On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine should acknowledge that it will not become a member of NATO and questioned the alliance’s commitment to mutual defense.
“It is clear that Ukraine is not a member of NATO; we understand this. … For years we heard about the apparently open door, but have already also heard that we will not enter there, and these are truths and must be acknowledged,” Zelensky said in an address to the leaders of the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF).
Leading up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Moscow was seeking guarantees from the US that Kyiv won’t ever join NATO. But the US insisted NATO would keep its “open door” policy. President Biden refused to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a written guarantee on the issue even though he acknowledged Ukraine wouldn’t join the alliance anytime soon.
Since Russia launched its assault, Ukraine and Russia have been holding talks on a potential ceasefire, and one of Russia’s key demands is that Ukraine declares its neutrality.
Zelensky has been pleading with NATO to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which would require the alliance to directly go to war with Russia. Zelensky suggested to the JEF leaders that he wasn’t sure if the military alliance would take action even if Russian warplanes entered NATO territory.
“We always talk about how our sky needs to be defended like the alliance’s sky, but — we understand that there is always a ‘but,'” Zelensky said. “What will be the response of NATO to members of the alliance in Eastern Europe if they ask for protection, if Russian missiles fly to them or, God forbid, Russian planes?”
He says that while at the same time calling NATO cowards for not starting WW3 for his little anti-Russian Nazi regime, begging for more arms and mercenaries and handing out weapons willy nilly to anyone and releasing murderers and criminals from prisons which leads to massacres between thugs and criminals and civilians in between.
Men of young age and now anyone between 16-55 are fleeing forced conscription and a short future as cannon fodder in panic since many have come to realize that the drug addict in chief is trying to create massacres of his own people (as they did for 8 years with US blessing in Donbass) for the sole purpose of trying to get the west to intervene which again will lead to WW3.
The man is almost constantly kept high on coke by his extremists, nationalists and Nazi handlers and it shows.
Correct. It’s amazing how often he says “we won’t enter NATO” while simultaneously saying he wants NATO to save him Apparently no one can comprehend how contradictory these are. Yet they keep quoting him as if his random statements offer hope for a negotiated settlement. It’s idiotic.
By Nazi you mean Putin?
Troll
He is a biggest gift to the Geniuses
in charge of our foreign policy under Biden (Third Clinton) administration. When a powerful country like US becomes a hostage to an ideology, forned in great part by historic grievances of East Europeans, a great damage to US has already been done. But ffrom their perspective, it is a roaring success. We are still captive to the Clinton Geniuses.
They have gone beyond cold war, into a pathological hate of Russians as innferior, deplorable people that have to be silenced once for the eternity. They could not hide their hate.
Madeleine Albreight summed it up by wondering why would one country, Russia, posses all these natural resources? Why, Madeleine, why?
Clintonesque obsessiom with Russia has suceeded to implant this disease into our media since the end of Cold War.
Today, as if WE are the combatants — anything goes. Banning Russian books from university studies, musicians, artists, expelling Russian children from private schools, people losing jobs, small businesses boycoted, restaurants with “no Russians served” policy.
We did not even BLINK when state edicts expropriatefd private property! Yes, from bad Russian oligarchs, whatever that means, in a presumably calitalist system where private property is sacred!
Rich Russians, unacceptable! Toss families out of their homes, take away their businesses. Anybody bothered to question which laws they broke, to justify extra-judicial property seizure? Demonizing people by nationality — a new normal harken back to the treatment of Japanese Americans.
Yes, this Clinton tempowered clique feels victorious! A victory? It has only sensitised the world to their deeply held supremacist mentality.
Russia now stands for the global “otherness” and all “otherness” around the globe gets it. Well regarded Indian commentary is urging India to get out of QUAD. There is a wide spread global conclusion by the “Rest” that they will never be accepted by the “West” as equals. Russia, the Eastern Orthodox Christans demonstrated that.
Russia’s decades of pleading, goodwill and smiling while being denigrated — is an abject lesson. The problem is NOT the fabled white supremacy — but the elite presumed ALL KNOWING LIBERAL GENIUS. This phenomena of the supposedly LIBERAL ideology by Russia-obsessed circles found their soul-mates in old aristocratic revival in European capitals.
They thought their chance came when Zelenski came to power. A chance to poke the bear, force it to strike back. And the GENIUS though it was desirable.
What in their shortsightedness they ignored is the opinion of those they thought did not count. The global deplorables. Geniuses absolutely miscalculated China’s reaction — worse, they did not dream that the decision to strike back was joint Russia- China decision. Geniuses lulled themselves into reality existing in their heads only. That China would do no such thing — while simultaneously talking down to China as inferior “uncreative’ people.
