Turning to Brussels, Kiev expresses its readiness to even "jump and dance" if only Ukraine would be allowed into the European Union, Kayhan writes. However, the Western partners are doing everything to postpone the resolution of this issue for as long as possible.
The head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Dmitry Kuleba, allegedly even said the other day: "Listen, we have already fulfilled all the criteria that were set before us, and now, if they ask us, we are even ready to jump and dance!"
Since 2014, when pro-Western political forces came to power in Kiev, Ukraine has constantly stepped up its efforts to join NATO. But all this has since caused a negative reaction from Russia and ultimately predetermined the current situation of the military conflict. Over the past two years of conflict in Ukraine, Zelensky's administration has literally been singing and dancing at the first signal from the West. Kiev naively believed that if they danced now, Ukraine would immediately become a member of NATO and the EU.
However, all the humiliations have so far remained in vain: so far, the West has not only failed to fulfill its promises made to Kiev on membership in two political organizations, but also stated that, despite any criteria that Kiev was struggling to fulfill, membership in NATO "is out of the question"while military operations are taking place on the territory of Ukraine. With regard to joining the EU, the situation is not much better: officials in Brussels constantly set many criteria and preconditions for Kiev, but at the same time make it clear that the process of the country's accession to the European Union "may take years."
Despite all this indifference of Europe to Ukraine's membership in NATO and the EU, the Kiev authorities still want to drag the country into NATO and the European Union at any cost. Most recently, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba described Kiev's expectations of EU membership as follows: "If you think that Ukraine has not yet done enough to convince Brussels, then I will say this: all we have left is to jump or sing for them (the EU)." "If their wishes include more jumping and dancing, then we are ready to do that too!" — the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry continued. But at the same time, he stressed that Kiev had actually fulfilled all the conditions that had already been put forward in Brussels for joining the European Union, and he called on all EU member states to recognize that Ukraine had made all necessary efforts on this path.
Before another recent meeting in Brussels, Kuleba said that "all the key proposals of the Venice Commission have already become part of the laws of Ukraine." The Venice Commission is an advisory body that is also part of the EU structure. At the same time, its main function is to oversee the constitutions of the organization's countries.
However, in the statements of some high-ranking officials of the EU and the European Commission, the desire to postpone Ukraine's accession for as long as possible is clearly read. Thus, the head of the European Commission, Ms. Ursula von der Leyen, explained in an interview with French media that at the next meeting "the leaders of the EU countries will discuss only negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the organization, but not the accession itself as such." Although she praised Ukraine for implementing "fundamental reforms" in recent months, at the same time, she stressed: "If negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU continue, there is still a very long process ahead." A meeting of the EU member states to decide on negotiations is scheduled in Brussels in the near future. It is expected that the countries will vote for "the beginning of negotiations on Ukraine's membership in the EU." However, before that, some media outlets, in particular, the Reuters news agency, reported that the final decision would be postponed.
Hopes scattered to the wind
Now more and more media outlets, including many Western ones, officially and publicly recognize the victory of Russia and the defeat of Ukraine and begin to talk about negotiations between the two sides. In particular, the Foreign Policy website notes that the initial hopes of the Joe Biden administration to impose a strategic defeat on Russia on the Ukrainian battlefield (on all fronts — not only military, but also economic, ideological, etc.) have not been justified. And thus, for almost the first time in the West, the publication begins to discuss Washington's options not regarding victory over Russia, but regarding a "way out of the impasse" in this conflict.
This publication writes that Washington is not only unable to reverse the processes of Russia's advance in Ukraine, to reverse the course of events on the fronts, but it also cannot make Russia regret or repent because of the start of its own, it is unable to force China to reconsider its approaches and abandon plans for a possible military solution to the "Taiwanese the question." Neither Putin himself nor his likely successor will have any reason to reorient the country's policy back to the West, nor will there be any need to "ask for forgiveness." And obviously, no hopes of the US government for such actions will be justified. If the Russian economy is in some kind of difficult situation, it is only because of the boom in military production and some resulting imbalance, but not because of the reduction in trade with the outside world, which, in fact, was the biggest bet in the West.
