by LUKE ZUNGA
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – UKRAINE has invaded Russia into the Kursk region, in the northern parts of the country, allegedly using powerful weapons from the United Kingdom (UK), Germany, France and the United States (US).
How Ukraine will pay for the weapons is unclear. Well, Ukraine would say it is fighting back.
But this is exactly what caused the war. Russia said Ukraine would be the launching pad for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) – an alliance of 32 European and two North American countries – and would be a security risk for Russia if it joined the European Union (EU) and NATO.
The war would have been avoided if Ukraine took a balanced stance. It could have done anything else except being an EU member, or if possible, signed an agreement which prevented NATO from entering Ukrainian soil.
What Russia feared is happening. Some 25 million Russians were killed when Germany invaded Russia, despite a Molotov Ribbentrop Pact between Hitler and Stalin in August 1939. At that time Germany was the aggressor.
After World War II, the Paris Peace Treaties with Germany and countries which had supported the country – Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Finland – was finalized in February 1947 to silence Germany.
After that the tide turned to Russia. The fall of the Soviet empire saw the West recruiting countries around Russia into the EU.
These countries wanted, and still want, capital and markets from greener Europe to grow their economies and are a source of migrant labour for richer countries such as Germany, Italy, UK, Belgium, Ireland etc. The US and EU are now drawing in Ukraine at the border with Russia.
The US said Ukraine had a right to choose, as an independent state, to join EU and NATO. Russia complained that by doing so Ukraine would be drawing NATO to its borders.
The US wants Ukraine so dearly that it pulled all resources and those of the EU countries such as Britain, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Italy, France, to back Ukraine to take an intransigent stance against Russia, first by upsetting the Ukraine presidential election so that Volodymyr Zelensky won and square him into conflict with Russia.
There were many agreements which targeted Russia. The Treaty on Final Settlement in 1990, taking advantage of perestroika, to bring down the Berlin Wall, being one.
Then the Partnership and Peace Programme of 1994, which was a precursor to the NATO Russia Founding Pact 1996 in which Russia pledged not to threaten or use force against NATO Allies and any other state. In good faith, this is a good agreement.
In reality, it meant that Russia could not fight a war, it should stay at home. In the background was the US Truman Doctrine, that if a communist country threatened any other, the USA would be involved politically, economically and militarily. Russia was being curtailed.
Then there was the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Ukraine and Russia in 1997, the Moscow Treaty (US-Russia Agreement) in 2002, and so on.
The stroke was the Verkhovna Rada law in 2004! The Verkhovna Rada is the 450-member parliament of Ukraine. It voted to approve a law allowing NATO forces into Ukraine territory anytime.
Russia saw this as a threat and protested, although relying on the safeguards of the pro-Russia presidency in Ukraine to maintain relations and peace.
In February 2014, a Russian-friendly Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted by a revolution sponsored by the Western powers and the US.
Ukraine was in NATO hands, circling Russia, and NATO could cut off Russia from the Ukraine-controlled Black Sea, within missile target of Moscow. Russians in Donbas and Crimea, in the Southeast of Ukraine, took to the streets to demonstrate against the takeover of Ukraine by the West.
In March 2014, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea and the Donbas area from Ukraine, to take control of part of the Black Sea. The friction with Ukraine ended up with the Minsk Agreement in September 2014.
Russia was expelled from the Group of Eight nations (G8), now G7, accusing Russia of breaking the 1996 NATO Russia Founding Pact and subsequent understanding.
The reader should be able to see what triggered the war. Russia decided to deal with the Ukrainian threat now. The West was on the side of the Ukraine government and provided weapons to the country, exactly what Russia feared.
US and British operatives are now fighting in Ukraine and operating the war machinery provided by their governments, so that Russia can not control Ukraine or that NATO maintains control of Ukraine to be within reach of striking Russia.
The invasion into the Kursk region of Russia is a demonstration that Western weapons can penetrate Russia.
It is, however, not possible for Ukraine to take over Russian territory forever. Russia had just said it would supply weapons to enemies of the US because the country and NATO were supplying weapons to Ukraine.
Russia started sending weapons to Iran, which is threatened by a buildup of US and British Navy in the Persian Gulf in support of Israel. The invasion by Ukraine is to distract Russia from continuing to supply Iran, as a more serious event is happening in its backyard.
The US is building 10 USS Gerald Ford type war ships, the largest flotations in the world. One is already in service and moved from the Mediterranean Sea where it blockaded Gaza at the start of the Israeli-Hamas war and now is in the Gulf to silence Iran and the region.
The second ship is almost ready for deployment. These 10 warships are not to protect the US but to force issues and dominate.
The USS Gerald Ford Carrier weighs 100,000 tonnes, four storeys high, with 4,500 workforce on board, and can conduct over 200 sortie take-offs a day to knock down targets. Nobody will raise his finger.
The only language the US understands is competition.
If BRICS, an organisation comprising Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were to set up a joint military facility to develop air, naval and ground capabilities, YES, the US would pay attention.
BRICS can use the West coast of South Africa and East coast of Brazil for military developments, spanning across the Southern Atlantic. The US is a big country, with huge resources.
A single country does not provide enough competition to the US. Russia and China are trying, India has the Vagrant carrier, but South Africa is ‘dead’.
This is where African leaders fall short. They fold their hands, thinking they will get money from the US and EU.
No, there is no free money. There are many ways of raising huge capital without Europe or America.
Countries must tactically compete with the US, not hate it per se. Countries must develop their economies for bigger resources. Don’t let the US run amok. Bayadelela! (they are disrespectful).
– CAJ News