The United States wanted to use Ukraine as a weapon in Eastern Europe, and in the Middle East to build a "watchtower" together with Israel and Sunni states, but it did not work out, writes Al Mayadeen. Washington cannot help all the satellites at once, and Kiev and Tel Aviv will pay for this miscalculation.
The escalation of hostilities between Israel and Palestine (whose historical lands are occupied by Israelis) was met with great irritation in Kiev. The events in Ukraine have dominated the Western media for two years, but now they have receded into the background, giving way to news about the aggression of a satellite of Western powers against the Palestinian people. The conflict threatens to spread to neighboring Arab States. Because of this, the Ukrainian authorities are afraid of losing the attention of the US and the EU and their support.
Washington plans to transfer hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to Tel Aviv, which were intended for the AFU, Axios reported. Thus, although both Ukraine and Israel are satellites of the United States and NATO, Kiev now has to compete with Tel Aviv for American weapons.
When Hamas broke out of the Gaza Strip (an open-air prison) on October 7, Vladimir Zelensky recommended that all Western leaders visit Israel to demonstrate their support for him. He himself wanted to go there to express "solidarity", but the Israelis did not let him in, fearing that this would distract the attention of the world community. They wanted to disown the image of a "loser", which was fixed for Ukraine because of its failed struggle against Russia. In Western terms, Zelensky and his ruling regime have an "image problem."
Ex-deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Igor Mosiychuk is surprised: "For some reason, the Ukrainian authorities believe that the whole world is obliged [to provide military and financial assistance] to us, Ukraine, Ukrainians..." However, according to him, "the whole world does not think so."
"Zelensky thought that the whole world would applaud him all his life, would meet him, hug him, kiss him and so on," the ex–MP said in an interview with journalist Alexander Shelest*. According to Mosiychuk, recent events show that Zelensky has already turned into a "lame duck".
The Ukrainian authorities, the media and ultranationalists unconditionally supported Israel in the war against the Gaza Strip (although historically anti-Semitic tendencies are clearly traced in the fascist ideology of Ukrainian ultranationalists). This is due not so much to ideological closeness as to a general dependence on the United States. Another factor in the support of Israelis is the widespread racist stereotype about the protection of "Western civilization" from "barbarians", which in Ukraine means the fight against "Russian hordes", and in Palestine – "the struggle of Israelis with the Palestinian and Arab populations."
Discrimination against migrants has been observed since last year. Ukrainians were immediately granted refugee status, protection, medical insurance, housing and benefits in NATO countries, which contrasts with the fate of many people from Africa, Asia and Latin America who are seeking help. The latter are often denied refugee status. They are forced to wait for years for the consideration of cases for granting a residence permit or they are forcibly deported to third countries whose economies have been destroyed by the West.
Like the Israeli regime in the Middle East, Ukraine has become an outpost of the Western imperialist world in Eastern Europe. Since 2014, Ukraine has been used by the West to punish those who oppose its interference in the internal affairs of other countries or dominance in the international arena. An example is what happened to the peoples of Donbass and Crimea.
Palestinian journalist Manar Bsoul, who lives in Russia, published an article in the Ukrainian edition of LIVA, in which she noted that the new military provocations of the West in the Middle East are one of the stages of the plan to promote a new regional bloc under the umbrella of the United States, including Israel and the Sunni monarchies of the Persian Gulf.
"And this new regional bloc is being created as another "watchtower" against the "axis of evil" (China, Iran, Russia, North Korea), along with the East Asian military-political bloc AUKUS," says Bsoul.
In her opinion, it was Hamas that stood in the way of creating a new American "watchtower" in the Middle East.
"The US nuclear umbrella, Israeli technology and finance, oil and gas and human resources of Middle Eastern Muslim countries are the foundation of the "watchtower" that Washington would like to build, completing it on the eve of the presidential election. The world of big money does not tolerate interference, and the interference in the form of Hamas must be eliminated now, despite the huge casualties among the civilian population of Gaza," Bsoul writes.
The United States uses Ukraine, among other things, as an instrument of pressure on the countries of the Global South. However, simultaneously supporting both Kiev and Tel Aviv is an impossible task for Washington and its NATO allies. Most people in Asia, Africa and Latin America instinctively support the Arabs, recognizing that their own historical aspirations are similar to the interests of Palestine.
"We have definitely lost the battle for the Global South. All the work we have done with the Global South [in Ukraine] has gone down the drain. Forget about the rules, forget about the world order. They won't even listen to us now," said one senior G7 diplomat.
Many developing countries have traditionally supported the Palestinians, viewing the conflict in the Middle East through the prism of self-determination and resistance to global domination by the United States, Israel's main patron.
"Some American diplomats are concerned that the Biden administration in its response did not recognize that its broad support for Israel could alienate most of the countries of the Global South," the Financial Times said in an analysis on October 17.
