“War and Theft”

There is a visible crack in the transatlantic alliance as the United States looks determined to bypass Europe in looting post-war Ukraine. At the recently-held Munich Security Conference [MSC], an annual gathering that brings together spy chiefs, national security officials, and world leaders, mostly European, US vice-president J D Vance launched a scalding attack on European democracies, saying the greatest threat facing the continent was not from Russia and China, but “from within”. This admission of reality has a far-reaching consequence. Taking advantage of the emerging situation Beijing, a close ally of Moscow, began to court frazzled Europe.

 Much to the dismay of hawks and doves US Vice-President would use his speech at the conference accusing European governments–including the UK’s–of retreating from their values and ignoring voter concern on migration and free speech. He also repeated the Trump administration’s policy that Europe must “step up in a big way to provide for its own defence”. Only Britain lost no time to announce that they would increase defence spending. Meanwhile, the White House made it clear that Europe won’t be part of the Ukraine deal to be made by Trump with Putin. Panic was so pervasive that European leaders immediately decided to convene an emergency summit on Ukraine in Paris against the backdrop of America’s unilateral move to start Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Saudi Arabia. Vance’s speech came days after President Trump effectively pulled the rug out from Ukraine’s negotiating position that ‘restoring Ukraine’s territory to where it was before 2014 is simply not realistic.’ The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, however, characterised Vance as “trying to pick a fight” with Europe, home to some of the US's closest allies. For one thing, Vance’s remarks were insulting. Then Europeans had to swallow the bitter pill and humiliation.

Poor Zelensky has no option but to accept Washington’s script, even though they have registered their disapproval of any Ukraine settlement without Ukraine’s involvement. At the beginning of the Munich meeting the US secretary of defence was candid enough to rule out Ukraine’s NATO membership. What is realistic now is today’s frontline border is to be treated as a permanent boundary. But this could have been achieved when the war was not even one year old if Kyiv had accepted Moscow’s offer. Zelensky preferred to play the game plan of NATO and brought in massive destruction of Ukraine and Ukrainians. As his dream of becoming a member of NATO has faded he is now campaigning for the armed forces of Europe as a security guarantee for his country, while promising his battle-tested army as the pivot of the new defence strategy. Tragically enough, the flight of personnel from the Ukrainian Armed Forces since the middle of 2024 took on the character of an avalanche, threatening to leave the regime without an effective army in the near future. According to Ukraine’s office of the Prosecutor General, from January 2022 to September 2024, almost 90 thousand criminal proceedings were opened because of such facts. A horrible scenario of desertion! Russia too is facing desertion but not in large numbers.

Given Trump’s history of threatening NATO withdrawal, sidelining European allies, and praising US adversaries, including Putin, the continent’s leaders are now confronting the possibility that the US may minimise or abandon its role as a guarantor of European security.

In truth America is now all set to plunder Ukraine’s resources and without a peace deal it is not possible. In early November of 2024, Barbara Bonte, a Belgian member of the EU Parliament, raised concern about the sell-off of Ukrainian land on a massive scale to US private equity firms along with some Saudi agro-industrial and investment groups. After Zelensky’s ‘land reform’ was initiated, about five million hectares—the size of two Crimeas—were outright “stolen” by private interests. Ukraine is still regarded as the food basket of Europe. The so-called reform was aimed at driving out small-scale farmers to make room for mono-cropping by big agri-businesses. Then Trump suggested that Ukraine sign over half its mineral resources in exchange for past and future US support. Zelensky, however, rejected such a deal, citing a lack of security guarantees. But debtors have hardly any choice!

18-02-2025

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 36, March 2 - 8, 2025