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By Suleiman Umaru
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey who had offered to mediate in the Ukraine –Russian war, by taking the first step of organising a meeting in Instabul, the country’s capital between Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian Foreign minister and Sergey Larov, his Russian Counterpart on Thursday, March 10, 2022,appears to have been disappointed.
This is because the meeting, which was the first its kind that top government officials from the two warring countries and who have the backing of Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimi Putin, respectively , had failed to produce result , fueling speculations making the rounds that there is no end to the war, which has entered its third week.
Many had expected that with the talks between the two Foreign ministers of the two countries, who had the ears of their respective countries’ Leaders, it will lead to a ceasefire. Agency reports has it that while the talks between the two highly placed Ukrainian and Russian government functionaries were holding the talks in Instanbul, capital of Turkey, there was intensified fighting between the Ukrainian and Russian forces, around Kyiv, capital of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Forces, according to agency reports had attempted to block a column of Russian Tanks, thus making it impossible for the troops to enter into Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, which might have caused the collapse of the Zelenskyy’s government and an opportunity for Putin to appoint a Pro-Russian interim government in Ukraine.
Joe Biden, the North American country of the United States, US, President and one of the leading member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO, and other western Leaders may have known that at the speed at which the Russian Forces are gaining more grounds in Ukraine that Zelensky’s government may collapse.
This may have informed why he has given the nod to the Ukraine Embassy in Washington DC, the US, Capital, to turn the Embassy into an’’ unexpected recruitment centre for Americans who may wish to join in the fight against Russia’s invasion’’. Diplomats in the Embassy were said to have been fielding thousands of offers from volunteers seeking to fight in Ukraine , even as they work on the far more pressing matter of ‘’securing weapons from the US, government, to defend against an in increasing Russian attacks.
Indeed, Biden, the US President is no longer hiding his support for the Zelenskyy led Ukrainianian government in terms of both humanitarian and military aid since the war started on Thursday, February 24, 2022. A recent Statement by Kamala Harris, the country’s Vice President, speaks volume. She had said that the US and Poland, had agreed to supply fighter Jets to Ukraine to strengthen its Air Force, to be able, to counter Russia air raids stressing that they became united in their policy towards Ukraine during the Russian invasion.
According to her, the two countries became united after the US government rejected an offer by the former Russia ally to transfer its MIG-29 Russian manufactured fighter Jets to Ukraine as demanded by by President Zelensky for Russia fighter Jets through an American airbase in Germany.
The US Vice President and Andrej Duda, the Polish President on Thursday, in Warsaw, the country’s capital, on Thursday, March 10, 2022, and was clearly told not bother about transferring the Russian manufactured fighter Jets to Ukraine as the US government military and humanitarian assistance to the country is an ‘’onging process’’. Only recently the US House of Representatives had approved a $15.5billion to run the Ukraine government through September and an additional $14 billion humanitarian aid to the country. There are indications that the Ukrainian Air Force ha 56 fighter Jets but barely use them.
Recall that with the evacuation corridor route created and the ceasefire along the path in Kharkiv and Sumy, thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been evacuated. Take for instance, 400, 000 civilians from Kharkive, Ukraine second largest city and 12,000 people from the port city of Sumy were said to have been evacuated to Russia and other European countries including the UK. The worry of the United Nations Refuge Commisioner, UNHRC officials and the mainstream western press, was that no civilian was evacuated from the southeastern port city of Mariupol.
Note that the Russian government had repeatedly said that ‘’it will open a daily humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from bsieged Ukrainian cities to Russia despite the government refusal. The UNHRC, had said that the Russia invasion of Ukraine had triggered Europe ‘s biggest refuge crisis in decades , with more than two million Ukrainians fleeing their own country within three weeks.
Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Slovanian, Lactivia, Lihunia and Poland, all former allies of the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, were said to have stepped up ‘’welcoming the Ukranian refuge to their countries, because of what the NATO member countries had described as Russia’s ‘’unprovoked and unjust war against it’’. There is no gain saying the fact that Putin’s military plan is ‘’to quickly capture the entire Ukrainian territory, including Kyiv, the capital and force President Zelensky and his government to resign.
In a related development, embattled President Zelensky pressure on Biden , the US President and Boris Johnson, the UK, Prime minister to create a ‘’No fly zone’’, in Ukraine in order to reduce the Russia air raids in the country had failed for the umpteenth time. The duo, Biden and Johnson, were said to have said ‘’No’’, to Zelenskyy’s demand. They were said to have made their position known at a joint press conference in Washington DC, on Wednesday, March 9, 2022, through their respective countries Secretary of State.
Anthony Blinken, the US, Foreign Affairs minister and his United Kingdom Counterpart were very clear on the issue of the ‘’no fly zone’’, demanded by the Ukrainian government , insisting that the US and UK, will never do it ‘’to avoid direct military confrontation with Russia’’. Blinken was said to have used the opportunity of the joint press pressing to drum it to the ears of President Zelenskyy that ‘’ ‘’introducing American Forces in Ukraine or American Pilots-whether on a full or on a limited basis, would certainly lead to direct conflict between the US and Russia, between NATO and Russia’’, that may expand the conflict and prolong it’’.
The duo may have sent a message to the Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to top mounting undue pressure on the US President and the UK Prime minister Johnson, to establish a no fly zone in Ukraine, noting that the Biden’s Admiistration’s aim is ‘’to end the conflict , and not to expand it’’ which might be ‘’deadlier than it is already’’. The US Secretary of State had said that’’ the no fly zone if established in Ukraine would neither be in the interest of the US, UK nor Ukraine’’.
He may have gladdened the heart of the Ukrainian President when he revealed that what the US and the UK are‘’ looking at is making sure that ‘’the Ukrainians can be able to defend their own country with the best possible selection of anti-tank weapons and anti-air defense systems’’. He had assured the Zelensky government that the US will continue ‘’to provide humanitarian and military aid to the country to fight Russia’’.
The UK Prime minister had aid that the country is currently ‘’exploring plans ‘’to supply air defense systems to Ukraine’’. Elizabeth Truss, the UK, Secretary of State, had remarked that the British government will ‘’help the Ukrainians with the starstreak air defense systems that it will be supplying’’.
The question on the lips of most people was why the US, and its NATO allies are so particular, about Russian invasion of Ukraine and to impose stringent economic sanctions against the country. Between 1958 and now, the US, had conducted special military operations in 23 countries that cut across the European, African, Asia, South and North American Continents to Russia’s 20, including Ukraine.
The countries that were said to have been invaded by the US, at different times, included Grenada, Liberia, Bosnia, Kuwait, Yugoslavia beforeits balkanization, Cuba, Colombia, Libya, Iraq, Iran and Afganistan, to name but a few of such countries. In 2001, alone, Gorge Bush, a former US President had spent $2.3 trillion to prosecute the Afghanistan war that was said to have lasted six months leaving on its throes millions of displaced people and refugees.
The mainstream Western press may not have seen anything wrong in the invasion of Afghanistan, to intitiate a Campaign for economic sanctions against the US, or condem its action, as they are currently doing in the case of Russian invasion of Ukraine, described as a’’ brutal attack and oppression of the people’’.
Instead they had expected the International Community to give Kudos to the US military for taking the bold initiative to invade the country which had opened the door for peace in the world.
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