Russia, as the world’s number one Deplorable has shattered the veneer of European llibrralism to expose the aristocratic, colonial urges of their elites. It exposed also the faux lAmerican liberal world order as a sham.
Do not take my word for it. Copious amounts of text has been published by China in English, India, Egypt, Pakistan. They resonate around the globe.
In a Greek tragedy style, Macron holds the speach urging dialogue with Russiia, as “it is our geography and our destiny”. Too bad did not understand it earlier — as that is all Russia asked. Asked for its security in the face of relentless NATO militarization of Ukraine.
Crisis is reaching its final stage. Realists see what is comming, while the Geniuses in the Administration are still trying to dig deeper.
Our Euro-Atlantic ecco chamber pretends to represent the world, but it rings hollow.
Globalism is dead, its institutions trashed by their creators. Mercantilism is on.
It is an UNINTELLIGENT reaction to real problems.
Global trust in dollars dedtroyed, global mechanisms for finance and frade — destroyed. It will take time for the globe to readjust. But it will. It has started already by Saudis accepting yuan for its massive oil trade with China.
The world outside of our ecco chamber of selectivelly emotive Ukrainian narrative (nationallity and religion being the unspoken dividing line) is drawing a conclusions.
Including a grim reslization that Ukraine paid the ultimate price for allowing — rather clamoring — to become American proxy state.
And the realization that Russia could no longer continue to grumble and plead — and accept being treated as a global Deplorable to be pushed into a corner.
And even more, a realization is growing that Russia and China along with many other members of SCO greenlighted this operation in Europe. European future will be ultimately decided by this crisis. Either way it goes — it will INFORM the Eurasian future determined by their own interests in economic development.
There have been many signals sent by the Eurasian SCO. Washingtom seems to be tone deaf. Last summer when membership applications by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt were accepted — a message could not have been louder. Accepting Egypt, SCO went OUTSIDE its Eurasian boundaries.
As a result, a waiting list of applicants has become very long. Clearly a parallel organization to West controlled UN is being slowly created, while remaining under the radar of global thought police.
After this war international scene WILL change.
Without finally ending Clinton’s era, we will remain captive to their agenda and flounder. Since 9/11, global war on terror morphed into yet another tool that Geniuses used for their purposes. Their appetites grew to tackle Russia and China.
Trump’s mockery of “stupid wars” put Geniuses into a bind. By recreating the staged version of Cold war, they increased the stakes, and brought the world to the edge of nuclear catastrophy.
Trump had been the canary in a mine — and the victim of its toxicity. He is not destined to lead forward as mentaly he is still tied to the crumbling logic of Geniuses. He wants to be a greater Genius.
Common sense is indeed the rearest of all senses.
OMG!!!Bianca. This is great stuff you just wrote.. You are ANTIWAR.COMs Oracle. More so as it goes against the liberal consensus we at antiwar expect of ourselves. To oppose armed assault in any situation. It’s our one bottom line in a cray time of anything goes governance, anything said news and our abiding faith WE ourselves can see through the fog of war. NPR just had on a segment they said that “Russia invaded Georgia” as if it was a stand alone event, and not and not a response to an out of the blue invasion tha killed a score of peacekeepers.
The terrible part is that Biden has further endorsed the 2014 Clinton Nuland coup with her present role as Undersexy of state, and the implacable hard bargaining to see Putins’s legitimate fears & concerns similar to ours when nuclear armed missiles came to Cuba. There in no honset talk out of Washington. What could Putin do that would end the wanton serial slaughter of those in the east so despised by the Azov crew and their sympthizer…?????
Zelensky is all over the map and cannot be trusted. I think Putin made a tactical mistake by going into Ukraine with a soft footprint. He lost the propaganda war years ago, and being nice instead of going in with “shock and awe” the way the Americans do will be a regrettable mistake on his part. Check out what Paul Craig Roberts has to say about this over at Unz Review.
A little sympathy for Z. It’s the devil’s own irony that he’s kinda the mirror image of Putin. A simple fellow, but culturally schizoid, half Russian, not a Russophobe. His population is/was half Russian. So now he’s ordered by Blinken, Sullivan & Nuland to hate Russia, but having a hard time pulling it off. So he turns to his professional craft (such as it is) and acts a part, cornball hollywood Ukra patriot soldier.
His fate will be bathetic; Putin’s, tragic.
Regarding Putin’s “going in soft” strategy, it is profoundly correct. In the larger picture, Sherman’s strategy has blighted American history to this day.
