Doing everything possible to suck the U.S. or NATO into a war with the Russian Federation, 43-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wants Ukraine to join the Western alliance at the earliest possible time. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said very clearly to Zelensky that any effort to join NATO would be met with very serious consequences. Last time Ukraine decided to join the Western Allinace Putin invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula March 1, 2014. Former Ukrainian President Petro Pororshenko certain lived with the consequences of losing Crimea, a strategic peninsula on the Black Sea. When CIA-backed, pro-Democracy forces drove Russian-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from Kiev Feb. 22, 2014 while Putin hosted the Sochi Winter Olympics, Putin acted swiftly to annex the Crimean Peninsula, infuriating Western powers.
Now Zelensky is trying to suck the U.S. and NATO into the same scenario with a predictable outcome. “NATO is the only way to end the war in Donbass,” Zelenssky told NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in a phone call. If Stoltenberg’s listening carefully, Zelensky is asking NATO or the U.S. to defend Ukraine’s southeastern border in the Donbass region, including the pro-Russian enclave of Donetsk AKA the Peoples Republic of Donetsk. Zelensky asked Stoltenberg, a former Prime Minister or Norway, to create a Membership Action Plan, telling Stoltenberg that “will be a real signal for Russia,” meaning it will trigger Putin’s annexation of Ukraine’s Donbass region along Russia’s Southern border. Zelensky asks NATO to create a stronger presence in the Black Sea to confront Russian interference, home of Russia’s warm water fleet in the Crimean port of Sevastopol.
Stoltenberg knows that the U.S. pays about 22% of NATO’s $1.67 billion annual budget, with Germany paying 14.5%, France and U.K. paying about 10.5%. Stoltenberg expressed “serious concern about Russia’s military activities in and around Ukraine & ongoing ceasefire violations,” Stoltenberg tweeted. When Stoltenberg thinks about what Zelensky is asking, letting Ukraine join the Western alliance could prove disastrous for NATO and the U.S. Zelensky cites some 14,000 killed in combat since Putin invaded Crimea in 2014. But what Zelensky doesn’t tell Stoltengerg is that pro-Russia separatists in the Donbas region want out of Ukraine because Kiev has done little or nothing to address the population’s needs. Certainly Stoltenberg knows that listening to Zelensky could suck NATO into a war with the Russian Federation, something they’re not prepared to take on anytime soon.
Zelensky’s fantasy is that if he can gain NATO membership for Ukaine, it’s one for all and all for one, now letting NATO fight Ukraine’s battles. Zelesnsky complains about a build up of Russian troops near the border with Donbass as proof that Russia tries to encroach on Ukrainian sovereignty. Any move by Stoltenberg to add Ukraine to NATO’s list would be met with Russia’s draconic consequences. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that any NATO involvement in Ukraine would destabilize the Donbass region, as the pro-Russia separatist enclaves would not tolerate NATO membership. “So far we’re not seeing an intention by the Ukrainian side to some calm down and move away from belligerent topics,” Peskov said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kremlin was concerned about statements coming from Kiev about joining NATO.
Zelensky can’t fathom the fact that residents of Donbass region and city of Donetsk don’t want any part of Kiev’s pro-Western government. They weren’t happy Feb. 22, 2014 when a CIA-backed coup toppled the pro-Russian government. What doesn’t Zelensky get that any involvement with NATO could further destabilize the region but, more importantly, lead Putin to annex Donabass and Donetsk at the request of the pro-Russian community. Zelensky thinks that NATO military planners are brain dead thinking that taking in Ukraine would risk a military confrontation with the Russian Federation. What’s NATO supposed to get from adding Ukraine to its member-states? When you look at warnings from Putin, it’s more clear than ever that joining NATO would result in Moscow taking defensive measures to annex Donbass and Donetsk to protect its Russian-speaking citizens.
President Joe Biden, 78, has played into Zelensky’s hand, publicly stating that the U.S. stands with Ukraine, especially when it comes to protecting its territorial integrity in Donbass. Biden and his 58-year-old Secretary of State Tony Blinken have done everything to alienate Putin, including watching Biden call Putin as “soulless killer” March 16. Playing into Zelensky’s hands by endorsing Ukraine’s NATO membership would be disastrous for the region. Putin wants to avoid a NATO confrontation, but, at the same time, he’s not willing to cede territory to the U.S. and NATO. “We don’t know where [the talks] could be relocated. This is the subject of discussion,” said Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, seeking to end the Minsk protocol, where aggrieved parties try to negotiate in Belarus. No one at NATO should fall for Zelensky’s dangerous trap.
