Billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, 51, was rebuked by Kiev for daring to suggest and end to the Ukraine War, something Kiev won’t do unless the U.S. pulls the plug on Ukraine’s funding. Ukraine receives most of its funding to pay government salaries from the U.S. and to fund the war against the Russian Federation. With unlimited cash-and-arms flowing from the U.S. and NATO, Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky has zero incentive to end the war. Most discussions in the press are about the prospects of 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin using tactical nukes in Ukraine or, worse yet, firing ICBMs at U.S. targets, should the war take an ugly turn for the worse for the Kremlin. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Ukraine War is the collective West trying to destroy the Russian Federation, something Putin acknowledged Oct. 30.
Former Centcom commander and disgraced CIA Director David Petraeus has been talking about Putin’s dire situation in Ukraine. While it’s true that the battlefield shifts around, it’s also true that after seven months of fighting Putin controls the entire Black Sea coast and all of Ukraine’s strategic ports. So like other propagandists from Kiev, Washington, London and Brussels, Petraeus only talks about Russian losses in Ukraine. Long-range prospects are up in the air for Ukraine, since Zelensky presided over the lost of 25% of Ukraine’s territory. Getting back every square mile of Russian occupied territory is seen as a great victory by Kiev and colossal failure by Moscow. Yet as the battlefield changes, so does the areas of occupation. So far, Putin has won the territorial battle in Ukraine, something that could change in the future but not without U.S. funding.
Without U.S. funding the Kiev government could not pay its salaries nor continue the war effort. Zelensky said he’s applied for accelerated NATO membership, whatever that means. He’s been told by 64-year-old NATO Secretary-General Jens Stotenberg, that NATO requires 100% consensus of its 30 members to join the Trans-Atlantic Alliance. No one in NATO, including Stoltenberg, wants to take on the Russian Federation, opening up a war on the European Continent. From Day 1, Feb. 24, Zelensky has asked the U.S. and NATO to send troops to Ukraine and to set up a no-fly-zone. U.S. and NATO officials rejected Zelensky’s request on the basis that it would potentially start WW III. Zelensky told the U.S. and NATO that WW III has already started in Ukraine, giving daily excuses why the U.S. and NATO should intervene. Zelensky heard again that NATO is in no hurry to sign Ukraine up.
Musk tried to come up with some common sense ways to shift the destructive conflict to the peace table. Musk thinks that Crimea should stay as Russian sovereign territory since it was a gift to Ukraine by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1954, when Ukraine was a Soviet satellite. All that changed in 1991 when the Soviet Union broke up and many former satellites got their independence. Musk’s formula for peace was exactly the same as Putin at the outset of the war when he told Zelensky the war would end if Kiev recognized the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk and that Crimea was a Russian territory. Zelensky told Putin “no way,” rejecting his peace offer, gambling that he could defeat the Russian Federation. Zelensky’s decision cost untold destruction to Ukraine’s infrastructure, nearly 6,000 deaths and 15 million citizens displaced to other countries.
Musk’s plan was no different than Zelensky had at the start of the conflict, namely, he had no control over Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea. Yet flush with U.S. cash-and-arms, Zelensky decided to gamble with Ukraine’s infrastructure and sovereign territory, losing 25% to the Kremlin in the last seven weeks. While analysts like Petraeu like to talk about Putin’s failure, they don’t talk about Zelensky’s failures, clearly much greater that Putin’s. Zelensky claims Ukraine would never cede territory to Russia taken by force. But Donetsk and Luhansk were independent of Kiev at the start of the war and continue their independence. Crimea has been in Russian hands since the Feb. 22, 2014 pro-Western, CIA-backed Kiev coup that ousted Kremlin-backed Kiev President Viktor Yanukovych. So, when it comes to losses in the last seven months, Ukraine has lost more sovereign territory to the Kremlin.
Zelensky thinks he has a black check from 79-year-old President Joe Biden to continue fighting the war against the Kremlin. Putin said Sept. 30 that he sees the war as the U.S. and NATO war to destroy the Russian Federation. Biden said March 26 in Warsaw, Poland that Putin should not remain Russian President. Zelensky said Oct. 3 that he will not negotiate peace if Putin is still president. Musk tried his best to make some bridging proposals to end the conflict, only to be told by Kiev to “F-Off.” With an attitude like that, it’s no wonder that the war rages on, with Pundits debating the prospects of nuclear war. Zelensky isn’t concerned about WW III on the European Continent or nuclear war for that matter, he only wants to beat Putin on the battlefield. Musk tried to offer constructive suggestions on how to end the conflict to reduce the chance of a bigger calamity..
About the About
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
