Meeting tonight in emergency session, the U.N. Security Council waited until the 11th hour to take up the Ukraine crisis, promising to destabilize the European Continent, potentially plunging the region into war. U.S. President Joe Biden has taken a tough stance on Russian President Vladimir Putin, refusing to negotiate or even discus the Kremlin’s security problems with NATO, especially Ukraine. Biden told Putin on a call Feb. 12 that if he invades Ukraine he’d be slapped with unimaginable sanctions, in a threat he’s been repeating for the last five weeks. But instead to finding common ground and dealing with Putin’s security concerns, the best Biden would do was tell Putin his ideas were “non-starters,” meaning there was no room to talk. Today Putin ordered by executive decree the Russian Federation to recognize the Peoples’ Republic of Donetsk and People’s Republic of Luhansk, both separatist parts of Ukraine.
Ukraine asked for the Security Council meeting knowing that China holds a veto over any resolution which come from the meetings. Ukraine harbors resentment over Putin’s March 1, annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, vowed to never again to let Putin take one inch of Ukrainian territory. With Putin’s decree today, he officially recognizes the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk areas as part of Russia. Ukraine’s 43-year-old Ukranian President Voloydymyr Zelensk knows that Donetsk and Lunhansk rebelled against Kiev rule once a Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup toppled the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovich. Once Kiev fell into pro-Western hands, Putin’s Sevastopol naval base in Crimea was threatened. Putin seized the Crimean Peninsula once he finished hosting the Sochi Winter Games. Not one Western country or press report acknowledges what happened Feb. 22, 2014.
When Ukraine was integrated with the Soviet Union, there were Russian enclaves in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, long before the current crisis with Kiev’s government. Once a pro-Western, U.S.-backed faction took over Kiev, Russian speakers under Soviet rule were left to themselves, allowed to stay close connected to Moscow. Only after the Soviet Union disbanded Dec. 25, 1991, did Ukraine become more nationalistic, separating their identities from Moscow. Putn’s recognition of Donetsk today and Luhansk was long overdue, because both regions want nothing to do with the pro-Western Kiev government. So, when it comes to forcing Donetsk and Luhansk to assimilate into Kiev, it was never going to be easy. But Western states and press like to blame Putin for the rift between Donetsk, Luhansk and Kiev. With or without a Russian invasion, Kiev can’t force separatists into conformity.
Putin’s chess move today recognizing the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, checkmates Kiev and Washington. Biden’s only option now is to send troops to Ukraine’s Eastern border in a suicide mission for U.S. soldiers. Recognizing the separatist areas forces Biden to either negotiate with Putin on his security guarantees or go to war militarily or economically. European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said today she was preparing EU sanctions if Putin moves his army across the Ukraine border. Zelensky already asked Biden to apply sanctions before an invasion, something Biden was reluctant to do since he’s made sanctions contingent on invasion. But with Donetsk and Luhansk asking Putin for military help, can the U.S., EU and NATO really call Russian troop movements an invasion?
Invasions, by definition, happen when cross-border forces attempt to repel unwanted invaders, not welcome them to the territory. Donetsk and Luhansk welcome any Russian troops to protect themselves from Ukraine’s military. Russia claimed today that a cross-border attack with Ukrainian saboteurs was repelled by Russian forces. Zelensky calls the report a “false flag” operation, where Russia makes up any pretext for invasion. Whether Biden wants to admit it or not, if Russian troop enter Ukraine to stabilize Donetsk and Luhansk, Donetsk’s leader Denis Pushlilin or Luhansk’s leader Leonid Pasechnik both invite Putin’s forces into the area. If a referendum were held today, Donetsk and Luhansk would vote to leave Kiev and join Moscow. Biden doesn’t have a lot of time left to show Putin that he’s prepared to make the concessions needed for Moscow’s national security.