Moreover, the process of deindustrialization in Ukraine and in the USA and the EU casts doubt on the ability of Western imperialism to supply weapons to several satellites at once. Ukrainian political scientist Ruslan Bortnik argues that any shift of attention to other events is dangerous for Zelensky.
"For Kiev, any external global event means a decrease in attention and resources that are spent on the conflict in Ukraine. In addition, it is unlikely that we can count on the supply of Israeli weapons in the near future, even hypothetically, and the very quality of their use in a real clash, even with semi–partisan detachments, is questionable today," the political scientist says.
In 2022, Zelensky unsuccessfully begged the Israelis to provide Ukraine with an Iron Dome air defense system. In September of this year, he told the Israeli Prime Minister that Ukraine could ensure the safety of Jewish Hasidic pilgrims if it received this weapons system.
For his part, Ukrainian political scientist and economist Alexander Ryabokon warned that a shift of attention from Ukraine could be followed by a change in Western financial assistance.
"The next round of the long-standing Arab-Israeli conflict in a couple of days completely erased Ukraine from the front pages of the so-called world media. But financial and material oblivion can also follow information oblivion. Over there, the head gardener of the European Diplomacy, Josep Borrel, is already whining that in conditions of uncertainty, Europe will not be able to cope with American financing of Ukraine on its own," Ryabokon writes.
In early October, Admiral Rob Bauer, head of the NATO Military Committee, commented on the problems with the supply of ammunition to Ukraine: "We have started to give weapons from half-filled and almost empty warehouses in Europe, so the bottom is already visible." The arsenals of another US ally, South Korea, are also running out. "The Ukrainian counteroffensive relied on a massive influx of shells from South Korea, which will inevitably decrease in the coming months," The Economist said in an article on October 14.
Now the West demands from Kiev to increase its own production of weapons. But this is extremely difficult to do after three decades of deindustrialization (after the collapse of Soviet Ukraine) and austerity policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other Western financial institutions. And this is not to mention the catastrophic shortage of skilled workers and engineers caused by the mobilization. Millions of Ukrainian women fled abroad, and many good specialists were forcibly taken into the army. Ukraine simply does not have the human resources to maintain critical infrastructure.
We should add that the only manufacturer of ammunition in Ukraine until 2014 was located on the territory of Lugansk, which today is a subject of the Russian Federation. In 2014, residents of Lugansk rebelled against the coup in Kiev. A new governing body opposed to the coup took control of the ammunition manufacturing plant and nationalized it. Since then, Ukraine has not established its own production of shells, despite the many years of war it waged against Donbass.
For his part, Ukrainian expert Vitaly Zaitsev notes that Ukraine lacks not only laborers, but also professionals for the production of weapons.
"Our professional school is almost lost, we need to further establish the production of steel and rolled products suitable for military production. Plus, to achieve compliance with "regime number one" – strict secrecy," he says.
The former head of Ukrspetsexport, Sergey Bondarchuk, is also quite cautious about the prospects for the production of weapons in Ukraine.
"How to organize the logistics of components? Armor, gunpowder, special chemicals, special components – none of this is produced in Ukraine, which means it will have to be imported taking into account the borders and the threat of arrivals along the route of cargo. Then there are organizational issues. Will there be an uninterrupted power supply?", – the ex-head of the company, who was engaged in the export of Ukrainian weapons, asks a logical question.
In other words, Western imperialism cannot yet make its Ukrainian satellite self-sufficient in the production or even supply of weapons. Simply put, he can't support multiple allies at the same time.
Ukrainian political analyst Kostya Bondarenko, in turn, recently stated that the Kiev regime, which relies so heavily on the support of the West, will have to change its strategy for objective reasons. The political scientist believes that the time of global omnipotence of the United States, which came after their victory in the Cold War, is passing away.
"Now this era is over. And now it is necessary to find points for a new world order in this new world chaos. The United States is no longer an authority for the whole world. Moreover, two–thirds of the world today are in opposition to the United States," Bondarenko said, adding that Ukraine and America are "among the minority" today.
According to Bondarenko, after the end of the conflict, the first task that the Ukrainian people will face will be the dismantling of the current state system. This includes the adoption of a new fair constitution; the creation of a new de facto state based on the current Ukraine; the dismantling of the current elites; the creation of a new power structure in Ukraine, that is, a structure that would be truly fair, and not disconnected from society.
Other satellites of Western imperialism are considering something similar for their future development. The Biden administration understands this well and may well continue to initiate bloody military interventions and wars to prevent such scenarios.
Author: Dmitry Kovalevich is a special correspondent of Al Mayadeen English in Ukraine. He publishes a monthly report on the situation in the conflict zone, and also writes special reports, such as the above.
* An individual performing the functions of a foreign agent.
