Muhammad Amin
Ukrainian president Volodymir Zelensky is starting to get that “Hamid Karzai” feeling – US politicians are patting him on the back, promising unflinching support, while openly preparing to clear out and move on to another war.
The war is going badly for his troops who had lost swathes of ground in recent weeks, culminating in the collapse of the crucial town of Vuhledar Tuesday that Kiev’s forces had defended grimly for two years.
All along the front, Russian forces are making advances, with Kiev’s rallying assault on Kursk a few weeks ago a distant memory, like its bombed-out tanks on the outskirts of the city.
Hegemonic mascot
It’s still very un-American to suggest abandoning Ukraine. Presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump both say they’ll continue supporting the battered country.
The candidates will probably leave abandoning their hegemonic mascot until after the elections, with most Americans still blithely believing near-victory is still almost certain.
But Trump has in recent days gone on the offensive against Zelensky, accusing him of refusing to make a deal and hanging on stubbornly to the detriment of his country. So, it’s all Zelensky’s fault after America went to such trouble to provide it with all the latest weaponry, costing hundreds of billions of dollars.
“Those cities are gone, they’re gone, and we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refused to make a deal, Zelensky. There was no deal that he could have made that wouldn’t have been better than the situation you have right now. You have a country that has been obliterated, not possible to be rebuilt,” Trump said during a campaign speech in North Carolina Wednesday.
That may irk Zelensky just a little. He was twice on the verge of “making a deal” with Russia, but was stopped both times by Western politicians who urged him to hang on, pledging “undying” support.
Yesterday’s news
Karzai, the former ruler of Afghanistan, enjoyed Nato backing until the precipitous collapse of his government in 2021 when US president Joe Biden pulled out without warning.
Now, Biden administration officials are also starting to make the kind of noises that herald the moment for pulling the plug is not far off. They are the kinds of noises that other erstwhile, abandoned US allies, like the Kurds, Juan Guaido, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Khadafi, would be familiar with.
US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell stated Wednesday Russia had reconstituted its military at a rate that had surprised many. He warned that negotiations with Russia could not be far off.
The Washington Post notes Campbell attributed Moscow’s rapid “reconstitution” to its ties with China, claiming that the US State Department has underestimated how close the partnership between the two countries has become.
‘A topic of real anxiety’
He argued the Russian-Chinese relationship was “probably the most formidable and important bilateral engagement globally today that we have to take note of and respond to”.
Campbell even acknowledged the relationship “has been a topic of real anxiety” for the West.
Crucially, Campbell also noted a growing acknowledgment in the West that Ukraine will necessitate diplomatic engagement with Russia “in the not-too-distant future,” while reiterating that Washington has established certain red lines.
Zelensky, however, will find cold comfort in that assurance, considering the many scuffed-out “red lines” the US raised in Gaza and then retreated from every time Israel ignored them.
“The stakes for us are high, we cannot afford to accept outcomes that are suboptimal to the extent that either Russia or China would come away from this thinking that this kind of experience should be replicated elsewhere,” the deputy secretary said.
Moscow’s declared objectives include transforming Ukraine into a neutral state with limited military capabilities, reversing Kiev’s discriminatory policies against ethnic Russians, and “denazifying” the country.
Last month, Zelensky visited the US to present his alleged “victory plan”, which US officials reportedly view with skepticism. Kiev aims to achieve military victory over Russia with assistance from the West.
That now appears to be diminishing rapidly in the rearview mirror.
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