Standing up to President Joe Biden, 79, 74-year-old Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, former head of the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank [ECB], said today that Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin should meet to end the Ukraine War. Draghi’s the first influential European Leader to say enough-is-enough with the Ukraine War, asking all sides to go to Istanbul in good faith for peace talks. Draghi recognized the Biden and Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky talk tough about oontinuing the Ukraine War until defeating the Russian Federation. “We agreed that we must continue to support Ukraine and put pressure on Moscow, but also begin to ask how to build peace,” Draghi said, diplomatically asking Biden to begin the hard work at the peace table. Biden talked about supporting Ukraine but supplying endless arms-and-cash is no support at all.
For the first time a respected member of the European Union [EU] has pushed backed on Biden’s proxy war, now paying Ukraine to battle the Russian Federation. Biden and Zelensky have itemized Putin’s failures since the Feb. 24 war began, saying the mighty Russian military failed in Ukraine. Draghi knows when he looks at the map of Kremlin-controlled territory in Ukraine he knows that Putin has done anything but fail to accomplish his military objectives. Ukraine no longer controls its Black Sea coastline from Odesa to Sevastopol in Crimea. So, by anyone’s analysis, how has Ukraine won the war with Russia? Zelensky keeps talking that he’ll never surrender, meaning he’ll continue battling until Ukraine is a rock pile. Biden can’t possibly believe that he’s going to defeat the Russian military. Draghi sees the egregious flaws in Biden and Zelensky’s logic going forward.
Biden actually thought he could wage proxy war against the Russian Federation would topple Putin’s government. Zelensky keeps asking for more cash-and-arms, fueling what amounts to an endless war against the Russian Federation. Meanwhile the people of Ukraine die and get driven from their homes. “In the beginning, it was a war in which one thought there was a Goliath and a David . . . [Now] there is certainly no longer a Goliath,” Draghi said, referring to the fact that Ukraine has put up more resistance against Russia than expected. “What has seemed like an invincible power in the field . . . has proved to be a non-invnicible power,” Draghi said of Russia. But despite Russia taking a longer path to victory, it’s doesn’t mean the costs of the Ukraine War outweigh the deaths-and-destruction to the Russian military. Draghi thinks Putin would be open to ending the war.
Draghi’s call for peace talks has fallen on deaf ears in Washington and Kiev, largely because they’re stuck in a rut battling each other to loggerheads. No one is making progress in winning the Ukraine War. Ukraine knows it’s virtually lost all of its Black Sea coastline, something that will have to be negotiated in final settlement talks in Istanbul. Unlike Biden and Zelensky, Draghi sees no point to continuing the proxy war in Ukraine. Sending more lethal arms to Ukraine accomplished nothing other than keeping the war going indefinitely. Biden and Kiev don’t like Draghi’s message because they see it a acquiescing to Putin. Yet when you look at gains-and-loses, Russia has gained far more Ukrainian territory the longer the war goes on. Ending the war would be the fastest time for Ukraine to eventually get some of its territory back. Draghi sees nothing but losses for Ukraine.
Draghi entered talks with Biden knowing that he wasn’t the only one that wants the war to end. Other EU leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz agree with Draghi that the longer the war goes the greater the chance of a mishap, possibly triggering WW III. Biden and Zelensky won’t admit that no one in the EU wants Biden to prosecute a proxy war against the Russian Federation. Biden’s tough economic sanctions, blocking Russia’s oil sales, has created worldwide shortages and skyrocketing prices. Insisting that other countries that back the U.S. war in Ukraine boycott Russian oil has caused a widespread shortages, skyrocketing prices and destabilized financial markets. Biden’s Ukraine War has severely damaged global financial markets. Whatever war Biden wages in Ukraine, it shouldn’t drag down the world economy.
Draghi told Biden May 12 the he wanted “to put and end to these massacres and this violence, this butchery,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, on her last day on the job, gave the White House talking points. “We feel the most constructive role is to continue to support the Ukrainians’ hand at the negotiating table and support them militarily,” Psaki said, contradicting Dragh’s message. Draghi delivered a powerful message to Biden that the EU coalition was losing patience with what looks like an unending war. Draghi told Biden that his coalition partners, including France and Germany, seek to end the war, not continue to supply Ukraine with more lethal weapons. Biden has stubbornly refused to accept that the war cannot be won on the battlefield, must be negotiated at the peace table. Ukraine gets no more leverage at the pace table losing more costal real estate.
