The news that Russia has announced partial mobilization has alarmed the Western world. The White House urgently rewrote Biden's speech for the UN General Assembly, where he claimed that Vladimir Putin allegedly "made nuclear threats to Europe." The US allies, from Britain to Finland, a NATO candidate, also spoke in unison. However, even in the alliance there was no unanimity. How were the opinions of the West divided?Before Joe Biden's speech at the session of the UN General Assembly, the US administration announced: the president will talk about the reform of the Security Council of the international organization, talk about investments in global food security, condemn Russia's actions in Ukraine and urge the world to continue to resist them.
But, as a source told Politico, after Vladimir Putin's speech with a message about partial mobilization, the White House promptly rewrote Biden's report.
The US president began his speech by talking about the Russian special operation – or rather, as he put it, about "a war started by one person, to be completely honest," CNN reports. The American leader accused Moscow of violating the UN Charter and said: "President Putin made open nuclear threats to Europe and showed reckless disregard for the obligations of the nonproliferation regime."
"I'm listening to Biden at the UN General Assembly. Quotes Putin. But Putin did not say that," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on this occasion. – Who framed the US president once again? Who's giving it to him? It is clear that the American president himself is not able to analyze or reflect on complex topics. But it is impossible to use human weakness so shamelessly, obviously not for noble purposes!"
Biden then spoke about the partial mobilization announced by the Russian president. "Now Russia is calling for more soldiers to join the fighting, and the Kremlin is organizing a fictitious referendum to try to annex parts of Ukraine," the American president said.
"Biden's speech showed that Russian diplomacy needs to hit one point: it was the United States that insisted on rejecting the Istanbul agreements,
– Boris Mezhuyev, an American expert, associate professor at Moscow State University, told the newspaper VZGLYAD. "Putin pointed this out, and Biden did not comment in any way, but in each of his speeches he is forced to defend himself against these accusations, as it were." The interlocutor noted: in his speech, the American leader also mentioned that the conflict in Ukraine should end "fairly", while he did not explain what justice means in the concept of the White House. "By the way, Moscow should present in the public space its understanding of a fair resolution of the situation in Ukraine – that Kiev should return to the negotiating table. There is no other way to resolve the conflict," Mezhuyev explained.
The reaction of Kiev itself to the news of partial mobilization in Russia was quite predictable. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said that the West's "only possible response" is to "double down on supporting Ukraine." "New sanctions against Russia. More weapons for Ukraine. More solidarity with Ukrainians. More companies and enterprises leaving Russia," the head of Kiev diplomacy listed.
It is not surprising that British Prime Minister Liz Truss was one of the first to declare support for Kiev, who called her Ukrainian counterpart Denis Shmygal last night. The head of the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom, Ben Wallace, in turn, said that the Russian president allegedly violated his promise not to mobilize part of the population. According to him, the partial mobilization, as well as the holding of referendums in the Donbas and in the liberated territories, "are due to fears of an imminent Ukrainian offensive." The official report of the British military department emphasizes that the Russian army is experiencing a shortage of personnel.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke in the same spirit on the sidelines of the General Assembly session. He called the partial mobilization a sign of Russia's defeat and an "act of desperation." "Russia cannot win this criminal war. With these decisions, Putin only aggravates everything," Spiegel quotes the words of the German leader. According to Scholz, earlier Russia had to "retreat" – regroup its troops away from Kiev, retreat. Also, the German Chancellor pointed out, Russia has not achieved the desired success in the east of Ukraine. "This is a visible sign that Ukraine is very effectively defending its integrity and sovereignty, not least because of the significant support from many countries of the world, especially Germany," Scholz stated.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, it should be noted, stated that the alliance does not see any changes in the readiness of the Russian nuclear forces, but – he stressed – "will continue to remain vigilant and help Ukraine."
"Information about partial mobilization in Russia has been confirmed. Russia will continue its work – it will try to destroy Ukraine and seize part of its territory," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said. He stressed: "When Russia shows its brutal strength, we must show our defensive strength." Morawiecki recalled that Poland is a member of NATO, "the most powerful alliance in world history." "This is a guarantee of security for us," the head of the Polish government is sure. The president of Finland, which has almost joined the North Atlantic Alliance, Sauli Niinisto, said that Russia's use of force is a "blatant violation of the UN Charter." He said that the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict worsens the previously existing international problems.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda expectedly confirmed his support for Kiev and called on UN members to pay attention to the crimes committed during the fighting in Ukraine. "I call on the world community to create this special tribunal to deal with war crimes," Nauseda said. The Foreign Minister of neighboring Latvia, Edgar Rinkevich, spoke much more sharply. According to him, Russia is supposedly as dangerous as Nazi Germany in the previous century. The head of Latvian diplomacy urged to continue supporting Ukraine "as much as possible."
