Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, 55, rejected the blame Vice President Kamala Harris puts on the Russian Federation, insisting that the U.S. has destabilized the European Continent by funding the Ukraine War, seeking to topple the Kremlin. Harris said that the U.S. committed war crimes or “crimes against humanity,” citing a few examples in the last year of conflict where unfortunate incidents took place. But, to Peskov, he sees the U.S. and trying to widen the conflict, pouring more cash-and-lethal-weapons into Ukraine to continue to battle the Kremlin, rather that seek a ceasefire and peace talks. So far, 80-year-old President Joe Biden has shown no interest in resolving the conflict peacefully that all boils down to Ukraine accepting the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk and Russian sovereignty over Crimea. U.S. officials want to continue the fight.
Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to ask the U.S. and NATO for more lethal weapons, thinking it will eventually expel Russian forces from Ukraine. But after a year of war, what has Biden and Zelensky accomplished, other than prove they can keep up the fight at the expense of Ukraine’s dilapidated infrastructure, now decades away from repair? Biden’s pushing disinformation and propaganda that the battle in Ukraine is about preserving democracy on the European Continent. Putin has no plan to taking over all of Ukraine or, for that matter, moving on to other former Soviet satellites now part of NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin made clear he didn’t want the U.S. and NATO to continue arming Ukraine, pushing the Kremlin Feb. 24, 2022 to invade the country, primarily to disarm all the weapons pouring into Ukraine from the U.S. and NATO.
Peskov has mentioned on many occasions the Russian Federation is ready to enter some type of neutral peace process where the contours of a ceasefire and peace talks can be worked out. U.S. conditions for peace are unacceptable to Moscow, demanding that Russia get out of every inch of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean Peninsula. Putin annexed Crimea March 1, 2014 after a Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed, pro-Western coup toppled the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych. U.S. officials do not acknowledge the Feb. 22, 2014 coup that destabilized Ukraine, forcing Putin to annex Crimea to protect his Sevastopol Black Sea naval base. So, the U.S. and pro-Western factions ousted Yanukovych but they don’t want to deal years later with the fallout of the CIA-backed military operation. Now Biden leads a Western coalition to break up the Russian Federation.
Peskov sees no movement on the part of the West to do anything other that break up the Russian government. “There is no readiness of openness to peaceful initiatives on the part of the collective West,” Peskov was quoted in Tass, state-run news agency. Peskov was troubled by Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland who told Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Feb. 16 that Crimea must be demilitarized. Nuland also said that Russian military bases in Crimea are legitimate targets. Peskov knows that the conflict in Ukraine has escalated, with the West not satisfied with attempts to defend Donbas from Russian attempts to defend the Peoples Republics of Donetsk and Luhank. Harris used the Munich Security Conference to make the U.S. case for escalating the Ukraine War even if it results in WW III. So far, Biden has not committed U.S. troops to oust Russia from Ukraine’s sovereign territory.
If Harris is factual in her analysis that Putin wants to destroy democracy on the European Continent, then why would Washington and Brussels not authorize troops and a no-fly-zone in Ukraine? Harris certainly tried to make the Nazi analogy to the Russian Federation, suggesting that if Putin isn’t stopped in Ukraine, he’ll move on to other parts of Europe. Where’s the logic in dumping more cash-and-weapons into Ukraine when the Kremlin already sees the U.S. actions as seeking to topple the Russian government. It was Biden, March 26, 2022, that told an audience in Warsaw, Poland that Putin should not remain in power. Why the hesitancy on the part of Biden to go all in on stopping Putin in Ukraine? Zelensky has asked from Day One for U.S. and NATO troops and a no-fly-zone. One month into the war, and Zelensky still complains he doesn’t have enough cash-and-lethal weapons.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Biden’s biggest war hawk in Congress, said he wants the White House to supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, in addition to more long-range missiles systems. But why stop there when the U.S .could commit ground troops and set up a no-fly-zone in Ukraine. After a years of losses in Ukraine, clearly Kiev needs more than more cash-and-lethal weapons. If Harris has the legal proof that Putin commits “crimes against humanity,” where the collective effort by the West to commit troops to stop the attempt to destroy democracy in Europe? Zelensky told a joint session of U.S. Congress Dec. 21, 2022 that Ukraine was not a “charity case,” it was an investment in defending democracy in Europe. Biden knows Ukraine is bankrupt, paying all its government salaries and war with U.S. tax dollars. Why not go all in and commit U.S. troops and a no-fly-zone?
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.
