiming negotiations continued during active fighting in all three cases.
He invoked the Great Northern War, asserting that Swedish-held lands were “historical territories” of Russia’s Leningrad region.
He accused Britain and France of blocking peace efforts between Sweden’s Charles XII and Russia’s Peter the Great.

Fabricated quotes

Medinsky also leaned on unverified and debunked quotes to justify Russia’s actions:

He attributed to Napoleon the phrase: “War and negotiations happen simultaneously.”

But according to Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation:
“No known correspondence, memoirs, or statements by Napoleon contain this quote… It should be considered apocryphal.”
To defend Russia’s territorial demands, Medinsky cited a widely circulated but false quote from Otto von Bismarck:

“Never try to deceive the Russians or steal from them…”
The independent Russian outlet IStories noted that even the Russian Military Historical Society, founded and led by Medinsky, has rejected this quote’s authenticity.

Threats of prolonged war

According to The Economist journalist Oliver Carroll, Medinsky reportedly issued a grim ultimatum during the negotiations:

“We do not want war, but we are ready to fight for another year, two, three—as long as necessary. We fought Sweden for 21 years… Russia is ready to fight forever.”

Medinsky dismissed ceasefire advocates as “people who do not know history,” using distorted historical narratives and apocryphal quotes to justify a prolonged war.

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