Rich Welsh| On Tuesday, the United States raised its threat assessment of a likely imminent Russian attack against Ukraine, warning ahead of talks between the top US and Russian diplomats that “no option” would be off the table in a subsequent response by the West.
“We believe we’re now at a stage where Russia could at any point launch an attack on Ukraine,” White House mouthpiece Jen Psaki said. “I would say that’s more stark than we have been.”
As Russian troops sit massed along Ukraine’s borders in the tens of thousands, diplomatic efforts are being ratcheted up to avoid a war in Eastern Europe.
Some are wondering if President Joe Biden has his head in the game. There have been credible accusations made that he and his son Hunter were involved in heavy corruption in Ukraine when Biden was vice president and made the point man on handling Ukraine corruption by then President Barack Obama. Biden got the Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko to fire the prosecutor who was investigating Hunter Biden’s firm Burisma Holdings, Inc. and was about to call Hunter in for questioning when his father intervened and had him fired. This is all on tape, yet nothing happened to them because of a D next to their names.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the same man who blinked during the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle, flew to Ukraine on Wednesday for talks. If it was anything like the pathetic talks with his Chinese counterparts last year, I’d say Ukraine better brace themselves for war.
Blinken also made stops in Berlin on Thursday to meet with European allies, and in Geneva to sit down with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday.
President Biden gave a speech on Wednesday and when asked about a potential invasion, he said, “My guess is he will move in.” What an incredible insight.
Russia is still maintaining that it has no plans to invade Ukraine. Don’t forget that they said the same thing in 2014 when Russia seized one province and backed separatist rebels in another region.
Putin leaves left very little doubt of an invasion after the massive buildup of weaponry and troops that, at the very least, there will be an assault of some sort. I believe Russia’s goal here is to block the pro-Western Ukraine from leaving Russia’s sphere of influence.
Russia has demanded that NATO promise to never offer membership to Ukraine. NATO says that’s a non-starter. NATO was pretty much created to protect European countries from the Soviet Union, so I don’t know where Putin gets off making demands of who is allowed to join.
The Biden administration seems to be giving off vibes that Russia will go in.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, the same guy lied to the American people repeatedly throughout the Afghanistan withdrawal, said that Putin is, “clearly is building up a force posture there that provides him multiple options,” adding, “We still don’t believe that he’s made a final decision.”
Psaki accused Putin for the whole mess.
“President Putin has created this crisis.” She then warned that unprecedented economic sanctions would follow a Russian attack against Ukraine.
Psaki stressed that consequences of an invasion could mean suspending the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. That never made sense to me. Germany is a part of NATO. We are paying dues to keep NATO afloat. NATO was created to protect Germany from Russia and now they are going into contracts with Russia for natural gas. Does that make any sense?
The pipeline, which is reported to have been completed but hasn’t yet been commissioned, is seen as an important part of Europe’s energy supply network, but also a crown jewel in Moscow’s export capabilities.
“Our view continues to be that stopping the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is a credible piece we hold over Russia,” Psaki said. No one would believe a use of force deterrence from this administration, so I guess threatening to end the pipeline is as good as we’re going to get.
Knowing Putin, an old KGB man, this is all being done as an international test on Joe Biden to show how incompetent he is.
