Last week (February 20–26), the United States showed their unwavering support for Ukraine against the backdrop of the anniversary of the russian full-scale invasion.
On the other hand, russia continues nuclear blackmail, and the message of the russian president to the federal assembly was called the worst in the last 20 years.
The UN General Assembly supported the Ukrainian "peace formula". China's “peace plan” appealed to russia, but disappointed the United States because Beijing failed to condemn russian aggression against Ukraine.
The EU and NATO are taking decisive action to win over Ukraine in the war. russia does not stop attempts to destabilize the situation in Moldova and shares increasingly more portions of disinformation.
Below we talk about the key statements and events of the war-struck week.
Biden is Confident About the Victory of Ukraine, and putin Prepares the russians for Existential War
On February, 20, the President of the United States made a historic, and at the same time strategic, visit to Ukraine. It sent a clear signal for the kremlin about the future defeat. Joe Biden has shown unwavering support for Ukraine and said putin's war of conquest is doomed to failure.
The dictator who has been restoring the empire for years will never suppress the people's love of freedom; brutality will never break the will of free people; and Ukraine will never be defeated by russia. Never!” the US President said the next day in Poland.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, is confident that Biden's visit is a victory for the Ukrainian people. “A clear signal to the swamps – no one is afraid of you!” – he said.
In addition, Volodymyr Zelensky believes that the future of the world order is now being determined in Ukraine. "Our relations, between Ukraine and the US, have reached the historic and most significant level. We can be called true allies, and our alliance with the US really strengthens the world,” the President of Ukraine said.
Biden's visit provoked putin's henchmen to make a series of propaganda statements. At the briefing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of russia, maria zakharova assured that the American President was coming to Ukraine within the framework of the upcoming election campaign, and the citizens of Ukraine had never been treated by the United States as people.
"In general, the communication of J. Biden and V. O. Zelensky showed the citizens of Ukraine who really rules Ukraine and who is their true master,” zakharova said.
“The USA no longer hide that the puppet Kyiv regime exists to counter russia." Democracy and Sovereignty" can never happen under external management, with HIMARS in addition.” – the narrative about the external administration of Ukraine was reiterated by leonid slutsky.
dmitry medvedev went even further and linked the visit of the US leader with the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine.
"Having previously received guarantees of safety, Biden finally went to Kyiv. He promised a lot of weapons and swore allegiance to the neo-Nazi regime until death,” he said.
Also, in contrast to Biden's political positions, russian propaganda tried to counter putin's speech at the federal assembly of the russian federation, which Oleksiy Danilov called the worst ever speech in 20 years.
putin's speech included all the narratives of russian propaganda voiced during the year, but it did not mention the state of implementation of the so-called “special operation”.
In his message, the dictator presented this war as existential for the russians, and also stressed the need for the development of the nuclear triad.
Analysts of the Institute for the Study of War say that "putin said very little of actual substance, likely in order to set continued information conditions for a protracted war in Ukraine by not articulating specific temporal goals."
At a concert rally in Luzhniki, on February, 22, vladimir putin said: “There are people who decide to protect the most sacred and dearest thing we have: our family and our homeland. Today, they do it as part of the special military operation."
Also, in a welcoming speech on the occasion of the russian “defender of the fatherland day,” the russian dictator drew attention to "the current generation of russian soldiers, who preserve and multiply the military traditions of their great-grandfathers, and are fighting neo-Nazism in the historically russian territories."
Another sign of preparing the russians for the survival war may be the reflections of vladimir putin on the collapse of russia, in his interview with the TV channel “Russia-1”: “the russian people, if the West manages to break up the russian federation and establish control over its fragments, may vanish – there will be Muscovites, Ural people, and others.”
At the same time, the russian dictator suspended the rf participation in the strategic offensive reductions treaty. He announced the launch of the combat duty of the Sarmat missile system, and the serial production of the Kinzhal and Zircon hypersonic missiles.
slutsky, medvedev, nebenzya, volodin, and zakharova actively picked up the nuclear blackmail and began to threaten the world that “nuclear powers do not lose wars” sharing it through the available information platforms.
