President Joe Biden, 79, announced today he was giving 44-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensking an additional $500 million on top of $13.5 billion given in early March. For anyone wondering whether the White House seeks an urgent ceasefire in Ukraine, giving Zelensky more cash assures that the war goes on. While peace negotiators from Russia and Ukraine work feverishly on a ceasefire deal in Istanbul, Biden throws more gasoline on the fire. Whether admitted to or not, Bidien calls the shots in the Ukraine War. It’s obvious that the war isn’t run out of Kiev, it’s run out of the White House. Biden’s Freudian slip March 25, telling a Polish audience in Warsaw that 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot stay in power, revealed for all to see the U.S. mission in Ukraine. Putin knows firsthand the war in Ukraine is against the U.S.
All the pro-White House press cast the war as one between Ukraine and Russia, obviously because it’s fought in Ukraine. But for all intents-and-purposes, Biden runs the War from the White House with his aim to toss Putin out of power. Asute observers note that when Biden came to office, he and his 59-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanded that Putin release 45-year-old dissident Alexi Navalny from prison. Biden and Blinken put Navalny on a pedestal largely because his clandestine organization promised to get rid of Putin. So Putin has known from Day One that Biden wants him out. Putin’s Feb. 24 Ukraine War gave Biden the perfect opportunity to run a U.S. proxy war in Ukraine, much like how the Obama administration paid Syrian rebel groups to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. When Putin decided to defend al-Assad in 2015, it threw a monkey wrench into Obama’s plans.
When it comes to Putin, there’s no love lost with Biden, who’s made it clear that Putin cannot be trusted as a global partner for anything. Biden and Blinken started ripping Putin the day they took office, turning U.S.-Russian relations into the most combative spot since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Handing Zelensky another $500 million won’t send a green light to negotiators in Istanbul to make concessions. Putin echoed the sticking point today saying that the Crimean Peninsula was Russian territory, not something negotiable over 15 years. Putin could have asked his chief negotiator to see a long-term lease in Crimea to protect his Sevastopol Naval base. Putin doesn’t want Ukraine booting the Russian Federation out of Sevastopol in the next 15 years. So, there are ways to satisfy both sides, simply by Putin acknowledging Ukraine’s sovereignty with a long lease agreement.
All effort by the White House and Kiev should go toward hammering out a workable ceasefire agreement in Instanbul. All the hostile rhetoric by Biden and Zelensky toward Putin, including trying to oust him from power, makes peace negotiations next to impossible. Russia said last week that it was finishing its first phase of the war and moving on to Donetsk and Luhansk. Kremlin’s announcement was met with skepticism by U.S. officials, not trusting that Russia was serious about a ceasefire. But with remaining issues under dispute, like the sovereignty of Crimea, it’s no wonder that both sides hit roadblocks. Turkish officials, led by 68-year-old Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, are serving as a neutral brokers, trying to get a ceasefire deal. Zelensky thinks with all the U.S. cash it’s OK to continue fighting when he’s witnessing Ukraine bombed into the Stone Age. With some 5 million refugees fleeing Ukraine, it’s not fair to keep the war going.
Zelensky keeps telling Ukraine’s resistance to fight to the last drop of blood, not someone looking for an off-ramp. Meanwhile Putin continue to use his superior air power to hammer Ukraine’s towns and cities. When you consider that Ukraine has not controlled Crimea, Donetsk or Luhanks for eight years, you’d think Zelensky would have more flexibility on meeting Putin’s ceasefire conditions. Even on the sovereign issue of Crimea, Zelensky could offer Putin a long-term lease, much like China did with Hong Kong. Putin knows he won’t be around in 100 years, so a long-term lease agreement only makes sense. Whether Crimea was originally Russian territory, it was given to Ukraine while a Soviet satellite by Nikita Khrushchev in 1954. Putin could still honor the gift by extracting a long-term lease for his Sevastopol naval base, something that could complete the ceasefire agreement.
Without a firm ceasefire commitment from the White House, the European Union [EU] and NATO should 100% back Erdogan’s peace efforts in Istanbul. Instead of haggling over technicalities, the EU must put as much pressure on Zelensky to find a solution that works for Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine hasn’t had sovereignty over Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk since 2008, so Zelensky gives up nothing to Putin to end the war, stopping the decimation and carnage. Arguing over sovereignty is a moot point when so many lives and property are at stake. White House officials are too consumed with who’s winning-and-losing the war to see the devastation to Ukraine. Zelensky wants to play hero going-toe-to-toe with Putin, a bad strategy for Ukraine. Zelensky should save the $14 billion U.S. investment to rebuild the country, not continue to fight to the death, serving no one in Ukraine.
