With Russian hysteria at a fever’s pitch and with the U.S. media mesmerized by 44-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, reporting on the Ukraine War has hit an all time journalist low. President Joe Biden, 79, hoped that getting $10 billion in military funding for Ukraine would keep the conflict going of months, just in time to boost Democrats chances in the Midterm elections. Whether admitted to or not, the U.S. is now funding its Ukraine proxies to fight the Russian Federation. Zelensky spoke via Zoom link today to 100 members of the U.S. Senate and 200 invited guests, letting Zelensky’s charm offensive continue to sweep elected officials off their feet. Zelensky’s PR team knows exactly the right hot buttons to push to get as much mileage as possible out of U.S. lawmakers. Democrats and Republicans are joined at the hip with their longstanding hatred of Russia.
Zelensky had the temerity to keep selling Congress on implementing a no-fly-zone in Ukraine, something, in short order, would create WW II. Telling lawmakers that Ukraine’s fight for freedom is their own, because if Putin wins, the rest of Eastern Europe will fall like dominoes. Whether he plays dominoes or not, Zelensky knows how to play on U.S. and European fears about Putin continuing his campaign to recreate the Soviet Union or Romanoff’s Russia Empire. Rubbish like that plays well in the U.S. Congress where the last 75-years has created such twisted propaganda about the Soviet Union and now Russian Federation that brainwashing is complete. Zelensky whips up as much Russian hysteria to get what he wants from the U.S., mainly good old green American dollars. Biden’s commitment to an additional $10 billion guarantees that the war drags on for a long time.
Whether conventional wisdom is correct in U.S. politics about a war helping an incumbent’s approval ratings is anyone’s guess. Right now Biden’s aggregate approval ratings since the March 1 State-of-the-Union speech has jumped a whopping one percent to 41.6%. While not significant, the Ukraine War should boost his ratings in the weeks to come. Giving $10 billion to Ukraine and more Mig-29 floggers from Poland and other NATO countries should buy Zelensky some time. Why negotiate a ceasefire with Putin when he expects too many concessions? Putin stated clearly for the war to end, he wants Ukraine to declare its neutrality and provide legal guarantees that Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk are now Russian territories. Taking Biden’s cash, Zelensky no longer has to make a deal with Putin but can continue the fighting, regardless of the collateral damage and destruction of Ukraine.
Zelensky’s Zoom speech in the U.S. Senate today gives anti-Russian war hawks all the red meat they could ever want. Watching them all fall for Zelensky’s charm offensive shows human vulnerability to a good salesman. Putin said today he has “no ill-intentions” to his neighbors, trying to reassure former Soviet satellites that he won’t seek to topple any other NATO or non-NATO states. “We see no need to exacerbate the situation or worsen our relations,” Putin said on state-owned Russia-24 news station. “I think everyone should think about normalizing relations and cooperating normally,” Putin said, responding to the avalanche of U.S. and EU sanctions that have crippled the Russian economy. Whatever sanctions relief Putin wants, he’ll get none until he pulls every last troop out of Ukraine. Putin’s statements seek to challenge Zelensky’s anti-Russian rhetoric.
Putin is no longer human in the Western press, now demonized like Adolf Hitler, the German tyrant that killed over 20 million Russians in WW II. No country fighting in WW II came close to the economic and human toll as Russia, creating an extreme defensive posture after WW II. Putin wants Western powers to know that Russia is not trying to reclaim the Soviet Union or Russian Empire but has implacable national security red lines about the United States setting up shop in Ukraine on its border. Putin’s keys to a ceasefire could not be more clear: A formal declaration of neutrality by the Ukraine government. Relations with Ukraine went south when a Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup toppled the duly elected pro-Kremlin Kiev government of Viktor Yanukovych. Putin annexed the Crimean Peninsula March 1, 2014 to protect his Sevastopol naval base.
Putin invaded Ukraine after years of provocations by Zelensky seeking NATO membership. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg wisely rejected Zelensky’s attempts at membership knowing it would pit NATO against the Russian Federation. All of Zelensky’s tough talk today in his Zoom meeting with the U.S. Senate is precisely why Stoltenberg kept Ukraine out of NATO. No one in NATO or the EU wants war on the European Continent with Russia. Yet Biden seized the opportunity to push Putin over the edge for the last three months, refusing to negotiate new security arrangements in Ukraine and Europe. Biden pounced on the opportunity to incite Putin to war knowing it would help his plunging approval ratings and fate of Democrats in the November Midterm elections. Putin laid out reasonable grounds for a ceasefire and peace talks, all of which rejected by the U.S. and Ukraine.
