By Lateef Adegbite
Barely one week, after officials ofUkraine Republic and Russian Federation held talks in southern Belarus, to initiate the process of ending the war which have claimed thousands of lives between Thursday, February 23, 2022 and now, the, Volodymyr Zelensky, The embattled President of Ukraine Republic appear to have found that the country will lose out in the war.
This is evident as Russia has continued to gain more grounds in Ukraine has it has entered the southern city of Khaerson and are close to Kyive, the Capital and Kharkiv, the second largest city in the country. The Russian artillery attack on a military base in Okhtyrka, on Monday, February 28, 2022, that was said to have killed over 70 soldiers and the pounding of one of the key south eastern port of city in the country , which has been grounded as ocean going vessels laden with cargoes could no longer enter or leave the port , may have sent a signal to Zelensky that the game is up.
The Ukrainian President may have suddenly realised that the leading member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO, comprising of the United States, US, United Kingdom, Canada and the European Union, EU, will not save it from the shelling of Russian Forces over its plan to join the Organisation. This may have informed why may have forced him to drop the plan of taking Ukraine to join NATO, which had been one of the major demands of Russia that must been fulfilled by the Ukrainian government to end the war.
Another condition that had had been spelt out by Putin led Russian Federation government was that Ukraine must be ready ‘’to remove all the NATO weapons in all its military bases, recognise CRIMEA,as part of Russia and accept the loss of Donbas region, in southern Ukraine, which have been recognised as two independent Republics by Russia, some two weeks ago.
President Zelensky, with the support of NATO member countries, particular, the US, may have turned down the Russian demands initially on the grounds that it is an independent country which opens the door for it to have Bilateral relationship with other countries including the US but that was how far he could go.
He may have seen that Russia has targeted the US, to enter the war, in other to release the country’s Nuclear weapons, which will be more devastating that he has appealed to the US and the EU, ‘’to limit his country membership of NATO for peace to reign’’.
As the situation in Ukraine major cities and towns, are getting worse by the day as economic and social activies , appear to have been grounded to a halt, with the Russia shelling, the Heads of the International Monetary Fund, IMF, and the World Bank on Tuesday, February 29, 2022, disclosed that they are had arranged a $3 billion package for war-torn Ukraine, including $350 million loan immediate approval.
The IMF and World Bank officials, may have discovered that the $3 billion loan package to the country may not be enough to solve its immediate problems for now, that they , have agreed ‘’to provide additional billions of dollars’’ in the coming weeks and months, warning that the war may spill over to other countries , which may turn Europe to another battle ground, barely 77, years, after the end of the WWII.
Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF, Managing Director, and David Malpass his World Bank Counterpart, who could not hide their feeling , over what is currently happening in Ukraine had revealed that ‘’commodity prices are rising daily, which risked further inflation and disruption of the Ukraine Financial markets’’ , warning that it may be worse in the coming days , if the two sides fail to agree to a ceasefire and go back to the Negotiation table.
In spite of the fact that the US and Uk, Canada and EU, have come out openly to support Ukraine, using the IMF, World Bank and other channels, to do so, Valdimir putin, Russian President had remained committed to prosecuting the war against Ukraine to force the Zelensky government to surrender.
The Russian President may have taken advantage of a recent interview in Moscow to open up on the Ukraine crisis and why it has dragged on till now. He had said that the US and its allies did not understand about Russia overall intensions in Ukraine before coming out to support the country.
He has told the International Community that had he had repeatedly expressed concern about Russia’s security when he found out that the US were deploying troops all overUkraine borders with Russia. It was not surprising why the Russian President had accused the US and its allies ‘’starting and fuelling the crisis in Ukraine’’.
He has made it clear to those that cares to listen that Russian Special Military actions in Ukraine will not depend on the Negotiations to end but on the ‘’unconditional Compliance by Ukraine to Russian security demand today and looking back at the historical context’’.
His anger was that the west are expanding to the east as they have paved the way for Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia and Lithunia, all former allies of the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR, which assets and liabilities, have been taken over the Russian Federation, with the balkanization of the union, in 2019 and has targeted Ukraine membership, as at 2008, to spite on Russia .
There is no gain saying the fact that Putin, the Russian, President may have been pushed to the wall by the US, and its allies, tat that he has made it clear to them that Russia will’’ no longer accept any further NATO expansion into east Europe than to conduct a Special Military Operation on Ukraine’’.
Hear him:We have never deployed our missiles all over the borders of the US and its neighbouring countries of Canada and Mexico over territorial disputes, but the US is deploying its missiles close to Russia. He had queried how the US and its allies will feel if Russia should resort to deploying its offensive missiles to these borders. Certainly, US, would fight Russia to a standstill,
Recall that in 1947, barely two years after the W II, Late Harry Truman, a one –tine US , President, had initiated the Truman doctrine to ensure that Late Nikita Krushchev, the then Premier of USSR led Communists regime did have a strong hold on Greece and Turkey. He had raised $400 million in military and economic assistance for the two European countries in to stop the old USSR, now Balkanised in 12 Republics, including Russia from entering the countries to pave way for Communists regimes to emerge.
The situation was the same in Cuba in 1962, when late Krushchev, the Russian Premier on the invitation of Late Fidel Castro, the Cuban President, had tried to deploy missiles in an Island in the country but was resisted by the US, notwithstanding that it is a sovereign country and had bilateral relationship with the then USSR, now Russian Federation.
To ensure that the then Krushchev led USSR, government did not deploy missiles to the Island of Cuba, to support the country against the US and its allies, the late President Kennedy had maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military build in the Island . He had made the world to know that the purpose of the military build up in the Island of Cuba by the old USSR, was basically ‘‘to provide a Nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere’’.
He had said that’’’ this urgent transformation of Cuba to an important strategic base- by the presence of these large , long range and clearly offensive missiles of sudden mass destruction constitutes an explicit threat to the security of the US and flagrant and deliberate defiance of the Rio Pact of 1947 and the Charter of the United Nations, UN. The same way , the then old USSR leadership had said that that they have no need or desire ‘’to station strategic missiles on the territory of any other nation, in 1962, was what Joe Biden, the US , President has told Putin, the Russian Federation President in the case of Ukraine.
The same reason adduced by Late Kennedy for resisting the old USSR military buildup in the Island of Cuba, protect its security was whatPutin, said that had had informed Russia invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, February 23, 2022: to protect Russia Federation security. He believes that the US, government are acting out a script of Late Woodrow Wilson, a one- one time US President in 2018, that the world would be safer if Russia Federation could be reduced to a state in Us as a way to way to reduce their military strength. The Russian President had said that that Ukraine crisis had started because the US, are not treating Russia as’’possible allies’’ but had continued’’ to deceive the country I order to to do its wish, on the ground that there is no written agreement not to expand to east Europe.
He had said that based on the bilateral relationship between Russia and the US , in the’90s, the country had engaged the services of officials of the US Intelligence Agencies including Advisers from the US, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, on its Nuclear site who turned out, to be double agents as they were sending feedbacks to their home government. This may have informed why the Leadership of the Russian Federation , did not want to give room to US , to enter Ukraine to spy on its Nuclear sites.
