It is over two years since the US and its NATO allies provoked Russia to launch its military intervention in Ukraine. After two years, tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians have lost their lives, but there is no end to the war in sight. This is because the US and NATO, which had precipitated the war, have not been able to achieve their aim of bringing Russia to its knees. At the same time they have been scuttling all chances at a negotiated settlement and egging Ukraine to keep on fighting no matter what the cost to itself.
US-NATO have right from the start labelled the war in Ukraine as unprovoked aggression by Russia. It is now clear to the world’s peoples as a whole that things are not as the Western aggressive alliance portrays them to be. Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and in clear violation of agreements made with its successor states including Russia, the US and its NATO allies have used every chance to expand their military presence further and further eastwards, right up to the borders of Russia. The aim has been to contain and weaken Russia and its influence in this part of the world. Russia has repeatedly made its objections to this activity known, but in vain.
In Ukraine, the US in particular has consistently encouraged forces there inimical to Russia who want to bring Ukraine closer to the West. This included encouraging Ukraine to apply for NATO membership in 2008, despite the misgivings of NATO members such as France and Germany. NATO itself put the question of Ukraine’s NATO membership on the back burner for a while. In May 2008, an American Gallup poll survey showed that 43% of Ukrainians viewed NATO as a “threat” and were against their country joining it. [The Washington Post, September 4, 2014] However, when the elected government of Yanukovych and the Ukrainian parliament decided not to pursue NATO membership, the US in 2014 engineered anti-government demonstrations leading to the overthrow of the Yanukovych government, and its replacement by rabidly pro-West regimes. This is the background to the present conflict in Ukraine.
The US-NATO expectation was that Russia would quickly be defeated. Despite the governments of Ukraine and Russia coming to the point of an agreement to end the war in March-April 2022, brokered by Turkey, it was scuttled by the US. The US and its European allies hoped that sanctions against the Russian economy and against countries that did business with Russia would cripple Russia and its resolve to fight, and isolate Russia internationally. But this plan too has not succeeded.
US and NATO have been egging Ukraine to fight to the end. Ukraine has lost so many of its fighting forces that its government is trying to impose an unpopular forced conscription law to raise another half million troops. The US and different NATO member governments have been sending military equipment and ammunition to Ukraine in order to prolong its fighting capacity, but it is now clear that it is far short of what Ukraine needs to keep fighting. A much-publicised Ukrainian offensive in 2023 failed. Throughout the last two years, Russia has made it clear that it is willing to reach a settlement to end the war, that fulfils its long-stated security considerations. But the US and NATO have rejected all such overtures. It is Ukraine and its people who are being made to pay the terrible price. Meanwhile, huge profits are being made by the arms companies of the US and Europe that are supplying the military equipment bound for Ukraine.
Now its so-called allies are trying to entice Ukraine to keep fighting by dangling the carrot of NATO membership before it. However, it is clear that these allies are not keen to see this happen anytime soon, as NATO membership would obligate them to commit more, including ground forces, to “defend” their fellow NATO member.
The war in Ukraine has greatly undermined world peace and security. There is danger that it can develop into a much wider conflagration, directly involving other countries of Europe. In the US and Europe itself, there have been many demonstrations of public discontent with the warlike policy of US-NATO. People throughout Europe have come onto the streets demanding that their governments stop funding the war in Ukraine.
The need of the hour is for a negotiated settlement to end the war and bring about a durable peace in this region.