LOS ANGELES.–While the Democratic National Convention [DNC] rolls on with its Trump-bashing agenda, Ukraine’s 46-year-old leader Volodymyr Zelensky boasts about his great gains invading Russia’s Kursk territory. President Joe Biden, 81, boasted in his farewell address how he didn’t bow to dictators like Russian President Vladimir Putin, unlike 78-year-old President Donald Trump who Biden said pandered to ruthless dictators. Imagine that, when Trump was in office the U.S. actually got along with its adversaries, chose to develop diplomacy, détente and arms control, a U.S. State Department tradition dating back to the end of WW II. Biden was the first and only U.S. president to go to war against the Kremlin, maybe not with U.S. troops but supplying unlimited cash-and-arms to Ukraine. Biden promised in his final message that this chosen successor 59-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris would continue the war.
Zelensky’s boasted about seizing more Russian territory, diverting his military to his new mission in Russia of blowing up bridges and taking Russian land as a so-called buffer zone. Zelensky talks like the Russian army at some point would not expel Ukraine from Russian territory. “As of today, our forces control over 1,200 square kilometers of the enemy’s territory and 92 settlements,” Zelensky told Ukrainian diplomats and officials. So, while Zelensky escalates the war with Russia at U.S. expense, Biden tells his DNC audience that Kamala will continue the war no matter what the consequences, including starting WW III. DNC attendees wildly cheered when Biden said he would stand up to dictators like Putin who threaten U.S. democracy. Biden has adopted Ukraine’s border dispute with Ukraine as a threat to U.S. or European democracy.
Zelensky’s foray into Russia was designed as a diversionary tactic, something available without resistance to Ukraine’s military, where operations in Ukraine to seize back lost sovereign land have failed since the war began Feb. 24, 2024. Zelensky decided to go to war against the Kremlin with U.S. funding, rejecting Putin’s peace overture that required Ukraine to recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk in Donbas and Russian sovereignty over Crimea. Zelensky rejected Putin offer made in March 2020, instead launching a full-scale war to evict Russian forces from Ukrainian territory. Zelensky knew before the war that Russia had troop in Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea, a carryover from the Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed Maiden Revolution that ousted Kremlin-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukoych. Zelensky fights with U.S. cash-and-weapons against the Kremlin.
Zelensky shows no interest in retreating from Russian territory anytime soon in the biggest escalation since the war began, prompting 69-year-old Belarus President Alexandr Lukashenko to say Zelensky pushes Putin to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Putin has warned U.S. and NATO that if Russia’s national security is threatened he would not hesitate to use any weapons at his disposal to defend Russia. Putin already relocated nuclear missiles to Belarus to let the U.S. and NATO know he means business when it comes to defending Russia and its key ally, Belarus. No U.S. or foreign media source has confirmed the extent of Zelensky’s advance into Russian territory. While it’s all applauded by DNC attendees, it’s a prelude to more war, more conflict and the possibility of a wider war in Europe. How does war in Europe serve the purpose of defending, as Biden says, U.S. and European democracy?
Zelensky claims his operation reduces threats to the Ukrainian border region by establishing a buffer zone in Kursk and Belograd. But Zelensky knows that Russian can approach Ukrainian territory from many different directions, not simply from the Kursk or Belograd regions. Boasting about the capture of more Russian troops, Zelensky thinks he has more bargaining chips going into any future peace talks with Russia. When the Lucerne, Switzerland peace summit concluded June 16, Zelensky was told that Russia must be present at any future peace summit, meaning he would be pushed into negotiations. Zelelsnky has so far rejected all peace plans that have called for compromise, demanding that Russia leave all Ukrainian territory before he would engage in peace talks. Seizing Russian territory, Zelensky thinks he gains leverage.
Former President Donald Trump looms large over Zelensky’s Aug. 6 gamble of sending Ukrainian troops into Russian territory. While he hasn’t met too much resistance yet, Zelensky can rest assured it’s coming soon. Meanwhile, the DNC attendees applaud anything that Biden has done with his infinite wisdom to defend American democracy against the Russian enemy. Never before had any U.S. president gone to war against the Kremlin, preferring to use diplomacy to resolve disputes between the nuclear-armed adversaries. Biden’s decision to fund proxy war in Ukraine has all but destroyed U.S.-Russian relations. Trump promises to end the Ukraine War as his top priority and reestablish normal diplomatic ties with Russia. Biden has empowered Kamala to continue the war into the indefinite future, increasing the chances of a wider conflict in Europe and elsewhere.
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.
