LOS ANGELES.–Planning to sell his “victory plan” to 81-year-old President Joe Biden, 59-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris and 78-year-old former President Donald Trump this week, 46-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wants more cash-and-weapons for Ukraine. Zelensky claims that victory is close but only if the U.S., U.K. and NATO agree to allow him to use long-range weapons to strike deep inside the Russian Federation. Zelensky still rides high on his Aug. 6 surprise invasion of the Kursk border region inside Ukraine, claiming that it’s given 71-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin reason for pause. Zelensky thinks he diverted enough Russian troops from Donbas into Kursk to counter a Russian advance on more sovereign Ukrainian territory. Putin controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory after over two-and-a-half-years of war, despite Zelensky promising to oust all Russian forces from Ukraine in 2023.
Zelensky always changes his story to meet allies’ expectations, worried that military experts see the conflict as a frozen war, a stalemate, with both sides dug in but making little progress toward objectives. Putin wants control of Donetsk and Luhansk, a bargaining chip when he first proposed in March 2022 ending the conflict if Zelensky accepted independence of Donetsk and Luhansk and Russian sovereignty over Crimea. Putin annexed Crimea March 1, 2014, after a CIA-backed coup toppled the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych. At the time Putin seized Crimea, Biden was Vice President to former President Barack Obama, both did next to nothing to get Putin out of Crimea. Before Putin invaded Ukraine Feb. 24, 2022, Biden refused to discuss new security arrangements in Ukraine, instead continued to supply Ukraine lethal weapons to battle the Kremlin. Biden was shocked when Putin moved 200,000 troops into Ukraine.
Zelensky has rejected every peace plan offered by neutral third parties over the last three years. He claims the peace plans all favor the Kremlin because they call on Zelensky to negotiate and compromise to end the bloody war that’s destroyed Ukraine’s infrastructure and bankrupted the country. Without U.S. cash, Zelensky could not pay his own salary or those of his Kiev civil servants. Only last week, China and Brazil proposed a new peace plan flatly rejected by Zelensky because it didn’t meet his conditions for peace talks including removing all Russia forces from Ukraine, prosecuting Putin in The Hague’s International Criminal Court and pay Ukraine war reparations. Putin finds Zelensky’s conditions unacceptable, asking for an independent broker to settle the conflict. Zelensky fears that former President Donald Trump would end the conflict as the first order of business for his administration should he win the Nov. 5 presidential election.
If Kamala wins, Zelensky is assured a continuation of the Biden policy of funding proxy war in Ukraine against the Kremlin. “This fall will determine to future of this war,” Zelensky said. Biden knows when he meets Zelensky, he’ll want him to green light the use of long-range missiles to attack strategic military sites in the Russian Federation. Putin and his 74-year-old Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week that any use of U.S., U.K. and NATO weapons inside Ukraine would be an act of war that would show direct involvement of combatants. Beyond those consequences, Putin and Lavrov said that striking the Russian homeland would trigger the Kremlin’s first-strike nuclear doctrine, giving Russia the right to use nuclear weapons to defend the homeland. Zelensky showed no interest in stopping his “victory plan” that could escalate the Ukraine War, dragging in the U.S. and other NATO countries but also triggering the use of nuclear weapons.
What would Biden or Kamala do if Putin hits Kiev with a nuke, killing millions, decimating the Ukrainian capital for generations? Would Biden and Harris risk a thermonuclear war which would be fought on both sides of the Atlantic? Biden and Harris have thought through what happens if Biden gives Zelensky the green light to attack inside the Russian homeland. When asked today whether he gave Zelensky the approval to attack with U.S., U.K. and NATO weapons deep inside Russia, Biden said, “no.” But what is Biden doing as commander-in-chief because he left the race because of his recognized age-related cognitive decline? Striking a deal with Biden July 21 to end his 2024 campaign, did Biden’s Cabinet or Congress consider the fact that he’s not fit as commander-in-chief? Biden should not be making any foreign policy and national security decisions, knowing that his cognitive impairments render his judgment unsound.
Zelensky will push hard this week at the U.S. General Assembly and Security Council, making his best case for why Biden should approve the use of U.S. long-range weapons to attack Russia. Zelensky doesn’t consider what happens if he drags the U.S., U.K. or NATO into the conflict, expanding the war to the European Continent. “I think every nation and every leader who as felt that this war, Russia’s war against Ukraine, is about much more than just the fate of the Ukrainian people, “Zelensky said, keeping his talking points that Putin aims at seizing more European territory. When Zelensky meets with Trump, he’ll find out that Trump believes the best approach today is to go to the peace table to negotiate and compromise for world peace. Trump thinks the risks are too high for a wider conflict and possible nuclear war to allow the Ukraine War to drag on. Kamala has committed herself to continuing the Biden policy of perpetual war.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analzyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
