World War–III

With America, NATO and European Union actively participating in the two-month old Russia-Ukraine conflict, by providing ‘man, money and gun’ to Zelensky’s government; the third world war has just begun. More than 30 percent of Ukraine has been destroyed beyond repair but Zelensky wants to continue the war for ten more years, thanks to America’s game plan. It won’t be a happy situation for the millions of Ukrainians who have lost everything—home, livelihood and future. Washington and its Western allies have succeeded in isolating Putin’s Russia diplomatically while making Zelensky a war hero out of Ukrainian ruins. The point at issue is how the ghost of Hiroshima has returned threatening the very existence of human race. The West now admits that Russian threat of nuclear war is not an empty rhetoric. Having failed to achieve its declared objectives in a very short period Russia now looks too desperate to taste a bitter pill of ‘victory’ in eastern Ukraine where it has some limited military success despite heavy casualties. American intelligence has predicted the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine because of mounting losses Russia has so far suffered in this war. Putin’s arsenal is said to have 2000 such devices but experts believe only 50 will be enough to wipe out Ukraine from the world atlas.

War is now mainly raging in what is called Donbas region. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February, Ukraine controlled about two-thirds of the Donetsk and Luhansk territories that actually comprise Donbas. And remaining areas were governed by the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, statelets, created following Russia’s intervention in 2014 when Moscow also annexed Crimea from Ukraine. The brutalities of the Ukrainian army in these pro-Russian enclaves border on genocide without much notice of Human Rights defenders, including Amnesty International. The Ukrainian armed forces and their Para-military wings have been carrying on cleansing of ethnic Russians in these states for the last 8 years. Russian atrocities in Ukraine have come to the fore due to sustained western campaign but Ukrainian barbarities go unreported. And Russian allegation that Ukrainian polity has been sufficiently Nazified, particularly in respect of Russian speaking people, over the years is not totally baseless.

America along with its NATO partners is arming Ukraine to the teeth. In other words they want to prolong the war which in the end will weaken Russia. The impact of sanctions is being felt by the Russians as only the other day Moscow mayor said how two lakh people lost jobs during the period as sanctions-induced economic slide-down can hardly be glossed over. Ukraine has opened up a huge arms bazaar. European Union is now proposing 500 million Euros, equivalent to $ 544 million, in new support for Ukraine’s military aid, on top of 1 billion Euros previously allocated for weapons. The Uncle Sam announced $ 400 million in additional military assistance to Ukraine in April, out of a total of $1.4 billion since the war started February 24. The Pentagon is supplying Javelins, Stinger missiles, hundreds of Switchblade drones and counter-artillery radars. And Zelensky is begging almost daily for more weapons. Surprisingly, Britain looks more aggressive than America. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson went all the way to Kiev to express his solidarity with Ukrainian fighters while pledging new military package that includes 120 armoured vehicles and new anti-ship missile systems ,Star streak short-range anti-aircraft missiles, 800 more anti-tank missiles and high-tech munitions that loiter above targets. One of the objectives of Russia’s invasion or what they call ‘special military operations’ was demilitarisation of Ukraine but today Ukraine is more militarised than ever before. As the war drags on world war two scenarios with massive death and destruction are everywhere across the length and breadth of Ukraine. At the time of writing 32 cities of Ukraine are under Russia’s air strikes.

America in league with Japan and Australia is working overtime to activate its Pacific war theatre over the Taiwan issue--a dress-rehersal for the third world war. And China too, a new super power in the making is flexing its muscle.

Tragically enough, anti-war movement is nowhere making headlines. Disunited leftists, socialists and communists protest here and there, somewhat sporadically, without a specific goal to reach. No anti-war front, like anti-fascist united front of yester years is emerging. No doubt today President Zelensky is more popular than Joe Biden in America but he will go down in history as the worst ruler of Ukraine because of his refusal to become flexible and attempt to make the war a point of no return. Nobody knows what will happen to millions of Ukrainian refugees, now languishing in make-shift camps in different countries of Europe. He has no option but to mortgage his country to America and international financial institutions as Sri Lanka has done it to China, only to face serious consequences in the immediate future.

19-04-2022

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Frontier
Vol 54, No. 44, May 1 - 7, 2022