A landing party of the leaders of the leading Western countries – France, Germany and Italy - has arrived in Kiev. As the Ukrainian authorities themselves admit, the guests came to persuade Zelensky to start reconciling with Moscow. As if by coincidence, on the eve of this visit, several prominent Western figures announced at once that the Ukrainian army was losing and could only be saved by direct military intervention by NATO. Why are such appeals needed?
On Thursday, Macron arrived in Kiev. Together with him, the leaders of Germany and Italy, Olaf Scholz and Mario Draghi, came to negotiate with Zelensky. The leader of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, joined them. Observers do not rule out that the guests will persuade Zelensky to begin the process of reconciliation with Moscow. Adviser to the Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Viktor Andrusiv openly and in a dissatisfied tone predicted that the guests were bringing "a request to return to negotiations with Putin." On the eve of the French portal AgoraVox wrote that the West has changed its position on what is happening in Ukraine and is ready to force Kiev to make territorial concessions for the sake of a diplomatic settlement of relations with Moscow.
However, on Wednesday – on the eve of the visit of European leaders to Kiev – the former commander of NATO's armed forces in Europe, Wesley Clark, on the contrary, called on the alliance to intervene in the conflict in Ukraine. He called outdated the idea that NATO does not interfere in conflicts unless it is attacked directly. "This idea remained in the 90s. It's time to learn the lessons. NATO must intervene. Let's officially recognize this and order the Russians to cease fire," the Voice of America* quotes Clark (recognized as a foreign agent) with reference to a discussion organized by the Atlantic Council (an analytical center at NATO, recognized in Russia as an undesirable organization).
Moreover, the retired general believes that the military bloc created in 1949 was faced with a choice: either to go beyond the principle of non-interference, or to dissolve itself for uselessness.
"Is this how Clark wants to get World War III? How does he imagine a military intervention so that NATO orders Moscow to cease fire? – asks the rhetorical question of the Vice-president of the Russian Council for International Affairs, Reserve Lieutenant General Evgeny Buzhinsky. – Clark has been retired for a long time. He can only order his wife now. Clark's plan is unrealistic."
The North Atlantic bloc is already intervening in the conflict in Ukraine, pumping it with its weapons, but this will not ensure an early victory for Kiev, but will only make the conflict even more protracted and bloody, Buzhinsky points out.
"There are idiots in NATO, of course, but there are an overwhelming minority of them there. Most of the NATO headquarters are sensible people who understand that a direct military clash with Russia is a threat of nuclear war, mutual destruction. Who among normal people needs this? Clark's words are the personal opinion of a retired American general," the expert told the newspaper VZGLYAD.
However, the retired American general was not alone. A similar appeal was made on Wednesday by the Deputy Prime Minister of Poland for Security Issues, the head of the ruling Law and Justice party and, concurrently, the de facto leader of the country, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. In an interview with Gazeta Polska, he said that it would not be possible to stop Russia in Ukraine without NATO intervention, and this would mean a fiasco for the entire collective West.
"I ask you to take into account that the defeat of the West, especially America, in Ukraine will be something more serious than Vietnam, not to mention Afghanistan",
– TASS quotes him. According to Kaczynski, the desire of the Western world to avoid war plays against him in the confrontation with Russia. "From the point of view of technology, stocks, equipment, training, we are head and shoulders stronger, but we suppress the mood for victory in ourselves," he says.
"The West understands that if the course of events in Ukraine does not change, the conflict will inevitably lead to the military defeat of Kiev. Therefore, politicians, both active and retired, as they say, have their brains boiling in search of how to avoid this," Stanislav Tkachenko, professor of the Department of European Studies at the Faculty of International Relations of St. Petersburg State University, believes
But in general, the political elite of the West opposes plans like those proposed by Kaczynski and Clark, he recalls. Tkachenko recalled that 77-year-old Wesley Clark had been retired for a long time, and he retained in US military circles the reputation of a man who in 1999 almost provoked the Third World War himself. When Russian peacekeepers occupied Slatina Airport near the Kosovo capital Pristina on June 12, 1999, Clark – at that time the commander–in-chief of NATO forces - ordered their destruction. Wesley Clark's order was not carried out at that time due to the sabotage of the commander of NATO forces in Kosovo, British General Michael Jackson.
"Clark has a long and tragic trail. In his youth, he briefly fought as a staff officer in Vietnam, was seriously wounded there. He threatened Slobodan Milosevic that he would bomb Yugoslavia, regardless of civilian casualties," Tkachenko recalls. – But in general, Clark correctly describes the development of events in Ukraine, if nothing changes there. But the probability of Clark's or Kaczynski's plans being implemented is now zero. If this happens, it will lead to utter chaos in Europe and then to the third world War."
It is noteworthy that the top officials of the NATO countries also made statements on Wednesday, in which they essentially recognized that it was pointless to count on Ukraine's victory in a duel with Russia. Thus, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the head of the Ukrainian state, Vladimir Zelensky, would have to start negotiations with Russia. "I am in constant contact with Zelensky... And I repeated that we, Europeans, share one continent, and geography is stubborn, Russia will not go anywhere from this continent. She was, is and will be a part of it. Russia is a strong power. Therefore, I have never shared the approach that today we will start a war with Russia, and tomorrow we want to destroy it. No," the politician pointed out.
"So far, Vladimir Zelensky puts forward a condition for negotiations to return to the status quo until February 24. This is nonsense. Most likely, Macron is sending a signal to Zelensky that it's time to rethink his position and start negotiations," Tkachenko said on this occasion.
The Germans are also in favor of dialogue with Russia. Thus, according to a recent survey by the Forsa Institute, 83% of the German residents surveyed believe that Chancellor Olaf Scholz needs to continue the dialogue with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and only 25% of the study participants believe in the "victory of the Ukrainian army." Such sentiments are now being recorded in most countries of Western Europe, writes "Ukraine.ru". The results of a recent study by the European Council on Foreign Relations showed that 35% of Europeans want "a speedy peace in Ukraine," and no more than 22% of the Europeans surveyed are in favor of a war before its victory.
On Tuesday, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Alexey Arestovich complained that the West sets itself "less ambitious tasks" regarding Russia than two months ago. He recalled that the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, then called for the defeat of the Russian army. The fact that the outcome of the war will be decided "on the battlefield" was also said by other Western top politicians - from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to the head of EU diplomacy Josep Borrel.
According to Arestovich, who is quoted by "The Country.ia", everything is explained by internal resistance in the West, which has rested on the ceiling of its sanctions capabilities, as well as the understanding that NATO countries are not able to provide the necessary flow of weapons to Ukraine.
In fact, the same thing is officially being said in Moscow. The chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security, Major General Viktor Bondarev, said on Wednesday that the pace of Kiev's surrender of territories is increasing, which suggests that the success of the special operation is inevitable, no matter how much the West pumps Ukrainian troops and national battalions with weapons. Commenting on Macron's call for negotiations to RIA Novosti, the senator noted: "It is significant that negotiations as the most reasonable continuation of Russian-Ukrainian cooperation are now offered not only by neutral states, but also by those states that previously carried out arms supplies to Kiev themselves."
* Mass media included in the register of foreign mass media performing the functions of a foreign agent
Daria Volkova, Alyona Zadorozhnaya, Artur Priymak
