By Lateef Adegbite
Hopes of Vladimir Putin, President of Russian Federation, achieving his two defined goals of liberating the Donbas region as well as take over the whole Ukraine appears to have dimmed. This is because of the participation of the North American country of the United States, US, European Union, EU, United Kingdom, UK and Canada, described as the leading members in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ,NATO, in the war which has entered its second moth.
Note that Ukraine was carved from Russia Federation in 1992, following the Collapse of the old Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic, USR, in a well- planned political man oeuvres by George Walkar Bush, a former President of the US, to weaken the military strength of Russia thus leaving the country , as the only world power to checkmate countries.
The Russian President may have known that it is no longer feasible to take over Ukraine, which had remained the target of NATO, since 2008, because of ‘’the resistance of the Ukrainian forces with the backing of the NATO forces that he has his words to scale down the country’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine in order to focus ‘’completely liberating eastern Ukraine Donbas and Luhansk regions’’.
Sergei Rudskoi, of the Russian General Staff Main Directorate, had alluded to this on Friday, March 24, 2022, when he said that the country may be switching ‘’to more limited goals after running into fierce Ukrainian forces resistance in the first month of the Special Military Operation in the country’’.
He had made the international Community to believe that that the main objectives of the first stage of the Operation started on February 24, 2022, have been completed. Hear him: the combat potential of he Armed forces of Ukraine has been reduced considerably which had encouraged them to focus their core efforts on achieving the main goal of ensuring that the Russian backed separatist Groups which now controlled 93% of Ukraine’s Luhansk region and 54% of Donbas region , the two areas that jointly make up the Donbas, did not ground to the NATO backed east European country forces.
Rudskoi , had said that between February 24, 2022 and now, Russia had lost 1,351 soldiers while 3,825 others were wounded and maimed but Ukraine hackers who had hacked into the Russian website had planted stories showing that 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the war to further demoralize the soldiers from further continuing the war.
Although, Putin , the Russian President may have been humbled over the invasion of Ukraine over a month ago, the Russia Defense ministry had said that’’ it did not rule out storming the Ukrainian cities of Kherson, the port city of Mariuppol and other cities , which security experts was basically to show that Russia is still in the war.
The ministry had said the Russia would be forced to use its full military strength in the Ukraine war if any attempt is made by the Security alliance, ‘’to close the airspace of Ukraine’’. The security alliance had resisted pressure from the Ukrainian Authorities to close the country’s airspace but had had been turned down for ‘’fear of direct confrontation between Russia and its forces.
There are indications that that the NATO –backed Ukrainian forces have captured towns east of Kyiv, the country’s capital, formerly occupied by Russian forces, which had be trying ‘’to seize the city’’. The UK, had said on Friday, March 25, 2022, that the Russian forces who could no longer bear the tough resistance of the Ukrainian troops had fallen back on extended supply lines , an indication of a shift in momentum of the two month-old fighting.
Many believe that the Russia forces may have been caught off-guard since he first days of the war with ‘’the intervention of the US and its allies at the instance of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian President, going by the level of push back by the Ukrainian soldiers.
Joe Biden, the US President, who has championed NATO member countries participation and imposition of economic sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine had embarked on a two-day visit to the EAT European country of Poland on Friday, March 25, 202.
As a prelude to the visit, the US .President had on Thursday, March 24, 2022, barely a month after the Russia forces invaded Ukraine on the orders of Putin, had attended an unprecedented ‘’ triple summit’’ in Brussels of NATO G7 nations and EU Leaders which was said ‘’to have addressed the European Continent’s worst conflict the 1990s Balkans wars.
The US President two-day visits to Poland , according to Diplomatic sources follows a trio of emergency summits in Brussels, Capital of Belgium, and Headquarters of NATO. Jake Sullivan, the National Security Adviser, NSA, had said that Biden had spent Friday, March 25, 2022, being the first day of the visit meeting with the US troops stationed in Poland and watching the Humanitarian efforts in the NATO country.
The NSA had said the US President spent more time in Rzeszow airport, not far from the border between Ukraine and Poland , before travelling to Warsaw, the Polish capital, late on Friday to meet with Andrzej Duda, the Polish President on Saturday, March 26, 2022. He was said to have spoken to the US. Army’s 82 Airborne Division stationed in the area of Rzeszow airport about ‘’the high stakes of the Russian invasion of Ukraine’’. He had had told the troops that they are in the midst of a ‘’fight between democracies and Oligarchs’’, referring to rich Russians who have faced western sanctions since the war started on February 24, 2022.
The US. President visit to Poland may have given him an ample opportunity to underscore the US commitment to protect Poland, a key NATO member on Ukraine’s doorstep which was said to have accepted more than 2.2 million refuges out of the 3.5 million people who have fled Ukraine going by the United Nation, UN’s records since the outbreak of the war late February, 2022.
Agency reports has it that Biden’s schedule to Poland was briefly delayed after plane carrying Duda, the Polish President was turned back enroute to Rzeszow airport , forcing him to make an emergency landing in Warsaw. President Duda, was said to have boarded another aircraft and headed back to Rzeszow airport.
The US President , was said to have made attempts’’ ‘’to cross the Rzeszow border and take a look at what is going on in Ukraine’’ but regretted that ‘’security operatives won’t let me go’’. His major worry was that ‘’hundreds of thousands of people from Ukraine are being cut off from help by Russian forces and are besieged in places like Mariupol and Kherson cities.
The Polish President may have taken advantage of Biden’s visit to his country ‘’to raise the idea of an International Peace keeping Mission involving troops from NATO countries to be stationed in Ukraine .
An aggrieved Biden had told those that cares to listen in Brussels that the visit to Poland would ‘’reinforce his Administration commitment ‘’to show more commitment in dealing with the relocation of the refuges as well as the Humanitarian assistance needed both within and outside Ukraine’’.
Not many people are surprised at the action being taken by Biden, against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Recall that some twenty five years ago, when he was in Poland, he had left with a warning to the peopel that ‘’even though USSR has collapsed, some of the NATO’s original members are not doing enough to ensure the security alliance Collective defense’’. He had left Poland on Saturday, March 26, 2022, with a message that ‘’now is the time for the countries in Western Europe to invest in the security of their Continent for the next century’’.
He noted that the Ukraine war which has entered its second month has left the western Leaders still ‘’consulting over Contingency plans in the case of the conflict spread’’. The US President who could not hide his feelings had told Journalists in Brussels that ‘’the Russian invasion of Ukraine has taken the NATO countries out of any Complacency it might have felt and cast a dark shadow over the Continent’’.
SAlready, many European countries have increased their defense budgets with an increase in the demand for US manufactured weapons. Take for instance Germany, which had announced that ‘’it will allocate more than $ 110 billion to military funding. The EU and NATO countries may have realised that the stability of the Europe Continent could no longer guaranteed with the Russia invasion of Ukraine as it could be their turn. In 2008, Georgia was invaded by Russia, the same year, that US, had targeted to get Ukraine into NATO.
