LOS ANGELES.–Calling Russian President Vladimir Putin’s truce offer “absurd” and “manipulative,” 46-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky talked tough with U.S. cash. Zelensky acts like he’s calling the shots on where the war goes because he received a $60 billion cash infusion from U.S. Congress last month and expects to get another $50 billion loan guaranteed by the U.S. using frozen Russian assets in Europe as collateral. European Union [EU] officials wouldn’t be happy if the war spread to Poland or the Baltic states. Meeting in Lucerne, Switzerland Saturday and Sunday, a preliminary peace summit, isn’t prepared to do anything other than win more world support for Ukraine’s war effort against the Kremlin. Kiev has made very little progress reclaiming lost sovereign territory but, more importantly, stopping the destruction of Ukraine’s infrastructure.
While not admitted in U.S. and foreign press, Zelensky presides over a bankrupt government, 100% dependent on U.S. and EU largess to pay for the war effort and basic government functions like salaries, pensions and health care. Yet if you listen to Zelensky or his Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, they’d keep the war going indefinitely without U.S. or NATO cash. “Russia’s plans are not for peace, but for the continuation of the war, the occupation of Ukraine, the destruction of the Ukrainian people, and further aggression in Europe,” said Kuleba. Russia occupied Ukraine in Crimea and Donbas before the Feb. 24, 2022 war and will no doubt have a presence in Russia-speaking areas for the foreseeable future. Zelensky promised with his counteroffensive in 2023, he would oust Russian forces from Ukraine, only to see the war get worse.
Zelensky and Kuleba talk about a great victory over the Kremlin but with the war in its third year, Ukraine only loses more ground, troops and resources battling Moscow. Putin’s offer was not smoke-and-mirrors, it was a way out of the reckless, costly war that has no end in sight, no matter how much cash-and-arms Kiev gets from the U.S. and NATO. Zelensky isn’t concerned with the fact that Biden’s decision to fund proxy war against the Kremlin has all but wrecked the post WW II order that relied heavily on diplomacy, détente and arms control with the Russia. Zelensky wants back his sovereign territory but Kiev gambled in Feb. 22, 2014 with Ukraine’s CIA-backed Maiden Revolution that ousted the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych. Putin annexed Crimea March 1, 2014 to protect his Sevastopol Black Sea naval base.
Wrecking U.S.-Russian relations has come at great cost to world peace, where otherwise cooperative world powers have now aligned with either Russia or the U.S. President Joe Biden, 81, thought he would lead a unified global coalition against the Kremlin for the Ukraine War. Biden found quickly that other countries, like China and India, disagree with the U.S. approach to the Ukraine War. Biden has driven Russia and China into a close military, economic and strategic alliance, having real consequences all over the globe. Where Washington could count in the past on Kremlin cooperation in hot spots around the globe, Biden has watched U.S.-Russian relations deteriorate to worst point in post WW II history. Now that Biden funds proxy war against the Kremlin, he no longer enjoys the same cooperation on any mutual interest, like Russian-U.S. prisoner exchanges.
Watching Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich espionage trial get closer in Russia , shows that the U.S. government no longer has the necessary back channels to help unlawfully detained U.S. citizens. U.S. citizens like former Marine Paul Whelan are stuck serving long sentences for spying in Russian penal colonies. As long as Biden funds proxy war in Ukraine against the Kremlin, he can’t cooperation on anything important to U.S.-Russian bilateral relations. “Ukraine never wanted this war, and like no other country in the world, Ukraine wants it to end,” said the Foreign Ministry. But the Foreign Ministry doesn’t acknowledge the war actually started when Kiev toppled Feb. 22, 2014 the duly elected, Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovyh. Putin invaded Ukraine Feb. 24, 2022 because of the U.S. supplying unlimited arms to the Kiev government.
Whatever the stalemate in Ukraine, the Lucerne peace conference should stop cheerleading for one side over the other and find a way out of the conflict before its spreads to other parts of Europe. When Biden convinces the G7 yesterday to confiscate frozen Russian assets, it could be seen as an act of war by the Kremlin. Instead of really considering both sides, the Lucerne peace summit should stop blaming Putin as “absurd” and “manipulative” and get down to finding ways to satisfy both sides. Chinese Embassy Spokesman Liu Pengyu said the U.S. is “fueling the fight and inciting confrontation,” “We urge the U.S. to immediately stop illegal unilateral sanctions and play a constructive role in end the conflict and restoring peace,” Pengyu said. Washington and Kiev have refused to see that there are two sides to the conflict requiring more serious work.
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.