However, no one pays attention to the nuclear threats from the russian federation. US Deputy Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, said that she still did not understand what the suspension of russia's participation in the SNO-3 Treaty would mean in practice, because for the past two years, russia had already failed to fulfill its contractual obligations regarding inspections.
"So, putin basically just made a statement for the russians because he had to do something," - Nuland believes.
After all, the first two days of last week showed the consolidation of the world community and the culmination of russia's inner void.
“Black and white. Dead and alive. Past and Future. The Disappearing putin and the Dominant Biden… Two speeches that put everything in its place. Whining and lies of putin vs a clear consolidation of the global position “russia will definitely lose,” which Biden has enshrined into history,” – concluded the speeches of the two presidents Mikhaylo Podolyak.
The Ukrainian Peace Formula Wins, but the Chinese Proposal is Taken With a “Chill”
On the eve of the anniversary of the full-scale russian invasion, at an emergency meeting, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the draft resolution on the establishment of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine. This document was based on the “Ukrainian Peace Formula” presented last year at the G20 summit by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The adopted resolution includes several important provisions, in particular the demand for the russian federation "to immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders."
No less important is that the document mentions “the need to ensure accountability for the most serious crimes under international law committed on the territory of Ukraine, through independent national or international investigations and prosecutions to ensure justice for all victims.”
Furthermore, members of the General Assembly demand "immediate cessation of attacks on critical infrastructure of Ukraine." However, certainly not all of them do.
russia has “allies” who did not support the resolution: Belarus, North Korea, Syria, Eritrea, Mali, and Nicaragua. As Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President, Mykhailo Podolyak ironically said: “The multipolar world is in the russian language. putin’s dream has come true.”
On the other hand, the russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked their satellites for their support at the UN, and called the resolution an “anti-russian initiative” which essence is “the continuation of the massive criticism unleashed in the West against russia, and support for the criminal nationalist regime in Kyiv.”
Despite the undeniable diplomatic victory of our state and the general gratitude of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to the UN member states for the large-scale support to the Ukrainian resolution, it is worth recalling that a number of countries “abstained”. Among them are China, Armenia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, South Africa, a.o.
Moreover, in Beijing, on February, 24, they published their own “peace plan.” Those are 12 principles that should contribute to the end of the russian federation's war against Ukraine. However, the most interesting thing is that the word “war” has not been mentioned in the document. In the English-language version of the document, the authors use the words “conflict” and “Ukrainian crisis”. The plan itself consists of such points as respect for the sovereignty of all countries, resumption of peace negotiations, resolution of the humanitarian crisis, protection of the civilian population and prisoners of war, and ensuring the safety of nuclear power plants. China also supports the operation of the Black Sea Grain Corridor.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba commented the Chinese document: “There are certain elements we agree with. There is at least one element we do not support – it is about “unilateral sanctions”. We believe that sanctions are an important tool.”
Besides, Volodymyr Zelensky said that the document released in Beijing does not look like a peace plan but rather resembles a demonstration of thinking. He added: “The fact that China started talking about Ukraine is very good.” The President of Ukraine also stressed that he would like to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Moscow also commented on China’s peace plan. Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the rf, maria zakharova, said that russia supports such proposals and is generally " open to achieving the goals of the SMO through political and diplomatic means."
The kremlin said that it was in favor of stopping the supply to Ukraine of the “Western weapons and mercenaries”, and that it demands the return of a neutral non-aligned status of Ukraine, and the recognition of “new territorial reality”. zakharova didn't forget to mention about the "demilitarization and denazification." On the other hand, state duma deputy and member of the russian delegation at the negotiations with Ukraine, leonid slutsky, called Chinese initiative "a plan to end the hegemony of the collective West" and a "plan to reject the replacement of the force of law with the law of force."
Despite the fact that Ukraine and russia were rather reserved in their comments, the so-called “peace plan” of China was much more criticized by our allies. In particular, NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg. said that “China is not widely trusted because it failed to condemn the illegal invasion of Ukraine.”
