BLINKEN VOWS TO RAMP UP UKRAINE WAR

Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said last week that the U.S. will continue its support for Ukraine because the country’s existence hangs in the balance. 

Blinken told the UN Security Council that the U.S. (“we”) will continue to support Kyiv as it defends itself and “strengthen its hand to achieve a diplomatic solution on terms at a negotiating table.”

Russia’s decision to hold referendum elections in the Donbas angered the U.S. The State Department also criticized Russia’s threat of employing nuclear weapons in the conflict. 

Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the U.S. would take “decisive steps if Russia uses these tactical weapons. He said the U.S. has been in touch with the Kremlin and said there would be “catastrophic consequences” if these weapons were used. 

“We have been clear and specific about what that will entail,” he said.

The Trends Journal has long noted that the U.S. is not fighting a proxy war with Russia. Rather, the U.S. is at war with the Kremlin through its weapons support for Ukraine and intelligence gathering.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also appeared on the CBS program and said he did not believe Russian President Vladimir Putin was bluffing when he hinted at nuclear weapon use. 

“Maybe yesterday it was a bluff. Now, it could be a reality. He wants to scare the whole world. These are the first steps of his nuclear blackmail. I don’t think he’s bluffing. I think the world is deterring it and containing this threat. We need to keep putting pressure on him and not allow him to continue,” he said.

Zelensky said Russia’s decision to annex these new areas means negotiating for a peaceful resolution is impossible. 

TRENDPOST: Zelensky has refused negotiations for weeks because he is being propped up by Western powers who dream of seeing a weakened Russia emerge from the conflict. The U.S. and Great Britain have allowed Zelensky to act with a certain degree of moxie on the world stage. 

As each day passes, the world gets closer to WWIII. (See “RUSSIA WINNING UKRAINE WAR, STILL NO TALK OF PEACE FROM ZELENSKY” 9 Aug 2022, “WEAPONS POURING INTO UKRAINE, NO TALK OF PEACE, JUST MORE AMMUNITION” 12 Apr 2022 and “BIDEN SAYS PUTIN MUST PAY PRICE OVER INVASION IN UKRAINE” 8 Mar 2022.)

Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, was asked last week if Berlin will send Ukraine its coveted Leopard tanks and he said the country will not because this is a “very dangerous war.” The paper noted that Western countries are finding it “harder to reconcile the twin goals of avoiding such a confrontation and continuing to strengthen Ukraine’s hand in the battlefield.”

“We are supporting Ukraine,” Scholz said, according to The New York Times. “We are doing it in a way that is not escalating to where it is becoming a war between Russia and NATO because this would be a catastrophe.” Some analysts told the paper that Germany’s reluctance could mean the country would like to see a negotiated settlement “along existing lines.”

The report noted that Scholz cites an op-ed that Biden penned in the paper about how the war can come to an end and how NATO does not want war with Russia. Biden wrote that the West just wants to strengthen Kyiv’s hand at the negotiating table.

“If you want me to subscribe to this article, I will do that,” Scholz said. “I can go with any sentence.”

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council and the former Russian president, said earlier this month that it will be impossible for Western countries to keep sending the weapons and think they can sit this one out.

“Everything will catch fire around them as well,” Ukrayinska Pravda translated. “Their people will be devastated. Their earth will literally burn, and concrete will melt. We too will suffer a lot. It will be very bad for everyone. After all, it is said: “By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulphur coming out of their mouths” (Rev. 9:18).”