Calling Russian’s cancellation of the grain deal that allowed Ukraine and Russia to ship grain stockpiles out of Russian-controlled Ukrainian ports, 79-year-old President Joe Biden called the move “purely outrageous.” But Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t cancel the deal out of the blue, he cancelled after Ukraine hit Russia’s Sevastopol naval base with drones. Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky said recently he wants Russian forces out of Crimea, home to Russia’s warm water fleet in Sevastopol. When Putin agreed July 23 to allow grain shipments to proceed from Russian controlled Ukrainian ports, the U.N. guaranteed that no attacks would take place by Ukrainian forces. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, 73, worked feverishly to convince warring factions to allow millions of tons of grain to go out to third world countries, primarily in Africa to prevent mass starvation.
Zelensky denied that Kiev attacked Russian ships with drones, putting the blame squarely on Putin. “More than 2 million tons of food are in the sea,” Zelensky said in his nightly address. “Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, Bangladesh, Vietnam, other could all be destabilized by this Russia decision to block exports,” Zelensky said. What Zelensky doen’t say is that he sabotaged the grain-for-peace program by hitting Russian ships in Sevastopol with drones. “It’s going to increase starvation,” Biden said, blaming Putin for the cruel move. “There’s no reason for them to do that. But they’re always looking for some rationale to be able to say the reason they’re doing something outrageous is because the West made them do it. And there’s just no merit to what they’re doing,” Biden said. Biden and Zelensky have a choice to continue the proxy war against the Russian Federation or go to the peace table.
Biden and Zelensky have showed no interest in making peace in Ukraine. Zelensky admits that Putin controls the ports needed to ship grains out of Ukraine. But what Zelensky never admits to over the last eight months is that he’s lost 25% of Ukraine’s territory to the Kremlin, making the war a disaster. No one would be talking about Putin canceling a grain deal with Zelensky would agree to go the peace table and resolve the eight-month long conflict. Biden too acts like he has no choice to change the war, continuing to supply Kiev with unlimited cash-and-lethal arms. If Biden and Zelensky want to start negotiating with Putin, they need to let U.N. peacemakers do their jobs and find a suitable neutral territory to resolve outstanding issues. If Biden and Zelensky really care about grain shipments to the third world, they need to move the conflict from the battlefield to the peace table.
Since Aug, nearly nine millions tons of grain have been shipped from Russian-controlled Ukrainian ports. Ukraine refuses to comment on the massive attacks on Russian’s Sevastopol navy base. Calling the suspension of grain transit indefinitely, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Russia would try to discuss that situation with Istanbul. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has offered Istanbul as a neutral cite to resolve the Ukraine War. Russian’s Foreign Ministry said that the ship targeted by Ukrainian drones were involved in the safe passage of grain shipments. Russian officials said the drone attacks were coordinated with British forces, something the U.K. denies. Whatever happened in Sevastopol, Russia didn’t bomb it’s own fleet, pointing fingers at Kiev. So if Zelensky ordered the bombing of Russia’s warm water fleet in Sevastopol, he wanted to sabotage the fragile grain arrangement.
Biden and Zelensky have many options open to them to bring the war to a close. Putin has offered a peace deal based on the pre-war territories, where Russian separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk controlled the territory. Putin asked that Crimea be recognized by Kiev as a sovereign Russian territory, since it was part of Russia before Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev gifted Crimea in 1954 while Ukraine was a Soviet satellite. Before the Feb. 24 invasion, Zelensky had no control over Donetsk and Luhansk, both Russian-speaking territories wanting no part of the Kiev government. When it came to Crimea, Ukraine would still hold Crimea if they didn’t join a CIA-backed coup Feb. 22, 2014 to topple the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych. Putin hosted the Sochi winter Olympics at the time, knowing the coup threatened his Sevastopol navy base, seizing Crimea March 1, 2022.
Biden and Zelensky can rant-and-rave about Putin but it gets them nowhere. Zelensky has done more damage to Ukraine than any leader in modern history. Under what self-destructive rationale did he decide to take on the Russian Federation? What did Zelensky think would happen to his sacred homeland? Fighting now to reclaim land lost to the Kremlin over the last eight months, Zelensky keeps digging Ukraine into a deeper hole. Biden and Zelensky, if they really care about feeding the third world, other than using the grain issue to slam Putin, they’d move the Ukraine conflict off the battlefield to the peace table. U.N. peacekeepers are ready to broker a fair-and-impartial peace to get Ukraine back the lion’s share of its lost sovereign territory. If Zelensky has to compromise to secure last peace for his people, then it’s the right thing to do. Keeping the war going serves no one.
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.
