Agreeing to Disagree : With Prejudice

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said the US and NATO are creating panic in his country over a potential Russian invasion   Future Publishing via Getty Images

"I'm the president of Ukraine, I'm based here and I think I know the details deeper than any other president."

"Do we have tanks on the streets? They go around saying 'War starts tomorrow'."

"It creates panic. Panic in the financial sector. It costs Ukraine a lot."

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky

 

"Compared to the document we received from NATO, the U.S. response could almost be called a paragon of diplomatic politesse."

"If it depends on Russia, there will be no war. We don't want wars. But we also won't allow our interests to be rudely trampled, to be ignored."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

 

"[Russia has massed enough forces to launch a full-scale invasion -- of Ukraine -- with] little warning."

"[The Russian buildup is] larger in scale and scope than anything we've seen in recent memory."

U.S. General Mark Milley, chairman, U.S. joint chiefs of staff

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said in December that his demands must be addressed “right away, right now.”Credit...Pool photo by Aleksey Nikolskyi

Ukraine's president feels as though he and his country are being pushed around. Not only by his country's former nemesis and its current incarnation, but also by the very countries that have stepped into the breach of threatening standoff, and in their eagerness to promote their version of what may be expected to occur, and when, creating an indelible internal aura of stress and panic. Whereas President Zelensky would prefer projecting an air of confidence over a situation that would have grave consequences for the sovereign right of his country, putting up a brave facade while appealing to the West to exert pressure on Moscow, he hears stark predictions of impending disaster.

Predictions that seem to him premature, that all diplomatic overtures have not been fully employed to de-escalate; rather than exacerbate tensions, those who claim to be committed to Ukraine's salvation as a securely independent member of the international community of nations are being unnecessarily provocative and heating up their exchanges in volumes of threats and repercussions. 

The White House, he publicly complained was "amplifying" the risk Ukraine is facing, an alarmist attitude too extreme to reflect the current situation which, he emphases, represents a "mistake in my opinion", a surprising rebuke to the rash statements of approaching doom expressed by the White House. The comments emerged following a telephone call with President Biden, a call that a Ukrainian official described as one that "did not go well".

"On the one hand, [Zelensky] wants assistance. But on the other, he has to assure his people he has the situation under control. That's a tricky balance", observed a White House official. The sense of swiftly impending collision between NATO, the United States, Ukraine and Russia has been heightened by a new revelation that the military buildup of Russian troops and equipment on the border with Ukraine has expanded to the inclusion of blood supplies required for anticipated casualties in the event of an imminent conflict.

In communications with France's President Macron, Mr. Putin spoke of the West having "ignored" security concerns expressed by Russia over its perception of NATO expansion into Russia's near-abroad, a geography that Vladimir Putin regards as Russia's diplomatic-political domain into which a Western presence has become a destabilizing feature and a threat to Russia's relationships with its near neighbours. According to a French official, Mr. Putin indicated "very clearly that he did not want confrontation".

And nor would Beijing -- Moscow's great good friend and collegial partner in defending joint interests against Western interference -- appreciate violent confrontation. At least not right now. It would be most inconvenient, most unsuitable in view of their warm relations, for Russia to embark on an incendiary war situation that would surely spread and absorb the world's attention at the very time that China is hosting the Winter Olympics.

A White House official notes that Russia'a protestations of having no intention of invading its neighbour is welcome, but it would be far more convincing for it to withdraw its troops from Ukraine's border. Mr. Putin has been accused by the U.S. ambassador in Moscow of "putting a gun on the table and saying 'I come in peace'." 

Russia has been given assurances from the U.S. that such a withdrawal would entitle it in exchange to have a delegation of Russian inspectors visit missile sites entrenched by the U.S. in Poland and Romania to reduce its fears that the missiles are aimed at Russia, and not as claimed, in the direction of Iran. In the relentless standoff, the U.S. now considers an action independent of NATO to itself and the U.K. in a "coalition of the willing" to include other allies, moving troops closer to Russia to deter Putin's plans.

A Ukrainian service member kneels next to a howitzer during artillery and anti-aircraft drills near the border with Russian-annexed Crimea in the Kherson region of Ukraine.

via REUTERS