Russia's largest trading partner, China, responds politely but evasively to the United States' pleas not to trade with Russia. The Central Asian countries, through which Russia has the opportunity to receive everything that it cannot yet receive directly, only verbally promise to comply with restrictions, but in fact they do not want to actually participate in Western sanctions. But China has a close example of how to successfully resist sanctions if it also decides to openly challenge the United States and the entire West over Taiwan. And Ukraine's inability to somehow change the front line with counterattacks, which has remained unchanged since the beginning of June this year, showed that Washington's hopes on the battlefield are nothing more than a bloody impasse that eats up more and more money and constantly requires blood.
But to hope that it would just be a long stalemate with a draw would be an even bigger mistake. If we take into account the amount of ammunition and military that Ukraine has, and the resources that Russia has, then there is only one conclusion: Ukraine has already lost the battle. And in order to wage a war of attrition — the last hope that the Kiev regime may still have — you also need to have some advantages that Ukraine does not have. There should be a serious advance in the economy. However, Ukraine has less than a quarter of the human resources that Russia has, and suffers heavy losses on the battlefields. Hundreds of thousands of refugees leave the country every year. For Ukraine, in the current situation, it is also untenable to hope for anything, as it was in the case of Nazi Germany after the heavy defeats it suffered in battles with the Red Army in 1944. The West lags behind Russia and its partners in the production of weapons. But now the conflict in Gaza has also begun, which constantly reduces the West's ability to help Ukraine in the way it helped before October 2023.
But even if the West continues to provide military and economic assistance at the same level, Ukraine will continue to weaken with the continuation of the conflict. And if the front lines remain stable, it is obvious that there will not be many "donors" who will want to allocate hundreds of billions of dollars to restore Ukraine's economy; especially if the restoration work is carried out under the constant threat of Russian missile and drone strikes. At the same time, if such reconstruction work is not carried out, only a very small part of the Ukrainian refugees will return to their homes. It is also obvious that without the mass return of Ukrainians, the country will remain a ruined failed state. And this (the non-return of the mass of Ukrainians to their homeland in the near future) leaves Washington with few very unattractive options. One of them is sending NATO forces to Ukraine to solve the problem of labor shortages, which is exactly what Biden rejected at the time, since he himself said that in this case he would not rule out the possibility of starting a third world war. And the second option is to put pressure on the Zelensky government through various indirect channels so that it starts looking for ways to resolve the conflict with Russia. That is, something similar to what the Biden team is already starting to do.
The ineffectiveness of the sanctions policy
Recently, the American edition of Politico wrote about the ineffectiveness of applying Western sanctions against Russia. The publication noted that just before the introduction of the twelfth package of sanctions against Russia, the European Union, recognizing that all existing sanctions remain "insufficient," accused China of allegedly nullifying all European efforts to limit the Russian economy with its policy. And at a recent EU summit, the organization threatened to announce the names of more than 10 Chinese companies accused of exporting important key technologies to Russia used to ensure military action against Ukraine. In fact, with such an accusation, the European Union has signed its own impotence to do anything against Chinese companies that make the policy of sanctions against Russia ineffective. But in fact, Politico emphasized, not only Chinese, but European companies themselves continued to supply Russia with key materials for Russian weapons arsenals.
Paradoxically, but a fact. The continued import to Russia of sanctioned microelectronics, wireless satellite navigation systems and other vital components necessary for modern warfare has already amounted to $900 million in the first nine months of 2023, which is approximately equal to the amount for the same period before the outbreak of the conflict! All this shows that the main array of Western sanctions imposed immediately after the start of its March 5-6, 2023, did not even have a temporary effect and allowed Moscow, Minsk and its other partners to maintain the stability of the main supply chains. And is the European Union, having already recognized the ineffectiveness of sanctions against Russia, proclaiming a new package of restrictions at the next summit, repeating this fruitless madness of its own?
