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A top NATO official was forced to apologize last week after he floated the idea that Ukraine may be able to join the Alliance if it agrees to cede land to Russia to end the war.
After swift blowback from Kyiv, Stian Jenssen, the chief of staff for NATO head Jens Stoltenberg, offered a mea culpa on Wednesday after telling a Norwegian paper that he believes ceding land to Russia could be a “possible solution.”
He told the paper that he was not necessarily endorsing such an idea and said it should be up to the Ukrainians to determine what they see as an acceptable outcome.
He called his comments a “mistake.”
“My statement about this was part of a larger discussion about possible future scenarios in Ukraine, and I shouldn’t have said it that way. It was a mistake,” he said.
The U.S.’s position on the war has been clear. Russia’s invasion was illegal and Ukraine has every right to fight for its territory. The West, while claiming it is not officially involved in the conflict, has been providing near-limitless weapons support, intelligence, and has been training Ukrainian forces to fight as NATO members would.
(See “WWIII: BIDEN ORDERS 3,000 RESERVISTS TO BE READY FOR EUROPEAN DEPLOYMENT” 16 Jul 2023, “U.S. AT WAR WITH RUSSIA: UKRAINIAN MILITIAS USE AMERICAN VEHICLES IN ATTACK IN RUSSIA” 30 May 2023, “RFK JR. AGREES WITH CELENTE: U.S. PUSHED RUSSIA INTO UKRAINE WAR” 9 May 2023, “AS WE’VE WARNED: RUSSIA SAYS THREAT OF NUCLEAR EXCHANGE WITH U.S. GROWING” 25 Apr 2023 and “RUSSIA: U.S. CONDUCTING ‘TOTAL’ HYBRID WAR, PUTTING TWO NUCLEAR POWERS ON PATH TO CLASH” 14 Feb 2023.)
Any mere mention of ceding land angers Kyiv and turns you into a Putin-sympathizing enemy.
Mykhailo Podoliak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top adviser, took to X to express his outrage at Jenssen’s suggestion.
“Trading territory for a NATO umbrella? It is ridiculous. That means deliberately choosing the defeat of democracy, encouraging a global criminal, preserving the Russian regime, destroying international law, and passing the war on to other generations,” he posted.
Jenssen, who no doubt wants to keep his job, even went further in his apology and expressed hope in the failed Ukrainian counteroffensive.
“Many have commented that it is going a little slower than they had hoped. I would still like to add a seed of optimism to this, as I also said in the Arendal debate. One must remember that at the outbreak of war there was a concern that Ukraine could collapse within weeks and days,” he said. “It has not happened at all. They have shown a heroic effort against the superior power. The topic now is how much territory Ukraine is able to take back.”
TRENDPOST: Bullshit sells when delivered by the establishment, such as championing a clown like Jenssen for backtracking on the truth when the reality of the matter is the Ukrainian counteroffensive is dead, Kyiv will not be joining NATO, and Russia will achieve its objectives.
Not negotiating for peace is suicidal for Ukraine, pushing Kyiv to fight for Crimea is suicidal for the U.S.
The war will last as long as Washington and NATO are willing to keep spending billions to keep fighting it in their false hope that it will topple the Kremlin and get rid of Putin… which will not happen.
We are currently watching the implosion of the Western propaganda about Ukraine, and media companies seem unsure about how to cover the war.
The Ukrainian counteroffensive has been stopped by deeply entrenched Russian forces and Kyiv has little to show for its effort since 4 June. RT, the Russian news outlet, citing the Russian Defense Ministry, reported that Ukraine has lost 43,000 men and about 5,000 pieces of heavy equipment since the start of the counteroffensive.
The new accepted theme in the media this week is that Ukrainian forces are gaining ground slowly but surely.
TRENDPOST: A vivid example of the media complicity and stupidity was illustrated in the WSWS.org August 3rd article “The Ukrainian nightmare.”
They note that “The US media’s touting of the Ukrainian counter-offensive and Kyiv’s ‘combined arms’ offensives has been shown to be nothing but self-deluded propaganda.” And now, the ones that promoted it are backtracking: “Little by little, accounts of the true toll of the US-NATO war against Russia on Ukraine’s soldiers—many forcefully conscripted—are beginning to filter through the American media.”
They note Julian Borger’s article published by the Guardian, where he now admits that “Hopes of a rapid breakthrough proved over-optimistic in the face of entrenched defenses,” and “The first casualty of the Ukrainian counteroffensive was wishful thinking. Any hope that Russian troops would abandon their trenches and flee has now been left far behind on the battlefield.”
Noting the waste of money, machines, and lives, Borger wrote that “For all the focus on the delivery of Leopards and other Western tanks in the run-up to the launch of the offensive on June 4, Ukrainian armor failed to provide the clenched fist needed to breach the lines.”
Backtrack
WSWS.org goes on to illustrate how clearly the hypocrisy of a Ukraine victory was sold to the public: “This is coming from a newspaper that was a central proponent of such ‘wishful thinking.’ In an article published in May by Timothy Garton Ash, the Guardian called the coming period a ‘make-or-break counteroffensive,’ potentially bringing ‘a decisive Ukrainian victory.’ The Guardian said it best in its reporting of the counteroffensive.”
The Guardian also wrote that “If the Ukrainian army can push rapidly south to the Sea of Azov, encircle a large number of demoralized Russian forces and cut the supply lines to the Crimean peninsula, there might be some non-linear collapse of Russian military morale on the ground and regime cohesion in Moscow.”
They also noted that the Washington Post had also promoted David Ignatius’ conclusion that, “This assault could turn the tide of the battle for Ukraine, just as the Allied assault on the Normandy beaches altered the trajectory of World War II.”
TREND FORECAST: Again, we had noted before the Ukraine War began, that Russia would be the victor and that peace talks should prevail rather than the suffering war inflicts upon the people and the planet.
● “RUSSIA’S PUTIN WON’T BEND TO U.S. TENSIONS. WHAT’S NEXT?” (23 Nov 2021)
● “KREMLIN BLAMES UKRAINE FOR STOKING TENSIONS AT BORDER” (7 Dec 2021)
● “RUSSIA, CHINA VS. USA: THE WINNER IS?” (21 Dec 2021)
● “CHINA JOINS RUSSIA: URGES U.S. TO JETTISON COLD-WAR MENTALITY” (1 Feb 2022)
● “PUTIN ACCUSES U.S. OF TRYING TO PULL RUSSIA INTO CONFLICT” (8 Feb 2022)
● “POLL: AMERICANS WANT NO U.S. TROOPS TO FIGHT IN A UKRAINE WAR” (22 Feb 2022)