Promising joint military exercises with NATO, Ukraine announced that it would coordinate with the U.S. in the coming months to hold joint military exercises with five NATO countries. Russia’s 68-year-old President Vladimir Putin has served notice to Kiev that any attempt to stage military exercises with NATO would be met with draconic countermeasures, including possible annexation of the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. Putin already seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine March 1, 2014 while 78-year-old President Joe Biden served as Vice President with former President Barack Obama. Putin watched a CIA-backed coup topple the Russian-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych Feb. 22, 2014 while he hosted the Sochi Winter Olumpics. Putin moved swiftly to annex Crimea once the CIA-backed Kiev coup threatened Putin’s Sevastopol naval base.
Biden told 43-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday that the United States stands “shoulder-to-shoulder” with Ukraine. “President Biden affirmed the United States’ unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression in the Donbass and Crimea,” said a U.S. statement. Biden wants Zelensky to use the threat of U.S. military intervention to intimidate Putin into pulling back his troops now amassing along the Ukraine-Russian border. Putin knows the history well about U.S. threats of NATO intervention, ignoring the saber-rattling, knowing the U.S. and European Union [EU] have no stomach for armed conflict with Russia. Last week four Ukrainians soldiers lost their lives due to Russian shelling, prompting Zelensky to hold an hour-long call with Biden promising Ukraine U.S. undying support.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Pescov said April 2 that than attempt to move NATO troops into Ukraine’s Donbass region would be a provocative threat to Russia pro-separatist enclaves, looking to end association with the Kiev government. Zelensky and Biden make it sound like pro-separatist communities want no part of Russia and are begging Kiev to intervene. Russian speaking communities in Eastern Ukraine have complained that Kiev offers them little economic opportunity, putting most of the country’s resources into Kiev. Zelensky wants the U.S. and EU to believe that Russia’s military has coerced pro-Russian Ukrainians in the Donbass area. Zelensky would never want to admit that he’s failed Ukraine’s industrial east, that has no jobs under Kiev’s jurisdiction, leaving the area economically. Zelensky wants the U.S. and NATO to defend Ukraine’s sovereignty in Donbass.
Giving his backing to Zelensky, Biden hopes to intimidate Putin into backing down, fearing that the U.S. and NATO would intervene militarily if necessary to defend Ukraine’s border. Ukrainians living in Dontesk want out of Ukraine, seeking to become part of the Russian Federation. Zelensky has failed—like his predecessor Petro Poroshenko–to provide enough opportunity and industry in eastern Ukraine. Zelensky wants Ukraine to be part of NATO and the EU, even if it means going to war with the Russian Federation. Biden said he wants to lead the Free World but no one in the EU wants to go to war with Russia in order to save Ukraine’s eastern territory. If Ukraine can’t defend its own sovereignty, why should the U.S., EU or NATO spill blood to salvage Ukraine’s borders? Ukrainian citizens living in Donbass want out of Ukraine because Kiev offers no opportunity.
Zelensky hopes his call with Biden will discourage Putin from potentially annexing pro-Russian communities in Donbass. “We stand shoulder to shoulder when it comes to preservation of our democracies,” Zelensky tweeted after his call with Biden. Expecting NATO to stage joint military exercises in Donbass in the next few months, Zelensky thinks that would discourage Putin from annexing any territory. If Putin gets wind that any joint NATO exercises would occur in eastern Ukraine, he would most likely annex pro-Kremlin communities. Putin knows that he faced no resistance to his move on Crimea March 1, 2014 and would most likely face not resistance if he moves on eastern Ukraine. Biden’s public support for Ukraine is a bluff designed to discourage Russia from advancing its forces beyond the Russian border in Donbass. Zelensky does not have the firepower to stop Putin.
Biden showed his solidarity would Ukraine to bluff Putin into believing the U.S. and NATO would defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity in the event of a Russian cross-border incursion. Zelensky said President Biden “affirmed the United States” unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Biden hopes his public backing of Ukraine’s sovereignty would discourage Putin from annexing the Donbass region. No European official wants to get militarily involved with Russia, knowing Putin controls 40% of the natural gas and 30% of the petroleum trade to Europe. With German and Russia completing the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline with Russia, the EU is more dependent than ever on Russian energy. Zelensky can’t possibly think that the U.S., EU and NATO would risk a military confrontation with Russia because he can’t get along with his neighbor.
