Warning the U.S. about supplying Ukraine military advisers to train them on the HIMARS [High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems] long-range missile defense system, 46-year-old Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova served notice that the Kremlin knows what’s happening. President Joe Biden, 79, said he would not commit U.S. troops to Ukraine to avoid starting WW III. Zakharova’s remarks suggest that the Kremlin believes Biden has, in fact, started WW III by training Ukrainian troops to use the HIMARS long-range missile defense system against the Russian Federation. Kremlin officials started taking the war seriously after Biden said March 26 in Warsaw, Poland that Putin could no longer remain in power as Russian President Biden, for some unknown reason, adopted Ukraine, supplying unlimited cash-and-arms to the Kiev government.
When Biden’s 69-year-old Defense Secretary followed up April 26 in Ramstein, Germany, he specified the U.S. aim in Ukraine to degrade the Russian military to the point it could no longer wage war. If that’s no a declaration of war against the Russian Federation, then what is? European Union [EU] and NATO ministers were floored by Biden and Austin’s remarks, realizing that the Feb. 24 Ukraine War had morphed into a U.S. proxy war against the Russian Federation. No one in the EU and NATO could respond to Biden and Austin’s remarks, essentially committing the U.S. government to toppling Russian President Vladimir Putin. State and Defense Department officials walked back Biden and Austin’s remarks but it was already too late. Putin shifted gears in Ukraine away from Kiev to the Donbas regions of Southeastern Ukraine to seize as much sovereign land as possible.
Biden and his 59-year-old Secretary of State Tony Blinken know that since the war started, Ukraine’s 45-yuear-old President Volodymyr Zelensky and his 40-year-old Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba have lost over 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, including the entire Black Sea coast and all its ports. Biden and Zelensky refuse to admit its battlefield losses, fearing the EU and NATO would heap pressure on the White House to end its proxy war against the Russian Federation. Biden finds himself today in Sauid Arabia, meeting with 36-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, someone he’s called a murderer for ordering the Oct. 2, 2018 hit on part-time Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Biden’s meeting with Bin Salman to convince him to ramp up oil prduction since Biden boycotted Russian oil, created widespread shortages and skyrocketing gas prices.
Biden’s decision to go to war against the Russian Federation is one of the worst blunders in U.S. history, especially knowing that the U.S.and Ukraine can’t win. Biden and Zelensky have taken a beating from the Russian Federtion, watching Ukraine lose over 25% of its sovereign land, including the entire Black Sea coast and all its ports. Biden and Zelensky keep insisting that supplying Ukraine with more sophisticated lethal weapons will help defeat the Russian army. Only yesterday Ukraine’s 40-year-old Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said there would no peace talks until Russia withdrew from all Ukraine’s sovereign territory. Kuleba know that without U.S. government funding and advanced weapons, Ukraine would stay annexed by Russia for the foreseeable future. Showing no interests in peace talks is not a good sign for ending the conflict anytime soon.
Whatever the U.S. HIMARS long-range missile defense system does for Ukraine in terms of changing the battlefield is anyone’s guess. Zelensky keeps saying it’s a game-changer. But with the current war of attrition, the current war of attrition indicates that Putin has plenty of time to figure out how to counter Ukraine’s new weapons. Watching U.S. advisers train Ukrainian troop, the Kremlin takes seriously the U.S. proxy war against the Russian Federation. When it comes to getting 31-year-old WNBA star Britney Griner out of a Moscow jail, Biden’s Ukraine War looms large. Never before in post WW II history has the U.S. had worse relations with Russia. Today’s state of affairs makes diplomacy almost impossible. Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson hopes to break the stalemate but it’s doubtful he has a rabbit to pull out of hat. Biden must change his thinking on Ukraine.
As long as Biden gives Zelensky a blank check and unlimited weapons to fight the Russian Federation, he will continue to escalate the Ukraine War. Biden hasn’t helped the peace efforts by supplying Ukraine U.S. advisers to train Ukrainian soldiers on the use of advanced HIMARS long-range missile system, something Zelensky says will tilt the battlefield to Kiev. So far, the Kremlin remains in full control of the Ukrainian battlefield, having partitioned the country, land-locking Kiev by seizing the entire Black Sea coast and all its ports. U.S. and EU elected officials haven’t pushed Biden to the peace table knowing the damage the war and Russian oil boycott has done to the world economy. Biden wants to win the war but doesn’t want to deal wit the economic consequences to the U.S. and EU. Biden must tell Zelensky that the U.S. can’t fund the Ukraine government and war much longer.
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.
