Fighting was intense around the city of Bakhmut as Ukraine claimed some gains there [Sofiia Gatilova/Reuters]
Gordon Hahn, Russian & Eurasian Politics: Biden’s Ukraine Blackmail
U.S. President Joseph Biden and not surprisingly NATO made it evidently clear that there will be no Ukrainian membership in NATO until after the war. This stipulation and the requirement – objective and subjective – of Ukraine’s victory over Russia in the war constitutes a form of de facto blackmail of Kiev on the part of the West. This dooms Ukraine to fight ‘as long as it takes’ – in the sloganeering vernacular of the White House – to the cliched but very real last Ukrainian in order to gain NATO membership.
The Blackmail Trap
On the eve of NATO’s Vilnius summit Joseph Biden stated clearly that he had consolidated the alliance’s members around the position that it will not offer Kiev membership in NATO until after the war. Never mind that this carrot was dangled over Ukraine for additional months as war raged and Ukrainians died by the tens of thousands at the West’s behest. More importantly, this ‘decision’ (actually a long ongoing policy) means that Ukraine cannot gain NATO membership without attaining victory in the war with Russia. Why? Because a defeated Ukraine cannot become a NATO member not just from Washington’s and Brussels’ point of view but also from that of Moscow.
Read more ….
WNU Editor: The above post captures the mood that many Ukrainians are now beginning to feel.
When the war started all of my Ukrainian friends and contacts rushed to embrace the West because they believed in the promise from Western leaders like UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Biden that they will help them to expel the Russian invaders. I felt the opposite. That the West would take advantage of situation in the hope to damage Russia, while not caring about the destruction it will do to Ukraine and its people.
Sadly. It took a long time. But many Ukrainians are now understanding the terrible dilemma that they are in. They are in a situation where they are totally beholden to the West to survive, but they are also now becoming aware that the West really does not care about them. All they care about is waging a forever-war against Russia, even if it may mean the loss of a million Ukrainian lives, the migration of ten million and more to other countries, and a wasteland of much of the country that will owe the West hundreds of billions of dollars (if not more) for generations to come.
Update: Here is another must-read post …. Ukraine Sitrep – Reality Defeats The War Narrative (Moon Of Alabama).