Speaking to CBS News, 43-year-old President Emmanuel Macron, who faces a tough election battle next April 22, 2022, talked tough about Russian forces amassed on the Russian side of the border with Donabass, Ukraine. “We will never accept new military operations on Ukrainian soil,” Macron said, sending a clear warning to 68-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. Macron talked about new sanctions on Russia if Putin decides to annex Russian-speaking territory in the Donbass or Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Since Ukraine’s independence from the no defunct Soviet Union in 1991, Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine’s rust-belt, once used by the Soviets as heavy manufacturing, have been neglected by successive Kiev governments, including the pro-Russian government of Vitkor Yanukovych, toppled Feb. 22, 2014 by a CIA-backed coup in Kiev.
Macron mentions nothing with his warnings for Putin about the illegal coup that drove Yanukovyh from power while Putin hosted the Sochi Winter Olympics. Putin watched helplessly as Yanukovych was chased out of Kiev by a pro-Western coup led by former heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko, now the mayor of Kiev. Klitschko has close ties to the United States and European Union [EU] and has been seeking NATO membership for the last seven years. Macron watched as former French President Francois Hollande’s Economy Minister Putin seize Crimea as a Russian territory, concerned that he couldn’t trust Klischko’s government to honor commitments to Russia’s Sevastopol navy base in the Crimean Peninsula. But if Macron wants to go back over some recent history, he’ll find that Putin was blindsided by the Feb. 22, 2014 coup that toppled Yahukovych.
Throwing gasoline on a volatile situation, Macron exposes for all to see why he’s likely to lose the next presidential election. “And I think after an unacceptable behavior, indeed, we have to sanction,” when asked by CBS New about more sanctions. President Joe Biden, 78, slapped the Russian Federation with new sanctions April 16, over largely controversial allegations of meddling in the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections. Biden didn’t hesitate to accuse Putin of hacking SolarWinds network management software used by the Pentagon and other government agencies. Whether Russian-based hackers penetrated the SolarWinds program, where’s the accountability from SolarWinds for having an easily hackable program sold to the U.S. government for millions. SolarWinds, not Russia, should be held accountable for its bereft cybersecurity the software company programs.
Whatever the reasons Biden gave about hitting Putin with more sanctions, Macros tried to show support to the U.S. but wound up showing complete weakness. “And I think we have to define clear lines with Russia. This is the only way to be credible.” Macron and the EU have zero credibility when it comes to challenging Putin in Ukraine or anywhere else. No one at the EU did anything in 2008 when Putin marched the Red Army into Georgia’s South Ossestia and Abkhazia in 2008 or six years later when he returned the Crimean Peninsula to Mother Russia. “I think that sanctions are not sufficient in themselves, but sanctions are part of the package,” hinting like he’d commit troops to preserving Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. No one in the EU or NATO wants to confront Russia on the battlefield, as evidence by the feckless response in 2014 by the U.S., EU and NATO.
Macron stirs the pot for Ukraine by hinting that the Western Alliance, as defined by NATO, would go to war against Russia if Putin moves to annex more Ukrainian territory. Zelensky has been meeting with EU officials about the prospects of defending Ukraine in the even of a Russian incursion into Donabass. Macron held a meeting at Elysee Palace in Paris with Zelensky with a Zoom line to German Chancellor Angela. Both pledged their support to Zelensky regarding any possible Russian land grab but, like the Biden White House, no commit was made for ground troops. Whatever conflict Zelensky has with Putin, he makes things a lot worse for Ukraine by meeting with Macron and Merkel over the fate of Donbass. Threatening Putin with more sanctions or hinting at military support only makes the situation on the ground worse. U.S., EU and NATO have not intent of defending Ukraine.
Whatever hasn’t worked out with the Minsk Protocol, designed to offer a lasting ceasefire in Donbass, Zelensky’s continued consultation with the U.S., EU and NATO pushes the situation in eastern Ukraine to the brink. Zelensky needs to work out his difference with Putin, not use the U.S., EU and NATO to threaten the Russian Federation with war, something that won’t happen. ”I’m sure that President [Vladimir] Putin can be ready to reopen dialogue,” Macron told CBS News. “We need an open and frank dialogue with Russia,” Macron said about many topics. Macron knows that threatening Putin with military action or more sanctions won’t stop him if Zelensky continues to threaten joining NATO. Macron thinks he’s laying down “red lines,” but clearly Putin has called NATO involvement in Ukraine a “red line” for military intervention to protect Russian-peaking citizens in Donbass.
