Giving Ukraine weapons will only escalate the war

The US and Germany have pledged to deliver advanced weapons to Ukraine to strengthen its capacity in the war against Russia.

Germany has promised Ukraine advanced anti-aircraft weapons, while the US has promised rocket systems and ammunition. 

Russia invaded Ukraine to conduct what it called a special operation, after it seemed imminent the former would join NATO. Russia has warned for several years now it would not allow Ukraine to join NATO.

The war has now passed the three-month mark with no end in sight.  Russia probably thought it would be a quick operation, but it has encountered what must have been surprising resistance. 

To break down this resistance, Russia has instituted a scorched earth policy that has seen Ukranian cities flattened, refugees fleeing the war pouring across borders into neighbouring countries, and Ukraine territory under occupation. Indeed, Russia is threatening to annex two regions it claims have been the focus of ethnic cleansing and repression by the Ukraine regime.

Western countries, principally the US, Germany and Britain, have kept up a cheerleading role for the Ukraine war effort.

But apart from rhetoric and impotent propaganda through Western media channels, the West has done little with little impact on the war trajectory.

Economic sanctions against Russia have been ineffectual in inflicting enough pain to push Russia to reconsider its aggression.

A spokesman for the Ukranian presidency, in applauding the move by the US and Germany to give weapons to his country, says all the Ukraine government needs is the “necessary weapons, and strengthen the efficient economic sanctions and we will win.”

Nothing could be more delusional.

The hard fact is Ukraine cannot win this war. And Russia will prevail. Russia’s weapons are as advanced as any the US has. So the weaponry Ukraine is receiving gives it very little vantage in the battlefield. Indeed, Ukraine is only getting the weapons for defence, having given assurances it will not use them in Russian territory. Really?

Sanctions are ineffective because Europe’s economy will simply collapse without Russian oil and gas. So, the very same European countries talking up sanctions are paying Russia millions of dollars every single day to sustain its war effort. Yeah, go figure! 

That is why the economic sanctions have been reduced to a comical farce, where entire navy fleets are chasing down luxury yachts of Russian oligarchs in international waters to sequester them. As if Russian President Vladmir Putin cares!

The European Union has put in place plans to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels, but its achievement is years away. These are the people urging the Ukraine government to “fight on”.

In the meantime, Ukraine is being reduced to rubble.  

Russia’s aggression has been roundly condemned, so there’s no point re-litigating the point. The main issue the world now needs to focus on is how to end the war. Russia will not be the first country to launch war against another over security concerns. Neither will it be the last!

Rather than escalate the war by stoking the fires through providing Ukraine with weaponry that does nothing to increase that country’s prospects of winning the war, the US, Germany and Britain should be expending their diplomatic capital to bring the two warring countries to the negotiating table. They should come to an immediate agreement for cessation of hostilities, a roadmap to a ceasefire, and a negotiated peace agreement that ends the war and ensures enduring peace.

Ultimately, Ukraine must agree to sign off any future claims to NATO membership. It has no choice. 

Ukranian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, needs to start being the president his countrymen elected, and not a Western proxy. This continued brinkmanship, egged on by the West, is very irresponsible of him. He owes it to his country to seek a solution that will bring the conflict to an end. And really, he knows what he must do!

— gathukara@gmail.com