Getting a more sober picture of what’s happening with the war, 44-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded for the world to help but so far only deaf ears, only willing to slap 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin with economic sanctions. No country in the Western alliance, including the U.S., is willing to commit troops or honor Zelensky’s request for a no-fly-zone. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said March 1 that enforcing a no-fly-zone would involve shooting down Russian fighter jets, not something he’s willing to do. President Joe Biden, 79, said a no-fly-zone would start WW III, possibly a nuclear war. Yet Zelensky asked Biden and Johnson to fight Russia on behalf of Ukraine, speaking volumes of how he wouldn’t hesitate to start WW III, as long as he could get back at Putin. Western officials need to see Zelensky is clearly out for himself.
U.S. media portrays Zelensky as a hero confronting the Goliath Russian Federation but the truth is he’s been provoking Putin since taking office May 20, 2019 to obtain NATO membership. Thank NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg for push Zelensky off, knowing Ukraine has been in a war with Russia since 2014 in the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine. Zelensky’s can’t stomach the fact that the Peoples Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk want no part of Kiev’s pro-Western government. Kiev’s 50-year-old mayor Vitali Klitschko, who helped head the Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup, finds himself trapped in Kiev, with Russian troops closing in. Zelensky has given all Ukrainians orders to fight-to-the-death, knowing that the chance of surviving the Russian onslaught is slim-and-none. Zelensky hasn’t accepted reality that Ukraine’s on the verge of total destruction.
What could be more selfish for a leader than letting his people die for the cause, all because he antagonized Putin for the last three years? Things got really bad when NATO refused membership and Biden decided to bypass NATO and supply Ukraine with lethal weapons over the objections of Putin. Putin told Biden Dec. 24, 2021 that if new security arrangements were not made with Ukraine and Eastern Europe, he would take “military-technical measure” to protect Russian national security. What was wrong with Biden to ignore Putin’s requests for talks on security over the last two-months? All Biden would tell Putin is that all his ideas were “non-starters.” So when Putin invaded Ukraine Feb. 24, it was due to three years of Zelensky’s provocations and two months of Biden ignoring Putin’s requests for security talks. Zelensky sees what comes next but is too busy getting egged on Biden.
In a moment of rare honesty, Zelensky gave a true picture of his real mood. “The end of the world has arrived,” Zelensky said a televised news conference. Zelensky hoped he’d made enough of an emotional appeal before Biden’s State-of-the-Union Speech to get Biden to commit to a no-fly-zone. When that didn’t happen, Zelensky’s mood turned sour. “If you do not have the power to close the skies, then give planes,” Zelensky said. Zelensky was dead serious asking Biden and Boris Johnson for a no-fly-zone that would put both countries at war with Russia. So, when dealing with Zelensky, Biden should have no illusions that he’d set the European Continent ablaze to retaliate against Putin if he could. Biden’s easily seduced by Zelensky’s impassioned pleas to save democracy from a Hitler-like tyrant. Zelsenky provoked Putin to the point he invaded, not he scrambling to survive.
Putin has laid out the conditions for a cease fire at three preliminary meetings near the Belarus border. Zelensky has rejected all Russian offiers, like Biden as “non-starters,” including (1) declaring Ukraine neutral, (2), accepting Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk as Russian territory and (3) stop accepting arms from the U.S. and other NATO countries. Everyday that Zelensky rejects Putin’s peace offer, there’s more destruction and carnage to Ukraine’s infrastructure and citizens. Zelensky know that life would not change in Ukraine one iota if he accepted Putin’s ceasefire conditions. Ukraine doesn’t control Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk. Declaring neutrality would satisfy Putin’s security concern that Ukraine would not be a U.S. puppet regime sitting on Russian’s Eastern border. As Putin’s noose tightens around Ukraine’s major cities, there’s no excuse for Zelensky not to negotiate a ceasefire.
Zelensky’s a clever manipulator when it comes to his public appeals to Europe, the U.S. and NATO. He’s got the world press talking about his heroics but, in reality, he’s a selfish coward not admitting how he squandered three years of diplomacy with Moscow, playing on Biden’s gullibility, not only from age-related decline but his Russo-phobia sweeping through Capitol Hill and a big part of his 2020 campaign. “Sit down with me and talk. What are you afraid of? We’re not threat to anyone,” Zelensky said, insulting Putin, while inviting him to the peace table. Seizing the port city of Khrerson, it a matter of time before Kharkiv and Kiev also fall to Russian forces. Instead to sending his citizens to their graves, Zelensky’s courage should be his willingness to cut a ceasefire deal at the earliest possible time. Only by compromising, can Zelensky save himself and Ukrainian citizens.
