Let there be no mistake, 79-year-old President Joe Biden’s belligerent attitude toward 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin pushed the Kremlin to take military action in Ukraine. Biden has been disrespecting, insulting and trashing Putin since taking office Jan. 20, 2021. His rejection of Putin’s requests for a serious dialogue about security concerns in Europe over the last six weeks pushed Putin to take action. Biden, with 44-year-old Ukrainian President Voloydymyr Zelensky, has been arming Ukraine at an alarming rate, thumbing his nose at Putin, pushing him ultimately to take what he calls “retaliatory technical-military measure,” largely to degrade Ukraine’s war-making machine designed, in Putin’s mind, to retake the Crimean Peniinsula and end the separatist areas in Donbass AKA “The Peoples Republiscs of Donetsk and Luhansk, sitting only miles from the Russian border.
Biden’s rejection of Putin’s requests for meaningful diaglogue about a security guarantees prompted Putin to take action against a massive U.S. and NATO build-up of lethal weapons in Ukraine. Since taking office May 20, 2019, Zelensky has antagonized Putin begging NATO for membership. Over his time in office, Zelensky shunned Putin, eventually reaching out to Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign. Former President Donald Trump had his run-in with Zelensky asking him about Biden and his son Hunter’s work on Burisma Energy’s board. For that, Trump was impeached by House Democrats, looking for anything to remove him from office. But once Biden took office, Zelensky received accelerated U.S. military support, despite told by NATO that he would not receive membership. Biden bypassed NATO and starting supplying Ukraine offensive and defensive weapons.
When Biden met with Putin June 16 in Geneva for a summit the agenda was largely focused on recent cybersecurity attacks allegedly coming from Russia that shut down an oil pipeline and meat-packing plant. Biden made disparaging comments about Putin March 18, 2021 the eve of a U.S.-China summit in Anchorage, Alaska. Little got done in Geneva with the meeting lasting only two hours, three less than planned. Putin and Biden agreed to let their teams work on mutually agreed on issues including, cybersecurity, arms control, election interference, Ukraine and Crimea. Biden’s strained relationship with Putin was aided-and-abetted by Democrats and Republicans in Congress, both agreeing on their distrust of Putin. So when Zelensky asked Biden for more military assistance in Ukraine, Biden readily accommodated his requests, sending lethal weapons and military advisers to Ukraine.
When the U.N. Security Council met last night in emergency session, most the Western power condemned Putin’s incursion into Ukraien, calling it “unprovoked.” But if you follow Biden’s arm flows into Ukraine, Putin warned on many occasions that arming Ukraine was at threat to Russian national security. Putin asked Dec. 21, 2021 for legally-binding security guarantees, including banning Ukraine from NATO membership, stopping arms shipments into Ukraine and reduced NATO presence in Eastern Europe near Russia’s borders. Biden rejected all of Putin’s requests, telling the Kremlin that NATO would not compromise its principles on open membership nor stop its activities in Eastern Europe. So when the Security Council denounces Putin’s military operation in Ukraine as “unprovoked,” the Kremlin felt plenty provoked by Biden pouring lethal arms into Ukraine for months.
Zelensky and his 40-year-old Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba act clueless about any of Putin’s security concerns. “Russia has embarked on a path of evil, but Ukraine is defending itself and won’t give up its freedom,” Zelensky tweeted. Zelensky called for the Security Council meeting, looking for resolution that invokes Article 7 allowing the Security to order military intervention to stop Russia’s invasion. “It wasn’t Ukraine that chose the patch of war, but Ukraine is offering to go back to the path of peace,” Zelensky said, after provoking Putin into taking what he calls “retaliatory military-technical measures.” Putin warned Biden and Ukraine Dec. 21, 2021 that there would be consequences to U.S. arms shipments to Ukraine. Biden ignored all of Putin’s concerns, refusing to discuss Putin’s requests for security measures. Now Zelensky wants peace but only after Putin invaded.
Biden’s refusal to talk, discuss and negotiate Putin’s security concerns in Ukraine and Eastern Europe provoked Putin to take his “retaliatory military-technical measures” designed to de-fang the newly equipped Ukrainian military. With Putin asking that Ukraine be banned from NATO membership, what was Biden thinking that he could send military advisers and lethal weapons into Ukraine without consequences. Biden called Putin’s bluff and he invaded Ukraine to degrade its current military capability. Using Ukraine to serve U.S. interests to counter Russian aggression backfired, causing Putin to implement his “retaliatory military-technical measures. Now the U.N. Security Council will generate a resolution invoking Article 7 condemning Putin’s invasion and giving the U.S. and NATO the authority to intervene. Putin warned that any military intervention would be met with a fierce response.
