Slapping the U.S. government in the face, Ukraine said it will pursue war crimes against CEOs of U.S. Banks JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and others providing indirect financing for oil and natural gas to the Russian Federation. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief economic adviser Oleg Ustenko told CNBC that his government will file criminal complaints in the International Criminal Court [ICC] at the Hague of CEOs of U.S. major banks for supplying financing to the Russia Federation. “In our logic, everybody who is financing these war criminals who are doing the terrible things in Ukraine are also committing war crimes,” Ustenko said, stepping way out of line. If Zelensky had not covertly armed itself to the teeth with U.S. weapons in the months-and-years leading up to the Feb. 24 invasion, there would be no Ukraine War. So when Ustenko talks about “logic,” he’s off-the-wall.
Whatever commitment 79-year-old President Joe Biden has with Ukraine, it doesn’t mean that prior economic arrangements from major U.S. banks have engaged in war crimes. Whatever war crimes go on in Ukraine due to the war against the Russian Federation, Ukraine must manage the fallout, making its own decisions how to proceed. In the first five months of the war, Zelensky has lost over 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, including the entire Black Sea coast and all its ports battling the Russian Federation. No one told Zelensky he must fight the Russian Federation for every inch of Ukrainian land. Before the war started Feb. 24, Russia controlled the peoples’ republics of Donetst and Luhansk, including the Crimean Peninsula since March 1, 2024. So when Zelensky says Ukraine will fight for every inch of sovereign land, it’s now on the back of U.S. taxpayers.
Biden knows the Ukraine government is bankrupt, unable to pay civil servants, requiring the U.S. government to pay all salaries, including that of Zelensky and his 40-year-old Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. Kuleba often tells the Kremlin that Ukraine will not surrender one inch of its sovereign territory. Russian President Vladimir Putin, 69, told the Kiev government four months ago that to end the conflict Ukraine had to acknowledge the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, plus recognize Crimea as sovereign Russian territory. So, when it comes to fighting the Russian Federation, Ukraine receives most of its cash-and-arms from the United States. How Ustenko can say Kiev pursues criminal charges against JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon or Citbank CEO Jane Fraser is preposterous. Getting all his arms-and-cash from the U.S. government, Ustenko is over the top.
Biden needs to tell Zelensky that hauling U.S. Banking CEOs before the ICC is unacceptable and off-limits. Whatever financial arrangements U.S. banks have with various Russian energy concerns, it’s not up to Kiev to make the complaints. Without U.S. government cash-and-arms, Ukraine would quickly lose its war with the Russian Federation. Zelensky likes to tell the U.S. and European Union that Ukraine battles the frontlines against Russian aggression, when, in fact, they’ve been allied with the Kremlin for years. Only after the Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup in Kiev against former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, did Ukraine turn to the U.S. for military support. Putin invaded and annexed Crimea March 1, 2014, without any resistance from Kiev and Washington. So why now Ukraine fights a proxy war against the Russian Federation is anyone’s guess.
Zelensky didn’t have to battle the Russia Federation and lose so much sovereign Ukrainian territory. He could have negotiated new security arrangement with Putin for months ago, preserved his sovereignty and territorial integrity and only acknowledged independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, Russian sovereignty over Crimea. But no, Zelensky, with Biden’s arms-and-cash had to wage war against the Russian Federation. Whatever financing deal U.S. banks and Russian energy companies had before the war, Ustenko knows that they had nothing to do with Ukraine. Why should Kiev dictate with whom U.S. banks should do business when it was a Kiev decision to continue the conflict? Biden needs to tell his overly zealous Ukraine counterparts that U.S. CEOs are off limits for prosecuting in the ICC. “We are going to pursue, not maybe companies, but managers of these companies,” Ustenko said.
Instead of prosecuting U.S. banking CEOs, Zelensky should focus on whether the war effort has yielded the results needed to protect Ukraine’s national security. Without the U.S. paying billions to fund government salaries and the military, there would be no war in Ukraine. Whether JP Morgan or Citibank provides financing to Vitol, which trades Russian oil or trades in Rosneft, Sberbank, Gazprom or Lukoil, Zelensky and Ustenko are out of line collecting data to file criminal complaints against U.S. CEOs in the ICC. Only Zelensky decides whether to keep the fight going with the Russian Federation. Without U.S. cash-and-arms, Zelensky knows his days are numbered as Ukraine president. Losing some 25% of Ukraine’s strategic sovereign territory should tell Ukrainians how the war is going. If Zelensky can’t beat Putin on the battlefield, he should pivot to the peace table.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.
