Original provenance was Ukrainska Pravda. https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/articles/2022/05/5/7344096/

At some point a name was put to the anonymous source, could be one of the many journalists who have investigated this quote, as you yourself admit there are lots of sources on this topic.

But that single quote aside, it's not like they're saying this in secret. Even Victoria Nuland and Foreign Affairs said some version of the same thing.

Nuland says the West didn't want to basically disarm Ukraine, and Foreign Affairs did an investigation of the negotiations (Ukrainska Pravda's investigation was better) and said the West didn't want to provide security guarantees to Ukraine.

And they all say it out loud that they don't want give an inch.

Good/evil moral compass is enormously important, especially when faced with war. It's precisely this flippant view towards morality that leads normal people to justify horrific acts of violence.

Murder, war, invasion bad.

Family, health, love, business good.

It really is that simple and the moment you stray from that, you stray towards everything we want to avoid.

I understand there are moments you MUST go to war. If I were Ukrainian I would be 100% on the war effort.

But I'm not Ukrainian. I'm American. Russia didn't attack America and I have a say in where my tax dollars go.