Must disagree with your remark about Sherman. As a student of the Civil War, I consider Sherman to be the best of the Union generals ( far superior to Grant, who wasted many Union lives) because he accomplished the most using the fewest resources, including human lives.
In his personal life he was an exemplary human being.
I suspect that only Georgians share your views. Remember, it wasn’t the Union who started the war.
Sherman was certainly an interesting fellow. If you haven’t read Stanley Hirshson’s biography of him, The White Tecumseh, I highly recommend it.
As for him versus Grant, here’s one thing he had to say:
“I am a damned sight smarter man than Grant. I know more about military history, strategy, and grand tactics than he does. I know more about supply, administration, and everything else than he does. I’ll tell you where he beats me though and where he beats the world. He doesn’t give a damn about what the enemy does out of his sight, but it scares me like hell. … I am more nervous than he is. I am more likely to change my orders or to countermarch my command than he is. He uses such information as he has according to his best judgment; he issues his orders and does his level best to carry them out without much reference to what is going on about him and, so far, experience seems to have fully justified him.”
The “White Tecumseh” along with Sheridan was our best Indian butcher under the Grant administration.
Nice trio, that lot.
Yes, they were the trio primarily responsible for the post-Civil-War resumption of genocide of the Indians. That doesn’t mean they aren’t worthy of study.
I agree that they were responsible for Native American genocide. I do not admire them for that.
But we’re discussing the Civil War here. And the terrible-tempered Little Phil Sheridan (along with his golden boy, George Armstrong Custer) were responsible for making the Union Cavalry a formidable force.
Sheridan made a famous 20-mile ride on his Morgan horse Rienzi to rally retreating Union troops. My own registered Morgan mare has never forgotten this 😉
Another book recommendation, if you haven’t already read it: Shelby Foote’s The Civil War: A Narrative. Actually, it’s three books, and they’re all doorstops. but its the best general account of the whole war I’ve come across. I’m always surprised at how quickly the 3,000 pages or so go by when I re-read it every 5-10 years.
Thanks Thomas, I have that trilogy.
My personal favorite author on the war though is Bruce Catton.
I think we’ve hijacked the original subject!
I like Catton, but I’ve always liked Foote’s more … story-telling … style better. He was also one of the interview subjects for Ken Burns’s documentary on the war, and struck me as a guy I’d like to meet. He was an artilleryman in World War II. I was a mortarman, which is pretty much half infantry, half artillery.
Yup, I watched that too; it was a very good documentary for those not as familiar with the war as the likes of us. But I always enjoy re-enactments.
Did NOT know that fact about Shelby Foote!
Well, it helped Sherman’s ability that he wasn’t a lush like Grant. Grant got the job done, but at the expense of far too many Union soldiers.
And while I have not read that particular book Thomas, I’ll check it out. I have many volumes about Union generals, the majority of them concerning Sherman.
8ooK dead, … for what?
The Emancipation Proclamation is why.
But the EP didn’t free slaves in Union states, nor did it free slaves in former Confederate areas already held by Union forces. All those slaves had to wait a couple of years after the end of the war.
I see a lot of Putin lovers here. Nazi Putin basically wants the right to attack Ukraine whenever it wants to steal land. Screw that, Hope Ukraine actually enters NATO.
Man, you are so ill-informed that it boggles my mind.
It’s people like YOU who are pushing for escalation and probable nuclear winter.
Wait- I thought Putin was a Communist trying to resurrect the Soviet Union. WTH?? He can’t be a Nazi *AND* and a Communist at the same time. Pick a side and run with it, but do some research before you choose which category of evil in which you place Putin.
I did. He is a Nazi. I was right the first, you troll
“It is clear that Ukraine is not a member of NATO; we understand this. … For years we heard about the apparently open door, but have already also heard that we will not enter there, and these are truths and must be acknowledged,” Zelensky said in an address to the leaders of the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF).
It’s not like he thinks it’s a bad idea. Seems he’s almost trying to embarrass NATO into accepting Ukraine as a member. His speech to our congress was the same garbage. Using Pearl Harbor and 9/11 to tug at congress’ heartstrings. What a tool.
This is a perfect time for Zelensky to bury the hatchet with Russia, and become a good neighbor like Belarus. (/cue the Blues Brothers, “We’re putting the band back together!”)
Zelensky the Liar and Biden the Retard that is a combination for stealing more taxpayer money from America.
Zelensky the pathological liar and Joe Biden the dementia poster boy are a recipe for stealing $ Billions from America.
Let’s Go Brandon!