Addressing a security forum in Kiev today, where he also identified NATO membership as a national priority, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was cited by the UNIAN news site as not ruling out a “new world war” in the event of what he identified as a full-scale escalation of tensions by Russia.
Asked by a reporter whether he anticipated a Russian attack not only from the Donetsk and Lugansk republics in the Donbass but also from Crimea and Belarus in September – it’s not clear from where this intelligence emanated – Zelensky responded in the sort of civics-class textbook manner characteristic of him (and with an eye to the history books) with: “Are we ready? We are, as a whole, a country with a very strong and courageous military.”
And though he was forced to concede that Russia had “de-escalated” the situation last month, nevertheless he added, “No one can guarantee anything here, because no one expected such steps from the Russian Federation in 2014, so no one can guarantee anything [now].”
In a confused jumble of an assurance that war with Russia will not occur – at least in September (of all months, unless it’s a veiled allusion to Germany’s invasion of Poland on the first of that month in 1939) – and the horrors of what would confront the world if it did, he said this:
“Are we ready, is the world ready, is Europe ready for a full-scale war? I think no one is ready. Absolutely. If this happens….I think Russia cannot go for this….I am sure we feel it now – both by the signals that we get and the work that we have done, diplomatically, by the support of Ukraine’s independence by Europe and the United States. [Otherwise,] I think it could be a world war.”
There is one point of clarity here; Zelensky has just told his NATO sponsors that if they don’t support him and his military there may well be a world war. What in the vernacular of salesmen and con artists is known as highballing.
The same approach was attempted today by Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba who, in an interview with the Ukraine 24 channel in which while on the surface seeming to relinquish hope of his nation being granted a NATO Membership Action Program at next month’s summit in Brussels, used this ploy to both alert and embarrass the U.S. and the military bloc it dominates:
“Regarding the obstacles, unfortunately, there are still several countries among the allies who are guided by the logic of not provoking Russia and believe that sitting and doing nothing is the best way to keep Russia calm.”
As though he were speaking of the 1938 Munich Agreement. Surely Joe Biden and Jens Stoltenberg don’t want to enter the shortsighted and shameful ranks of Neville Chamberlain and Édouard Daladier.
The world war allusions, first evoked by Ukraine’s first president last month, are multiplying at an alarming rate.
Rick Rozoff is a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He has been involved in anti-war and anti-interventionist work in various capacities for forty years. He lives in Chicago, Illinois. He is the manager of Stop NATO. This originally appeared at Anti-Bellum.
Is it coincidence that the current Ukrainian president is a professional entertainer?
I must disagree with the author’s conclusion. Rather than trying to goad the west into WWIII, I would suggest that it is Washington that is directing him to provoke Russia.
As always, Washington-the-aggressor (should qualify as one word, no?) employs a strategy that assumes an opponent will back down.
You’re right. The U.S. and its NATO allies are using Kiev to provoke Russia into a conflict it will lose whichever way the cat jumps, but Zelensky, Kuleba and company have to play their roles in inciting a “demand” among Western publics to intervene. Hence the “give me what I (sic) want or it’s WWIII.”
Have no idea why Ukraine and Taiwan want to turn their whole nation/province into a battlefield.
In the case of Ukraine, Zelenskii doesn’t want to be on the receiving end of one or more of the following:
1. Maidan 3,0
2. Assassination
3. Western prosecutors suddenly take a keen interest in the Benya Kolomoiskii’s financial activities (Kolomoiskii is Zelenskii’s sponsor)
4. The IMF expresses a sudden dissatisfaction with the progress of Ukraine’s efforts to fight corruption, such that the future aid tranches will have to be suspended indefinitely
Zelenski has nothing to worry about. He is a dual citizen, like his sponsor Kolimoiski, The laws of connected vessels apply.
Keep in mind that Poroshenko also ran for office as a relative moderate, then morphed into Bloody Petya immediately upon taking office.
For that matter, the US Ambassador openly campaigned for Poroshenko against Zelenskii. However, no sooner had he won when he was summoned for a talking-to.
Funny you should mention it — Ukraine actually has its name derived from what it was during Mongol invasion of Russia — the borderlands, or nobody’s land. It was a buffer between Mongols, Russians, Constantinople, and the Vatican controlled lands of Europe. After Mongol invasion Russian capital moved from Kyiv to Moscow.
Before Mongol invasion Russia was known as Kievan Rus, territory from Baltics to Black sea, founded in 862. By 988, Kievan Rus ruler, Prince Vladimir accepted Christianity in a solemn ceremony on Crimea.
Even though Christianity was there much earlier, spread by Apostle Andrew, who preached along Black Sea, in Kiev and as far north as Novgorod, the old Rus center of game of thrones that united Russia.
That region than participated in an early maritime northern Silk Road, we call Viking period, where population and trade flowed from Kyiv to Dublin. As did St.Andrew’s Christianity, from Russia to Scotland. The protector of sailors and fishermen,
This is why St.Andrew’s cross still has meaning from Kyiv to the flag of Russian navy, to flag of Amsterdam, and flag of Scotland.
Ukraine was never a country before its succession from Soviet Union, and even then , violated the terms of secession by not recognizing the right of the constituent Republic of Crimea to remain with Russia.
The sad posturing of a comedian just illustrates its deep confusion about identity. It is not just Lughansk and Donetsk that seceded— other regions tried as well but failed and their uprising shut down in blood.
It is hard to see where it is going.
The best would be to leave poor country alone to sort out its identity. But is not allowed to. Pushed and pushed into another “Ukraine”, the Borderlands.
At any given moment, the Russians have Zelensky’s location dialed in. I hope the Comedian-in-Chief continues his empty bluster.
Ukraine is in economic ruin. Why the provocation where Kiev could be turned to rubble?
You are right, there is a provocation, or at least the noise — afoot. And with not so pleasant goings on in Israel _ any distraction is welcome!
There is too little appreciation in capitals about the danger of world war, too little awareness of history, too little understanding that it is repeating itself.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
ukraine will end up like Georgia if their lucky. Nato and Amerika won’t help them.
No matter what Ukraine says or does, there will be no “world war” on its behalf.
Nobody in Europe wants to fight Russia for Ukraine. Poland wants someone else to fight Russia. Germany and France and Italy want no fight at all.
Right wing American hawks want a fight with Russia, but even with them it is “Let’s you and him fight.”
No matter what Ukraine says or does, there will be no “world war” on its behalf.
Nobody in Europe wants to fight Russia for Ukraine. Poland wants someone else to fight Russia. Germany and France and Italy want no fight at all.
Right wing American hawks want a fight with Russia, but even with them it is “Let’s you and him fight.”
Hang on: the way small local wars become big incredibly dangerous wars is precisely through the mechanism of alliances! WW1 is obviously a famous case of this, but even WW2 would not have started if UK had not unconditionally backed Poland.
In fact, this is the rarely discussed but critical danger of NATO: the alliance system can create a Great War through the miscalculations of its smallest members. Are the US , UK, Germany, etc. ready to hike to nuclear war for Donetsk? Really? What’s in it for us again to be saddled with the likes of the Baltics and, God forbid, Ukraine in an alliance? How does that make us safer?
The USA will fight Russia down to the last Ukrainian.
Presented for comment, not necessarily for truth. In particular, note the source.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/escobar-pictures-ukrainian-dream
I suppose we’ll find out whether and to what extent this has any basis in reality soon enough.