Ukraine’s 43-year-old President Volodymr Zelensksy demanded that the international community pressure 68-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin into giving up the Crimean Peninsula he seized March 1, 2014. Zelensky’s desperate to get some traction on Crimea after Putin annexed the strategic peninsula after a Feb. 22, 2014 pro-Western coup toppled the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych was driven from Kiev while Putin was hosting the Sochi Winter Olympics, unable to do anything until the games ended Feb. 23, 2914. When Putin found out that the Kiev coup was backed by the CIA, it added to his forceful response to protect the Russian warm water fleet in Sevastopol. Zelensky now convenes a Crimean Platform Summit to put pressure on Putin to return Crimea to Ukraine, something that hasn’t happened over the last seven years.
Zelensky promised in his opening remarks to “do everything possible to return Crimea, so that Crimea, together with Ukraine, becomes a part of Europe,” continuing his push to join NATO. NATO Director-General Jens Stoltenberg has resisted Zelensky’s overture, telling him that NATO’s charter prohibits membership while a country is actively engaged in military operations with another country. NATO knows about the years of strife in the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine where Russia amasses thousands of troops on the Ukraine border. One wrong move by Zelensky could result in Putin ordering the Russian army to annex the Donbass region. “For this we will use all political, legal and firs and foremost diplomatic means,” Zelensky said, asking for “effective support at the international level.” Zelensky knows that NATO isn’t interested in fighting Ukraine’s battles.
Zelensky’s been pushing the limits to return Crimea to Ukraine, including pressuring Stoltenberg to accept Ukraine into NATO membership. Inviting the U.S., European Union [EU] and Turkey to participate in the Crimean summit, Zelensky hoped to pressure Putin to come back to the table. But Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced the summit as anti-Russian. When it comes to the U.S. and EU, Russia is fed up with U.S. sanctions, most recent coming Aug. 20 when 78-year-old President Joe Biden slapped the Kremlin with new sanctions over its Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. Putin and the Kremlin see the U.S. and EU as adversaries, no longer strategic partners. Zelensky asked the Western Alliance for support to return Crimea to Ukraine at a time when Russia feels more threatened than ever by the West. Zelensky doesn’t see the Russian side of the Crimean issue.
Crimea was gifted to Ukraine in 1954 by Premier Nikta Khrushchev when it was a Soviet satellite, not the independent country today. Khrushchev had strong ties with Ukraine at the time he ceded the strategic Black Sea territory. So when pro-Western forces toppled Yanukovych in Kiev Feb. 22, 2014, Ukraine was giving a NATO foothold into the Crimean Peninsula. No one from the U.S. or EU acknowledges that the CIA-backed coup prompted Putin to take aggressive action in Crimea. “Occupation of Crimea casts doubts on the effectiveness of the entire international security system,” Zelensky said, hammering the Western Alliance the same way he did NATO. Zelensky calls on the international community to go to war with Russia. When Zelensky talks about “diplomacy,” he really wants NATO to battle Russia to retake Crimea, something that would start WW III.
Zelensky has tried to but failed to push Stoltenberg into NATO membership, knowing Kiev is actively involved in hostilities with the Russian Federation. Now Zelensky argues that Russia has turned Crimea into an armed military base that threatens the Western Alliance. Crimea under Russian occupation has little practical effect on the Western Alliance, other that recent skirmishes with Russia when a British warship got too close to the Crimean Peninsula. When Zelensky’s arguments on Crimea fell on deaf ears, he then switched gears to Russian ethnic cleansing of Crimean Tatars, claiming they faced brutal repression under Russian occupation. Zelensky’s trying every trick in the book to get the Western Alliance to confront the Kremlin. Zelensky can’t stomach the fact that he must work out his problems with Moscow directly, not try to pull the U.S. or EU into a military conflict with Russia.
Zelensky’s not to be trusted by the Western Alliance for the same reasons NATO rejected his application for membership. “We need to show the world that enthnocide of Crimean Tatars continues in Crimea,” said Ukrainian singer Jamala. “People of the world should know that we’re barred from congregating even for honoring our ancestors,” Jamala said. Whatever the plight of Crimean Tatars, it’s a smokescreen for Zelensky trying desperately to get NATO membership, or, at the very least, to drag the U.S. or EU into war with the Russian Federation. NATO and members of the EU and U.S. should sit Zelensky down and tell him to work his own problems out with Russia, not try to suck in the Western Alliance. “Ukraine will never be alone in that Crimea is Ukraine,” said EU Council President Charles Michel. Showing sympathy doesn’t mean the EU wants war with Russia.
