Huanqiu shibao (China): Russia-Ukraine crisis exposes new US proxy strategy
Ukraine will never become a "bleeding wound" for the United States, which is why it has turned into an American bargaining chip in the global geopolitical game, the author of the article in Huanqiu Shibao notes. For many years in a row, the United States pumped Kiev with weapons and money in order to light a fire at the right moment on Russia's doorstep.
Jake Sullivan, the US president's national security adviser, recently said that Washington plans to provide Ukraine with heavy weapons, such as artillery weapons and coastal defense systems. This will completely change the previous American practice of providing only individual combat weapons. Many military observers believe that the "proxy war" of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis is becoming more intense.
Proxy wars or proxy wars are wars waged by major Powers avoiding direct involvement in conflicts. Instigating or supporting proxy wars are, in fact, strategic tools for major Powers seeking hegemony. In this form of confrontation, the great provocateur powers can support allies, strengthen military blocs, reshape the political map of the world, as well as maintain and expand their power as a great power - and all this at very low cost. As the number one hegemon country in the world, the United States is a veteran of proxy war.
During the Cold War, the United States continuously created unrest in the world. Hot spots in Africa, Asia, Central and South America everywhere possessed a full set of attributes and characteristics of mediated wars. At that time, the United States still maintained a tacit understanding of the need to stay away from the main region — Europe — and considered only the "peripheral countries" of the third world as the main battlefield for power and profit. In the current Russian-Ukrainian crisis, the United States no longer aims its weapons at developing countries, but kindles fire right on the doorstep of Russia, a nuclear power, to the detriment of the security interests of its European allies. This is dangerous behavior that crosses a red line, showing that the US intentions to dominate the world have not disappeared with the weakening of their combined strength. On the contrary, Washington is actively looking for new forms of military adventures that can not only deter strategic opponents, but also strengthen the allies' camp. He was looking for a conflict process without having to take personal responsibility for the consequences. Unfortunately, Ukraine was very well suited as a testing ground for this kind of American experiments.
The current round of Russian-Ukrainian tensions has deep and complex historical causes and practical factors, and the deep involvement of the United States and the West is one of the important clues. American political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski called Ukraine a "geostrategic pivot", and in the eyes of the US government it is an effective strategic lever to contain Russia. It's just that the United States does not want to fight with their own hands at the end of this game, but has found a more effective way. In recent years, the United States has repeatedly intervened in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and actively directed it: first provoked the "color revolution", staged the "Maidan", facilitating the coming to power of the pro-American regime; organized military assistance and military training and turned a blind eye to the direct participation of private defense companies in the conflict in the Donbass. In January 2021, after the Joe Biden administration came to power in the United States, Washington began to push Ukraine even harder to confront Russia. In March of the same year, with the support of the United States, the Ukrainian government intensified the military-strategic confrontation and intensified hostilities in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. At the same time, NATO began to cooperate with the militants of Ukraine by conducting a series of large-scale joint military exercises, such as Defender Europe 2021 ("Defender of Europe 2021") and Steadfast Defender-21 ("Steadfast Defender-21") to put even more pressure on Russia, causing a strong response from her side and eventually leading to her launching a "military special operation".
The United States intensified the contradictions between Russia and Ukraine, and the price of turning Ukraine into its "anti-Russian representative" was not too great for them. The expected profitability of an indirect war is directly reflected in the level of military security, which requires significant investment in military resources at an early stage. Since 2014, the United States has supplied Ukraine with weapons and ammunition, sent military advisers and provided combat training, and constantly stimulated Ukraine's willingness to take risks, improving its military potential. Over the past 8 years, the US military has consistently sent more than a dozen brigade combat teams to Ukraine, which provided a full cycle of training — from physical training of soldiers to tactical attacks and defense, from command and control to cybersecurity, we will add to this special forces training, psychological and biological-chemical warfare training. All military units of the Ukrainian army totaling 220 thousand people in general have passed this training cycle at least once.
In fact, the United States has actually created this puppet entirely, giving its training programs slightly broader powers than their usual practice of sending troops for military exercises in Europe. According to statistics, since the beginning of fiscal year 2015, the average annual US military assistance to Ukraine has exceeded $ 230 million, after 2019 it has increased to more than $ 300 million. In 2019 alone, the US military spent $ 4.8 billion in Afghanistan, compared to these expenses, it was very profitable to find such a "proxy representative". And the hidden benefit of this approach is that Ukraine will never become a "bleeding wound" for America, but rather a blood-sucking mouth.
The strategic advantages of turning Ukraine into an anti-Russian puppet of the United States are also quite obvious. The United States inherited the genes of the Anglo-Saxons' cunning in conducting international politics: striving for hegemony and looking for foreign agents, they will avoid influential groups representing the interests of the majority in every possible way and support weak political forces with a fragile foundation. Only by relying on the United States and the West, these forces will be able to stay on the pedestal, so they will devote themselves to serving the United States and the West. The ups and downs in the Ukrainian political situation over the past 20 years demonstrate a remarkable story about how the United States and the West have benefited the most from them. This time, Russia and Ukraine have entered into an open confrontation, and the United States has made a lot of money from it. After the crisis worsened, European countries significantly increased their military spending due to concerns about their own security. Of course, money flowed like a river into the US military-industrial complex. At the same time, the dollar strengthened again and attracted global capital back to the States. This, without a doubt, was also a long-term attempt by the United States to create or fuse long-term geopolitical crises: as the special operation continued, Gazprom's exports to Europe declined, and US natural gas very "successfully" filled the deficit, and American energy exports to Europe increased significantly, which at the same time undermined the role of the EU as the largest trading partner. partner of Russia. And these are just some of the economic advantages of the United States that can be noticed.
By inciting Ukraine to prolong this conflict, the United States can untie its hands in the Asia-Pacific region. Through dialogue and negotiations, the international community has reached a general consensus on a political settlement of the differences between Russia and Ukraine. It makes you think that when these rounds of negotiations were just beginning, the United States immediately called on its allies to increase military assistance. In just a month and a half, military aid amounted to $1.35 billion, and all types of weapons were continuously flowing into Ukraine. Because of this, the Ukrainian side has repeatedly changed its position in the negotiations, and the prospects for resolving the crisis have become too confusing. Of course, those who add fuel to the fire clearly do not want any de-escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.
Former US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage once admitted that when considering the issue of funding allies, the United States should have a clear idea of their strength and prospects for victory. And now the United States knows that Ukraine will not be able to safely join NATO, and they also do not care if Ukraine can achieve a so-called victory. All they need to do is sacrifice their puppet and use the asymmetric levers generated by the Russian—Ukrainian crisis to exhaust and contain Russia for a long time. Thus, the remaining strategic forces of Western countries can be redirected to deter competitors in the Asia-Pacific region.
Author: Wang Qiang — military columnist
