United Nations General Assembly adopted a Resolution of “Cooperation between the United Nations and the Council of Europe,” collecting a 122 votes, including Russian allies like China, Kazakhstan, Armenia, India and Brazil, all acknowledging “unprecedented challenges” because of Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022 Ukraine invasion. Russia and its allies Belarus, Nicaragua, Syria, and North Korea voted against the resolution. While the resolution doesn’t mention specifically the Ukraine War, Kiev touted the resolution as against Moscow as it awaits its spring and summer offensive designed to retake lost sovereign territory over 14 months of war. Kiev has waited for new deliveries of missiles, tanks and armored personnel carriers, all of which have been deployed to the Donbas and South Ukraine battle lines. No one really knows when Ukraine will start its new counteroffensive.
Russia has been pounding Ukraine with missile and drone strikes, anticipating Kiev’s new offensive. When you consider that a secret group of NATO countries met in Ramstein, Germany to talk about arms shipments to Kiev and the upcoming offensive, none of the countries, including Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and other members of NATO talked about peace talks. All the talk of Kiev’s upcoming offensive was tempered by NATO allies concerns about depleting arsenals for Ukraine and needing to reload. Whatever Russia’s response to Kiev’s new offensive, none of the NATO allies supplying arms to Ukraine have pushed Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Volodymer Zelensky to resolve the conflict at a neutral peace table. No one in NATO knows what will happen with Kiev’s expected offensive, with some U.S. military analysts predicting very limited progress.
Russia’s recent spate of bombings of Kiev and other Ukrainian cities show how 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin anticipates the new Ukranian counteroffensive. Putin doesn’t really know what to expect with all of Kiev’s new arms shipments from the U.S. and NATO. Some analysts worry about a possible escalation in hostilities after a grinding winter, largely at loggerheads with Kiev. If there’s anyone playing catch up, it’s Zelensky who lost some 25% of Ukraine sovereign territory during the first year of war. Zelensky wants to prove to the U.S. and NATO that it’s possible with new arms shipments to reclaim lost land. Whether that happens anytime soon is anyone’s guess. Most analysts forecast that Ukraine won’t make significant gains for the foreseeable future. Because of the stalemate it only makes sense for both sides to redouble efforts at peace talks.
Recent phone call between Zelensky and Chinese President Xi Jinping indicates that Beijing wants to play an active role in peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. Kiev has been wary of China because of its close ties with Russia but there has been no active effort by the U.S. to move the conflict to the peace table. President Joe Biden, 80, has shown no interest in peace talks unless Putin is willing to remove all his troops from Ukraine. Zelensky has also demanded in any peace talks as a precondition that Putin pull out all his forces from Ukrainian territory. Putin had troops in Russian-speaking enclaves of Donetsk and Luhansk before the war, also insists that Crimea is a sovereign part of Russia. NATO countries, actively involved in supplying arms to Kiev, should be just as active seeking to end the 14th-month-old conflict. Biden must listen to his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Miley.
White House officials seems obsessed with reporting on fake Russian casualties, largely made up by Ukraine Minister of Information Kyrylo Budanov, whose fake war-related data has Ukraine winning the war. Ukraine doesn’t share its casualties witr the public yet obsesses over Russia’s losses. Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira shared classified files that the U.S. exaggerates Russian casualties, estimated at over 100,000. Miley guessed last year that Ukraine sustained about the same number of casualties as Russia. Instead of keeping score, the White House and Kiev should work toward finding, as Gen Miley calls it, a political settlement to the Ukraine War. Whatever assault Kiev mounts against the Kremlin, it’s doubtful Putin would surrender to Ukraine or the United States. EU and NATO officials, led by French President Emmanuel Macron, should push for an equitable peace conference.
No one wants the Ukraine War to spread to neighboring countries, engulfing the EU in WW III., all because Kiev cannot resolve its territorial dispute with Moscow. Putin offered Zelensky a way out of the war one month into the conflict. Putin asked Zelensky to recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk and accept Russian sovereity over Crimea. Zelensky rejected Putin’s offer and went to war against the Kremlin. Biden joined the conflict, agreeing to fund Kiev’s bankrupt government and a proxy war against the Kremlin. Biden opted to toss decades of hard-fought U.S.-Russian diplomacy under the bus to defend Ukraine. Zelensky told the U.S. Congress and European parliament that Ukraine fights to preserve Democracy in Europe. No one in Brussels believes that Zelensky’s wore-torn country defends democracy in Europe. Zelensky must look to the peace talks not the battlefield.
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.
