LOS ANGELES.–Since 71-year-old Vladimir Putin moved the Russian army into Ukraine Feb. 24, 2022, there have been numerous offers to end the conflict through negotiation and compromise. Ukraine’s 46-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky opted for war with the Kremlin over truce and peace talks, all because 81-yar-old President Joe Biden gave Kiev and blank check. Putin offered to end the conflict in March 2022 on only two conditions that Ukraine ended plans to join NATO and accepted Russian sovereignty over Crimea and independence of Donetsk and Luhanik. Crimea was in Russian hands since March 1, 2014 and Donetsk and Luhansk were independent enclaves that want no part of the Kiev government. Had Zelensky accepted Putin’s simple terms, he would’ve spared Ukraine that widespread destruction, unnecessary deaths and bankruptcy of the Ukrainian economy.
With Biden funding proxy war in Ukraine, Zelensky continued to fight, regardless of the damage he caused his country, including the loss of sovereign territory. Since Russia occupied Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk before the war, Zelensky would have lost nothing, other than some theoretical sovereign territory. Before the Feb. 24, 2022 invasion, Putin begged Biden for months to work out new security arrangements for Ukraine, telling Biden that arming Ukraine to the teeth violated Russia’s national security. Putin decided to launch what he called a “special military operation” designed to disarm Ukraine of its new arsenal of U.S. weapons that threatened the Russian Federation. Biden thought he could continue arming Kiev without consequences, eventually pushing the region into war. Biden and Zelensky vowed they would vanquish the Russian military.
Early on in the war, Kiev’s Foreign Ministry led by Dmitry Kuleba and Military Intelligence Chief Kyrylo Budanvov said Putin suffered from a terminal illness and Russian military was near collapse. Kiev wanted to keep the billions from the U.S. flowing, feeding Biden any number of lies about how the war was going. After one year of war with the Kremlin, Zelensky has lost most of Ukraine Black Sea ports, essentially land-locking the country, losing 25% of its sovereign territory. As the war entered its second year, Zelensky promised in 2023, heavily armed with U.S. and NATO weapons, that a counteroffensive would drive Russian forces out of Ukraine. By the end of 2023, it was clear that the counteroffensive failed, with the Russian army taking more sovereign territory and consolidating gains inside Ukraine made in the first two years of war.
Zelensky, Kuleba and Budanov all switched tactics, no longer saying Putin suffered from terminal illness and the Russia military was near collapse. Zelensky told U.S. and European Union that war-ravaged Ukraine was not a charity case but defended European democracy. EU officials know that NATO is set up to prevent possible encroachment by Russia. Biden and Zelensky say Putin Ukraine’s Feb. 24, 2022 invasion was a prelude to Putin taking over Poland and the Baltic States. Biden and Zelensky have no facts to support their claim yet continue to gaslight the U.S. and EU at every notice. U.S. an EU officials know that Ukraine was a special case of the Kremlin putting its foot down on national security watching Biden supply Ukraine with increasingly lethal weapons to eventually attack Russia. Putin said no more to NATO expansion into Russian territory.
Meeting it Washington last week for the 75th anniversary of NATO, Zelensky continued to beg for NATO membership but was told Kiev didn’t qualify because (a) he was at war with the Kremlin and (b) too much corruption existed in his government. Kremlin Security Council chief Dmitry Medvedev said that NATO membership would mean all-out war with Ukraine, not just the regional skirmishes still going on in certain regions. Unless NATO is prepared to go to war against the Kremlin for Ukraine, they should not offer Zelensky membership, knowing the consequences. Whatever Biden’s $60 billion cash commitment to Ukraine or, more recently NATO’s $40 billion offer, Ukraine won’t be able to implement a new counteroffensive for at least a year, stretching the war out into the indefinite future. Biden offered Zelensky a 10-year security arrangement.
Former President Donald Trump, the GOP 2024 nominee, has promised upon winning the presidency in November he would settle the Ukraine conflict with Kiev and Moscow. Zelensky has challenged Trump but knows that things will change quickly on war funding once he takes office. Biden ended decades of U.S.-Russian relations joining Zelensky’s war against the Kremlin, all because he couldn’t settle the conflict with diplomacy. Biden says the U.S. must stand up to “murderous dictators” like Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Instead of working like all his predecessors since WW II to improve diplomatic relations, Biden decided to go to war against the Kremlin. Biden’s inability to engage Russia and China in diplomacy stems from his undeniable age-related cognitive decline AKA dementia. U.S. voters must recognize Biden’s limitation and make a change in 2024.
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.
