Striking Kiev with hypersonic “Kinzhal” missiles, Ukraine claims that its Patriot Missile battery stopped six missiles fired from air and sea at the Ukrainian capital. Reports of fires and damage were suppressed by Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Minister Kyrylo Budanvo, never admitting to any Ukraine losses in the 15-month old war. Yet independent press accounts showed fires in different parts of Kiev. Kinzhal aero-ballistic hypersonic missiles, the most fired at any time of the war, penetrated Kiev’s air defense systems, at least enough to cause fires and panic. Consistent with Budanov’s strategy, today’s air strikes by 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin all failed, despite reports by independent press accounts. Putin escalated his air strikes on Kiev to serve notice that Western statements of how the Russian military has failed to advance its progress in the Ukraine War..
Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Volodymer Zelensky said recently that he would never speak with “insane” Putin to resolve the conflict, something, so far, supported by the United States. President Joe Biden, 80, has given Zelensky a “blank check,” now over $200 billion, to fund the bankrupt Kiev government and pay for the war against the Kremlin. Biden’s decision to fund a proxy war using Ukrainian troops to battle the Kremlin as all but destroyed decades of détente, putting the U.S. on a war footing with Moscow. All the peace efforts, spearheaded by 24-year-old French President Emmanuel Macron, China, Brazil and now South African President Cyril Ramaphosa have all fallen of deaf ears. Zelensky and Biden continue their war with Moscow, seeking to topple Putin’s government. Missiles were fired from MIG-31K warplanes and S-400 missiles from the Black Sea.
Whatever the air assault, it underscores the necessity of urgent peace talks, where Zelensky and Biden must stop the madness of trying to topple Putin’s government and start to find a political solution to the 15-mont-old war. Zelensky set an unrealistic set of demands to end the conflict, including having Putin tried in The Hague as a war criminal, pay reparations for Ukraine’s reconstruction and demand that every Russian soldier leave Ukraine. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula March 1, 2014, home to its Sevastopol Black Sea fleet naval base, after a Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup toppled the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych. Putin was forced to annex Crimea to protect his Sevastopol naval base. So when it comes to the current Ukraine War, Putin could not tolerate the U.S. and NATO supplying unlimited arms to Kiev for a possible war with the Russian Federation.
Calling the nighttime attack “exceptional in its density—the maximum number of attacking missiles in the shortest period of time,” said Serhil Popko, head of Kiev’s military administration. Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the Kinzhal hypersonic missiles destroyed a Patriot Missile battery, something denied by Kiev. Ihnat, the Ukraine Air Force spokesman, had no comment on Russia’s claim of destroying a Patriot Missile Battery. Zelensky’s policy, carried out by Budanov, is never to admit any battlefield losses in terms of carnage and infrastructure damage. Ihnat’s “no comment” suggests that Russia may have hit its target. Last night’s air strike on Kiev could get much worse if Zelensky doesn’t take recent peace efforts by France, China, Brazil and South Africa more seriously. Zelensky calls all the peace efforts favoring the Kremlin.
China’s peace envoy Li Hui is slated to visit Kiev and Moscow in the next week to advance China’s peace proposal, something resisted by Washington and Kiev. Chinese President Xi Jinping says China remains neutral, something Biden and Zelensky see as biased toward Russia. Zelensky plays coy with Xi, saying, on the one hand, he’s receptive to China’s peace proposal, but, on the other hand, privately doubts China’s motives. China wants the war to end but refused to join Biden’s sanctions or, for that matter, to denounce the Russian Federation. Taking a strong role in peace efforts, Xi wants the world to see that Biden resists peace efforts, a role once played regularly by the United States. When it comes to Ukraine, Biden fights a proxy war against the Kremlin to topple Putin’s government. No one in the European Union [EU] or NATO agrees with Biden’s plan.
Zelensky and Biden can only resist peace efforts for so long, as France, Brazil, China and South Africa have applied more pressure on Kiev and Washington to move from the battlefield to the peace table. Biden and Zelensky miscalculated Russia’s resolve but, more importantly, military resources to sustain a conflict in Ukraine as long as necessary to complete its objectives. Peacemakers from France, Brazil, China and South Africa see the stalemate continuing into the indefinite future. All the talk from Kiev and Washington about a spring offensive ousting the Russian Federation isn’t going to change the battle lines much in the near term. South African Cyril Ramaphosa said Kiev and Moscow agreed to meetings with Africa’s heads-of-state to resolve the conflict peacefully. Zelensky and Biden can only resist peace efforts so long before they’ll have to agree to a political solution.
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.
