The war in Ukraine is about to enter its 3rd year with no signs of ending, meaning more deaths and destruction for this unfortunate country. It was provoked by those in the U.S. who decided to use Ukrainians for their geopolitical gains which is sort of innovation in military affairs contrary to the U.S. wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries where American soldiers were sent to the battlefields.
Members of Congress from both parties, for example, Richard Blumenthal, Lindsey Graham, Mitt Romney, Mitch McConnell, and many other politicians and journalists like Washington Post’s Lee Hockstader applauded American military and financial aid to Ukraine presenting it as a well spent bargain because it is “without a single American service woman or man injured or lost.” None of them obviously cares about hundreds of thousands lost lives of Ukrainians as long as they are dying for the sake of U.S. hegemonic ambitions. So much for their Western and Judeo-Christian values.
This war was easily avoidable until February 23, 2022 when one phone call from Biden to Putin saying that the U.S. accepts neutral status of Ukraine, no longer insists on its entrance to NATO, and agrees to enter into serious strategic security and negotiations which Moscow proposed in December 2021.
However, Biden and his advisors Blinken, Sullivan, Nuland with the bipartisan congressional backup missed this chance because they were sure about having the most powerful packages of sanctions in their pocket that were capable of inflicting a devastating strategic defeat on Russia and pushing it in the geopolitical corner for good.
Still the war that started on February 24 could end quickly in a month or two when the peace deal between the Russians and Ukrainians was ready for signature. Enter British premier Boris Johnson who obviously with the blessing if not instructions from Biden rushed to Kyiv to disrupt it. Ukrainian comic turned president Zelensky shamefully obeyed in exchange for promises of money and weapons for “as long as necessary.” Human costs for all of them were not important but the results for Ukrainians were devastating. Now the future waves of Ukrainian cannon fodder including their women and old or sick men are about to be mobilized and thrown into the meat grinder.
This tragedy shouldn’t have happened. After the collapse of the USSR Ukraine not only could have its land intact, including Crimea, but to become one of the most prosperous European states. The neutrality status would be a roadmap for peace and prosperity but unfortunately for Ukrainians Washington and the West had other plans for their country, which were to turn it into a strategic anti-Russia beachhead. Two color revolutions, Orange in 2004 and Maidan in 2014 were openly backed by Washington while Maidan was directly coordinated by Biden, Blinken and Sullivan with Nuland working on the location.
As it happens, I was involved with several American groups who were thinking that with the collapse of Soviet communism a new era of peace and prosperity in the world had arrived. In this new world Russia and America would form an alliance which was earlier envisioned by the participants of the historic April 25, 1945 meeting of the Soviet and American military on the Elbe river in the German city of Torgau on the eve of their joint victory over the Nazi Germany. “The Spirit of Elbe” was promoted both in the U.S. and Russian government and public circles through conferences, veterans meetings, and annual ceremonies. The opening of the Elbe sculptural composition in April 2016 was endorsed by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow when its military attaché General Bruce McClintock shook hands with the famous Russian cosmonaut Alexi Leonov in front of the sculpture. In April 2020 the Elbe Sprit was endorsed by both Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Annual U.S. – Russia forums took place for many years on Capitol Hill with participation of American and Russian political, business, science, educational and cultural leaders who discussed joint and mutually beneficial projects. Ukrainians were also invited and I’d like to mention the important event in 1996 which the head of the Ukrainian delegation Chair of the Rada’s Defense Committee Vladimir Mukhin helped to organize upon returning home.
I am talking about the trilateral U.S. – Russia – Ukraine meeting of their military leaders Defense Secretary William Perry, Russian Minister of Defense Pavel Grachev, and Ukrainian Minister of Defense Valery Shmarov. This meeting laid ground for the future agenda for the friendly military to military relations between the three countries but Bill Clinton was not interested since he already had in mind future NATO expansion. Perry who objected to this idea was quickly demoted, and now he agrees with the Senator Sam Nunn, and former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz when they talk about our sleepwalking into nuclear Armageddon. The rest is history.
Edward Lozansky is President of American University in Moscow.