In addition, the US representative to NATO, Julian Smith, expressed his disappointment since China did not manage or did not want to condemn russia's war in Ukraine, and said that “the USA rather skeptically view the peace plan.”
By the way, this week Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and direct negotiations between the presidents of the United States and russia to end the war. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Oleh Nikolenko, criticized the initiative, to put it mildly.
Thus, the Ukrainian formula for peace has received serious support in the world, and China’s peace plan has been met with quite a chill. Instead, Hungary's pro-russian stance is coming under increasing criticism.
Ukraine Moves Closer to NATO, russia Wants to Destabilize Moldova
Ukraine is strengthening cooperation with the EU and NATO in the field of military effort, in order to gain access to more weapons and ammunition. Thus, on February, 21, following the first joint meeting held in Brussels, Ukraine, the EU and NATO agreed to create a trilateral coordination mechanism that synchronizes the work of manufacturers, buyers, and governments in order to increase the production of weapons and ammunition for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as for the replenishment of allied stock.
"We share the same goal – to restore peace and stability in Europe. For this, Ukraine's victory is critical, and providing our military with everything necessary in the shortest possible time,” said the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Dmytro Kuleba, following a meeting with NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, and the head of the EU foreign policy department, Josep Borrell.
For your information, following the Ramstein meeting on February, 14, the Allies focused their efforts on providing Ukraine with a sufficient amount of ammunition, as well as air defense systems, tanks, and artillery. These types of weapons, in their opinion, will be the most useful for a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive.
European leaders keep saying more frequently that Ukraine will join NATO. Following the NATO Secretary General, the certainty was also expressed by the head of the British government, Rishi Sunak. The leaders of the Bucharest Nine also made a statement in support of Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic aspirations following the meeting in Warsaw.
“The future of Ukraine is in Europe. We strongly support Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic aspirations," stated in the joint statement of the initiative of the countries of NATO’s eastern flank, which includes Poland, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary.
In addition, according to The Wall Street Journal, the UK, France and Germany offered Ukraine to conclude a rapprochement agreement with NATO, which will give it greater access to Western military equipment. According to the outlet’s sources, the agreement’s objective is to demonstrate to russia that the West is ready to increase military aid to Ukraine over time, but also to resume peace negotiations with russia.
However, Berlin almost immediately denied that Germany, France and UK were offering a defense pact in exchange for starting negotiations with russia.
Meanwhile, russia is trying to shake the situation in Moldova, a country neighboring Ukraine, which the kremlin wants to bring back to their sphere of influence.
Previously, Ukrainian intelligence informed the official Chisinau about russia's plans to destabilize the situation in Moldova in order to establish control over the country.
The plan failed. Therefore, the russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine that on February, 24 it allegedly planned to invade the unrecognized Transnistria “engaging the nationalist Azov formation” in order to destroy the russian military forces staying there.
In theory, the scenario can be believed. It is probably feared in the kremlin because if it is succesful, Moldova will be able to regain control over the entire country, and Ukraine will be able to remove the threat of attack by russian troops from the territory of Moldova towards Odesa region.
However, the Moldovan authorities denied the statement of the russian Ministry of Defense. In Ukraine, this information was called the russian “fake story”. At the same time, Moldovan Foreign Ministry reminded that the country's authorities are considering an exclusively peaceful scenario for resolving the Transnistrian conflict, and called for the withdrawal of russian troops from the territory of Moldova.
russia did not like the position. The kremlin said that the Moldovan authorities should be cautious about the presence of russian troops in Transnistria. Also on February, 21, russian President vladimir putin revoked his 11-year-old decree which provided that russia would continue to actively seek ways to resolve the Transnistrian conflict based on respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and neutral status of Moldova.
This means that the kremlin will not abandon their attempts to return Moldova under their control. Therefore, the EU and NATO countries, as well as Ukraine and Moldova, need to strengthen their cooperation in order to prevent russian plans for further destabilization in Europe.