NATO

Here are my own takes: The Russian forces around Kiev are making no offensive moves but defend against minor unsuccessful counterattacks from the Ukrainian side (see below). I have seen no hint that Russian forces strives to get into Kiev. It would be too costly to do that and for little strategic gain.**But the forces east and west of Kiev are binding a big part of the Ukrainian army and prevent it from sending reserves towards Donbas.**Yesterday an air attack or missile strike destroyed the largest Ukrainian fuel depot left near Kiev. The Ukrainian army will soon lose its mobility (if it hasn't yet done so). Kharkiv is about to get encircled. Dnipro is a strategic target that the Russian forces will like to isolate or take by coming up from the south on both sides of the Dnieper river as well as from the north.

What we all hoped would not happen has happened. The Russian Federation sent troops into Ukraine on February 24 in response to decades of relentless US-led NATO provocation. The present situation puts many serious, fundamental questions before the global peace movement. A fierce propaganda campaign, long simmering with Russiagate and the onset of a new Cold War, demonizing the Russian president and state has intensified. Wholesale condemnation of Russia has assumed global proportions, instigated by the US and allies, and supported by their sycophantic media. Alternative views and voices of opposition to the official anti-Russian narrative have been suppressed or shut down. Not surprisingly, many people subjected to this toxic bombardment of massive imperialist propaganda have placed all the blame on Russian aggression.

There is an air of desperation in Washington. Besides trying ban all things Russian, the Biden Administration is trying to bully China, India and Saudi Arabia. I do not see any of those countries falling into line. I believe the Biden crew made a fatal mistake by trying to demonize all things and all people Russian. If anything, this is uniting the Russian people behind Putin and they are ready to dig in for a long struggle. I am shocked at the miscalculation in thinking economic sanctions on Russia would bring them to their knees. The opposite is true. Russia is self-sufficient and is not dependent on imports. Its exports are critical to the economic well-being of the West. If they withhold wheat, potash, gas, oil, palladium, finished nickel and other key minerals from the West, the European and U.S. economies will be savaged.

While in no way excusing Russia’s criminal invasion, NATO expansion eastward increased its likelihood. Although we’ll never know if the war would not have happened under different circumstances, after a month of Russian violence against Ukraine the two countries’ negotiators have reportedly agreed that it will reject joining NATO as part of a peace pact. Russia has long objected to NATO’s eastward expansion, particularly Ukraine’s de facto incorporation into the alliance. It repeatedly raised objections to NATO encircling its territory in the months leading up to its illegal invasion. Last week the head of the European Union’s foreign policy, Josep Borrell, even admitted the push to expand NATO into Ukraine was an error.

Below are various bits of interest from the war in Ukraine. In two draft treaties, which Russia had sent to the U.S. and EU in December, it demanded written declarations that the Ukraine would never join NATO. The U.S. and the EU publicly rejected that demand. It was a major reason for Russia to start its intervention. Consider the above in light of this interview Zelensky gave yesterday to CNN. He said, "I requested them personally to say directly that we are going to accept you into NATO in a year or two or five. Just say it directly and clearly or just say no the response was very clear, you are not going to be a NATO or E.U. member, but publicly the doors will remain open." The cowards just didn't want to say it publicly, even as it could have avoided a war.

The ongoing round of talks between Ukraine and Russia resumed on Wednesday, March 16, amidst contradictory signals from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in the last few days. The current round of talks being held via video conferencing began on Monday. There have been three rounds of talks already between the two countries since the start of the Russian attack on February 24. Except agreeing to implement a temporary ceasefire to evacuate civilians from war zones, the talks so far have failed to yield any results. On Tuesday, Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to president Zelensky, expressed hope that though “there are fundamental contradictions,” “there is certainly room for compromises.” Podolyak’s optimism was substantiated by Zelensky, who had admitted at the beginning of the current round of talks that both sides are in touch on a day-to-day basis with the objective of finding an opportunity for his meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Reading US reports on the deadly Russian rocket attack on the so-called International Peacekeeping and Security Center in western Ukraine, one could be excused for thinking that the Russians might have been destroying some UN peacekeeping base. In fact, the deceptively named target, as a few US news reports on the attack did note, is actually a joint NATO/Ukrainian military base near the border of NATO member Poland that has specifically long been where US and NATO military trainers have worked with Ukrainian troops, teaching them the finer points of handling the lethal equipment being supplied to them by the US and some NATO nations like France, Germany, Britain and Turkey.  (400 Florida National Guard troops were doing just that before being hustled back to Florida as Russia began threatening an invasion into Ukraine a few weeks ago.)