Western politicians and bureaucrats are risking European peace by enabling Ukraine to strike within Russian territory with NATO support, pushing towards a Russia/NATO conflict. Despite the devastating toll on Ukraine and Europe, Western leaders follow U.S. directives, refusing negotiations that could have minimized the damage. Putin, confident with BRICS support, continues the conflict, while Europe bears the brunt of the war’s consequences.
* * *
At this moment, a handful of Western politicians and bureaucrats are playing dice with our peaceful existence and our future. As Europeans, we try to stay informed beyond the sugar-coated reports from the mainstream news outlets, becoming increasingly worried every day.
The American website Politico, reports that “Joe Biden has ‘secretly’ authorized Ukraine to strike within Russian territory using U.S.-provided weapons, but only in the area near Kharkiv and not long-range.”
Meanwhile, Sunak (UK), Macron (France), Scholz (Germany), Tusk (Poland), Finland, Sweden, and numerous other European states, obedient to the directives (without a mandate) of NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg, the long arm of the USA, have already given their approval: Zelensky can use their weapons to strike within Russian territory. With Biden now revealing his hand, it is clear that NATO is moving rapidly towards a direct confrontation with Russia. This is evidenced by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov raising the stakes by evoking plans for “nuclear deterrence” if the Americans deploy medium and short-range land-based missiles in Russian territory. Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Peskov has accused Ukraine’s allied countries of “pushing Ukraine in every possible way to continue this senseless war.” He has a point; the Financial Times wrote yesterday that NATO currently has only 5% of the necessary anti-aircraft defenses to protect the eastern front in Europe in the unfortunate event of a direct clash with Russia.
In short, it’s a race to prove to the villain Putin that NATO is tougher. The Russian autocrat, aware that the balance is tipping more in his favor daily after the Ukrainian defeat in Kharkiv, doesn’t know how to make the West understand that it’s in their interest to negotiate. If they don’t, Putin, supported by BRICS countries, knows he can continue hammering Ukraine for years without significant economic fallout, having skillfully transformed his economy into a war economy over the past two years despite sanctions.
However, Western leadership pretends or is too stupid to understand, being led by the Americans who, after creating the preconditions for this conflict with their usual undue interference, are now bringing a war to Europe from which they will be the sole beneficiaries.
Last week, the Russian agency Ria Novosti reported that Putin is willing to negotiate based on a draft agreement reached between Russians and Ukrainians in Istanbul in March 2022, which, if successful, would have ended hostilities just a month after the Russian invasion began. It’s truly painful to acknowledge that if it hadn’t been for the intervention of Britain’s Johnson to derail the negotiations with Zelensky, Ukraine’s damages today would have been minimal: an immediate ceasefire in exchange for neutrality (providing security for all of Europe) and the recognition of the independence of the Russian-speaking/separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Two years and three months later, with 500,000 dead, 10 million Ukrainian refugees and displaced persons, and a country facing nearly $500 billion in damages, the European chancelleries still don’t say enough and sit down to limit the damage. The cowardly men we’ve put in command positions don’t dare contradict Washington and its NATO appendage, even at the risk of nuclear conflict.
An endless war looms, with Europe as the sole battlefield: European leaders contribute their incompetence, while the people they govern pay the price.