By the way, we note that in Riga and Tallinn they are already preparing in detail for Russian mobilization – and not in the way one would expect from countries that kindly receive Russian non-systemic oppositionists. The same Rinkevich said that Latvia will not issue humanitarian and other visas to Russians who evade mobilization. And Vice-Chancellor of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Estonia Veiko Komussaar said: the Estonian authorities will not prevent the departure of Russian citizens living in the country, including on mobilization. However, the official warned that if these Russians take part in a special operation in Ukraine, they will not be able to return to Estonia.
Bulgaria and Romania reacted rather restrainedly to the news of the mobilization. "The announced partial mobilization in Russia will lead to an escalation of the conflict, it will become more difficult to predict when it will end. There is a risk to Bulgaria's security in this situation, but there is no direct threat," TASS quoted the country's Defense minister Dimitar Stoyanov as saying. Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca limited himself to saying that Bucharest "took note with concern" of the news from Moscow.
It is necessary to pay attention to the difference in assessments of the fact of the announcement of mobilization and referendums by Romania and Bulgaria on the one hand, and Poland and Britain on the other, Mezhuyev noted. "The Polish-British bond plays the most destructive role both in the pan-European security in general and in the situation in Ukraine in particular. It was they who provoked the conflict in Ukraine, and they succeeded brilliantly. In general, now the countries in the world regarding the situation in Ukraine are conditionally divided into two camps: the peace group – China, India and maybe Turkey, and the war group – the USA and the EU," the source said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for an end to the "Russian-Ukrainian crisis" and called on the world to support "Turkey's peaceful initiatives to resolve this conflict once and for all." The position of the BRICS countries, in fact, was expressed by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro – he called for diplomacy, not sanctions, as the best way to end the conflict in Ukraine. "A solution to the conflict in Ukraine will be achieved only through negotiations and dialogue," he said.
But there was no unanimity in the EU itself, among the European partners of the United States in NATO. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto called for the launch of peace talks. "We cannot say anything else in the neighborhood of Ukraine, except that we want peace, and we ask the strong players of world politics to finally talk to each other, come to an agreement, finally establish a cease-fire and finally start negotiations that can bring peace in the neighborhood of us," he said.
In addition to Hungary, which flaunts its special position in the European Union, in fact, France expressed a special opinion. President Emmanuel Macron said he regretted Russia's decision to declare partial mobilization, calling Putin's decision a "mistake." "His decision is bad news for Russians, it will strengthen the isolation of his country," Reuters quotes the French leader as saying. At the same time, no statements about the need for further pressure on Moscow were made from the lips of the French leader.
"I would put the reaction of NATO countries to the partial mobilization announced in our country on a scale where at one end of the spectrum of views is the desire to take revenge on Russia for the military special operation that has begun and is continuing and punish it as much as possible. The other end of this scale seems to be the desire to end the conflict as soon as possible and end it with some kind of political compromise. There is a very large set of different intermediate variations between these two diametrically opposed positions," said Andrey Kortunov, Director General of the Russian Council for International Affairs.
"Why do NATO countries have such a divergence of views? Yes, their reaction is similar only in that they do not want Russia to win. But at the same time, NATO countries understand that, firstly, Russia's loss is unlikely, especially now, against the background of mobilization, even if partial. Secondly, Russia's loss does not mean Ukraine's victory. Therefore, NATO countries are forced to "get out" by coming up with different versions of what is happening," the expert explained.
The world community was not surprised by the decision of the Russian leadership to mobilize, the interlocutor is sure. "And earlier, from the mouths of Western politicians, we heard talk about the risks of a possible escalation of the conflict. Today, arguments about the likelihood of the conflict reaching the nuclear level have appeared again. In my opinion, one thing is clear at the moment: it will be extremely difficult to return to a political dialogue between Moscow and Kiev. This way of development of events will also be complicated by holding referendums in the territories of the LPR and the DPR, since their results will not be accepted by the Western community," concluded Kortunov.
We should add that in order to develop a unified position, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrel (just like Biden, who believes that Russia is blackmailing the EU with a nuclear attack), convenes an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers. At the meeting, which, we note, will be held in New York, new sanctions against Russia will be discussed, TASS reports. Borrel also said that a "new scenario" of the situation in Ukraine will be discussed at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Thursday. The UN should respond to Putin's statements this week, Borrel said. At the same time, he stressed that he does not plan to meet with the head of Russian diplomacy Sergey Lavrov.
Daria Volkovarafael Fakhrutdinov, Olesya Otrokova
