{"id":219967,"date":"2022-09-26T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T11:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=219967"},"modified":"2022-09-22T04:07:59","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T03:07:59","slug":"unlocked-nato-prolongs-the-ukraine-proxy-war-and-global-havoc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/09\/unlocked-nato-prolongs-the-ukraine-proxy-war-and-global-havoc\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlocked: NATO Prolongs the Ukraine Proxy War, and Global Havoc"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With diplomacy thwarted, the US and its allies plan for \u201copen-ended\u201d military and economic warfare against Russia — despite acknowledging that “the most dangerous moments are yet to come.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

(US Dept. of Defense)<\/p><\/div>\n

21 Sep 2022 –\u00a0<\/em>Russia has announced plans to mobilize an additional 300,000 troops for the war in Ukraine. In his speech unveiling the expanded war effort, Vladimir Putin vowed to achieve his main goal of the \u201cliberation of Donbas,\u201d and issued a thinly veiled nuclear threat in the process. The move comes days ahead of planned referendums in breakaway Ukrainian areas to formalize Russian annexation.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s escalation ensures that the fighting is entering an even more dangerous phase. While Russia bears legal and moral responsibility for its invasion, recent developments underscore that NATO leaders have shunned opportunities to prevent further catastrophe and chosen instead to fuel it.<\/p>\n

Putin\u2019s announcement comes just after the Ukrainian military\u2019s routing of Russian forces from Kharkiv, which\u00a0relied extensively on US planning, weaponry and intelligence,<\/a>\u00a0sparked triumphant declarations that\u00a0the tide has turned<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to The Atlantic\u2019s Anne Applebaum<\/a>, \u201cAmericans and Europeans need to prepare for a Ukrainian victory,\u201d one so overwhelming that it may well bring \u201cabout the end of Putin\u2019s regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the chorus of emboldened neoconservatives, Western officials are less sanguine.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly it\u2019s a military setback\u201d for Russia, a US official said of the Kharkiv retreat to the Washington Post<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I could call it a major strategic loss at this point.\u201d Germany\u2019s defense chief, General Eberhard Zorn, said<\/a> that while Ukraine \u201ccan win back places or individual areas of the frontlines,\u201d overall, its forces can \u201cnot push Russia back over a broad front.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether or not<\/a> it marked a major strategic loss for Russia, the battle in Kharkiv is already a major victory for NATO leaders seeking to prolong their proxy war in Ukraine and economic warfare next door.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s expulsion of Russian forces in the northeast, the New York Times reports<\/a>, has \u201camplified voices in the West demanding that more weapons be sent to Ukraine so that it could win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite Ukrainian forces\u2019 startling gains in the war against Russia,\u201d the Washington Post<\/a> adds, \u201cthe Biden administration anticipates months of intense fighting with wins and losses for each side, spurring U.S. plans for an open-ended campaign with no prospect for a negotiated end in sight.\u201d<\/p>\n

As has been apparent since the Ukraine crisis erupted<\/a>, US planning for open-ended proxy warfare against Russia has led it to sabotage any prospect of a negotiated end.<\/p>\n

The US rejection of diplomacy around Ukraine has been newly substantiated by former White House Russia expert Fiona Hill. Citing \u201cmultiple former senior U.S. officials,\u201d Hill reports<\/a> that in April of this year \u201cRussian and Ukrainian negotiators appeared to have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim settlement.\u201d Under this framework, Russia would withdraw to its pre-invasion position, while Ukraine would pledge not to join NATO \u201cand instead receive security guarantees from a number of countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

In confirming that US officials were aware of this tentative agreement, Hill bolsters previous news that Washington\u2019s junior partner in London was enlisted to thwart it. As Ukrainian media reported, citing sources close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a>, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson traveled to Kiev in April and relayed the message that Russia “should be pressured, not negotiated with.” Johnson also informed Zelensky that \u201ceven if Ukraine is ready to sign some agreements on [security] guarantees with Putin,\u201d his Western patrons \u201care not.\u201d The talks promptly collapsed.<\/p>\n

In his speech announcing the expanded war effort, Putin invoked this episode. After the invasion began, he said, Ukrainian officials “reacted very positively to our proposals… After certain compromises were reached, Kyiv was actually given a direct order to disrupt all agreements.”<\/p>\n

Having undermined the prospect of a negotiated peace in the war\u2019s early weeks, proxy warriors in Washington are openly celebrating their success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the structural path we\u2019re on here,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham recently declared. “As long as we help Ukraine with the weapons they need and the economic support, they will fight to the last person.”<\/p>\n

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It's not just critics who say that US policy in Ukraine is to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian. <\/p>\n

Here's @LindseyGrahamSC<\/a> saying that as long as the US arms Ukraine, "they will fight to the last person." And four months in, he says, "I like the structural path we're on here." pic.twitter.com\/1fntZG7cjQ<\/a><\/p>\n

— Aaron Mat\u00e9 (@aaronjmate) August 2, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n