On the anniversary of the Ukraine War, 80-year-old President Joe Biden announced more sanctions to the G7 in a virtual meeting on 70-year-old President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation. One year into the war, Ukraine survives as an independent country but has watched its infrastructure laid to waste over one year of combat with the Kremlin. Biden claims victory, declaring that Putin will “never win” the war, spewing platitudes knowing that he’s left Ukraine in rubble, proud that it survived a year of war with the Kremlin but at what costs? Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky has no plan to end the war, other than taking more cash-and-weapons from the U.S. and NATO. Biden claims victory because Putin did not conquer Ukraine in the first week of the Feb. 24, 2022 invasion. Putin never intended to takeover all of Ukraine.
Biden’s claims of victory in Ukraine are belied by the fact that Zelensky has lost some 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, losing nearly the entire Black Sea coast and all of Ukraine’s strategic ports. So, after a year of a wasteful, tortuous and grinding war, Zelensky finds Ukraine in a stalemate with the Russian Federation, unable to take one step forward without two backwards. Biden can claim victory because he boasts about his European Union coalition, all going along with him but knowing they want no part of war on the European Continent. Selling the war as a battle for democracy, Biden and Zelensky know that it’s NATO’s job, not Ukraine’s, to defend European democracy. Ukraine’s war-torn, bankrupt country barely holds its own, let along leads any military campaign to protect Western democracy. Announcing new sanctions today, Biden admits the war has gone nowhere.
Zelensky has been mum after China announced a 12-point plan to end the year-old conflict, doing nothing for Ukraine other than bankrupt its economy and destroy its dilapidated infrastructure. Whatever new weapons, including tanks and long-range missiles, Kiev receives in the next few months, it won’t stop the carnage or destruction of Ukraine’s infrastructure. Zelenky hasn’t yet spoken about the Chinese peace plan because he’ll blame China for being on Russia’s side. Every time anyone suggests a peace plan, Zelensky and his 41-year-old Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba dismiss it as Russian propaganda. When former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, 98, suggested Kiev would have to make compromises for peace, he was dismissed as a old crank. Billionaire Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter CEO Elon Musk was savaged by Zelensky for his own peace proposal, full of good ideas.
When you look at the big picture, the Ukraine War destabilizes the world economy, increasing the prospects of war spreading to the European Continent. Biden’s decision to fund a proxy war against the Kremlin using Ukrainian troops to degrade the Russian military has backfired. All the weapons given to Zelensky has helped turn the conflict into a statemate, where neither side has a decisive battlefield advantage. “One year ago, the G7 met following Putin’s assault against Ukraine,” Biden tweeted. “Now, not only does Ukraine stand, but the global coalition in support of Ukraine is stronger than ever, with the G7 as its anchor.” Biden knows that the so-called global coalition is mainly the EU, with China and India remaining neutral or leaning toward Russia. Biden’s latest actions are designed to cover-up the fact that the war has gone poorly for Kiev over the last year.
Russia has Ukraine in a grinding war of attrition, the same kind of conflict seen decades ago in Afghanistan and Chechnya, both inflicting mass casualties for both sides but playing into Putin’s playbook. Biden and Zelensky have little to show after one year of war, other than saying Putin couldn’t conquer Kiev. Biden touts his G7 coalition but he’s alienated China over the past two years to the point he’s concerned the Peoples Republic of China [PRC] provides material support to Russia to fight the Ukraine War. Whatever leverage the U.S. had in the past with Russia and China, Biden has wrecked cooperative relations for the foreseeable future. Biden’s foreign policy has driven Russia and China into a strategic and military partnership, largely to confront what they see as U.S. global hegemony. Decades of cooperative relations with Russia and China have been lost under Biden.
Biden said Putin canceling the 2010 START treaty was “a big mistake,” knowing that his proxy war against the Kremlin has pushed Putin into a corner. Biden’s Ukraine policy has made conduction U.S. foreign policy more difficult without the benefits of pragmatic relations with Russia and China. Ukraine has no strategic national security significance to the United States. Talking about preserving democracy in Europe is utter rubbish, another smokescreen to justify a wasteful and costly war. One year into the conflict, Ukrine is far worse off than it was had Zelensky negotiate with Putin early on to end the conflict. Putin wanted only three things: Independence of Donetsk and Luhansk and Russian sovereignty over Criimea. Zelsnky went to war against the Kremlin for now reason. Putin already had control of Donetsk, Luhans and Crimea before the Feb. 24, 2022 invasion. No what does Zelensky have?
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.
