Ukraine’s 43-year-old President Volodymr Zelensky has practically stood on his head to get the U.S. into a regional war in Ukraine with the Russian Federation. Now he has a hair-brained scheme to influence certain war hawks in the U.S. Senate to invoke the National Defense Authorization Act [NDAA] to stop Germany from opening the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, supplying natural gas from Russia to Germany. Ukraine sells natural gas to Germany and Europe, seeing Russian President Vladimir Putin as its enemy for annexing Criema March 1, 2014. Zelensky mentions nothing about the CIA-backed coup that toppled the duly elected government of Vitkor Yanukovych Feb. 22, 2014 while Putin was hosting the Sochi Winter Games. When the Games Finished Feb. 21, Putin ordered the Russian Army to seize the Crimean Peninsula to protect Russia warm water fleet at its base in Sevastopol, on the Sea of Azov.
Worried about a lost of natural gas revenue from the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Zelensky hopes to convince the U.S. Senate to impose sanctions on Germany for allowing Russia to “weaponize” its natural gas supplies to Germany. But if Zelensky really paid attention to the COP26 Glasgow Climate Summit, he’d realize that Russia isn’t the one that wants to stop methane gas deliveries, it’s the nuclear power industry that’s actively selling Europe and the United States on the benefits of nuclear energy to help reduce global carbon dioxide emissions. Zelensky sees Russia amassing troops on its Southeast border, ready to pounce on Ukraine in the event of any provocative action. Zelensky knows that he needs the U.S. and NATO to fight his battles in Ukraine, claiming Putin continues to threaten seizing more Ukrainian territory. Russian officials said there’s no urgent scenario in which Russia would seize more Ukrainian land.
Zelensky wants the U.S. Congress to sanction Germany and Russia for what Zelensky calls “weaponizing” natural gas sales. But the real issue represent a loss of revenue to Ukraine from the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Zelensky warned the U.S. Senate that Putting was amassing 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border, begging Sen. James Risch (R-Id.), ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to use the NDAA to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Zelensky knows that blocking the pipeline would be an act of war to Putin, guaranteeing that he would invade Ukraine. Putin has been very clear about Russia’s red lines, including any attempt by NATO to offer membership to Ukraine. Putin said Ukraine’s NATO membership would be a red line for the Russian Federation. Demanding sanctions on Russia, Zelensky would invite Russian invasion, prompting U.S. military action.
Zelensky has begged for NATO membership since taking office July 20, 2019. He’s been told by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg that membership is not possible under the NATO charter when a country is actively at war with another country. Zelensky claims that over 14,000 Ukrainians have lost their lives to Russian or pro-Russian troops since 2014. Yet that doesn’t stop Zelensky for asking. Now Zelensky asks the U.S. Congress to block the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, an act of war to the Kremlin. Zelensky’s master plan, because he lacks the resources to battle the Russian Federation, is to get the U.S. into a war. Told they want no part of Zelensky’s plan, the European Union has told Zelensksy that war with Russia is not on the table. So, Zelensky’s last resort is to appeal to war hawks in the U.S. Senate to back his madness of blocking the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Anti-Russian war hawks in Congress worry that Putin will weaponize his Nord Stream 2 pipeline with Germany. In reality, Germany needs cheap natural gas and would rather buy it from Russia than an unstable economy like Ukraine. “They [Russia] have come very close to the line of using it as a weapons,” said Amos Hochstein, senior State Department adviser on energy security. “By suggesting that if a political decision was taken in Germany . . . .to certify the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, all of a sudden, gas would appear, and there would be plenty of gas from Russia for Europe,” Biden administration would push Russia to annex more Ukrainian land if the U.S. blocks or sanctions Germany for opening up the Nordstream 2 pipeline. No matter how much Zelensky pushes the U.S. to sanction Germany, there’s no stopping the Nord Stream 2, something promised by Biden to Germany in July.
Zelensky has only one-way out of its current dilemma with Putin and the Russian Federation: To improve diplomacy with the Kremlin. No amount of pressure on NATO or the U.S. government is going to risk a regional war with Russia. If Zelensky pushes the Russian Federation to the brink, the U.S. or EU won’t step in to bail out Kiev. No matter how much the EU has grown dependent on Russia for its energy, it’s preferable over doing business with Ukraine, whose president continues to push for war with Russia. Instead of threatening war with Moscow, Zelensky would spend his time more wisely working on better diplomacy with the Russian Federation. No one in the Western Alliance wants to fight Ukraine’s battles with Russia. Zelensky must look to diplomacy with the Kremlin, control the belligerent rhetoric and stop badgering the West to fight its battles for Ukraine.
