Wolfgang Effenberger

In early November 2021, in Minsk, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told senior military officials of allied Russia and Belarus: "On the western borders of our union of states, the U.S. and other NATO members are actively building up their offensive potential." He said the U.S. is not relenting in imposing its will on other countries politically, economically and militarily: "These actions undermine strategic stability in the region and force Russia to take countermeasures to defend itself, including on its western flank."(1) This is Moscow's motive for stationing nearly 100,000 troops on Russia's western border.

Missing from this NATO map are references to U.S. war materiel landed in Ukraine up to now and U.S. military advisors operating in Ukraine.

Ignoring this threatening development for Russia, the Western war concert sounds louder and faster every day.
When the head of the German Navy, Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach, expressed sympathy for Putin in India, he was immediately forced to resign. Although this was welcomed by the Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin, Andrij Melnyk, he did not consider it sufficient. He said that the Navy chief's remarks spoke of "German arrogance and megalomania, with which one of the highest-ranking heads of the Bundeswehr dreams of a holy alliance with war criminal Putin and a German-Russian modern crusade against China."(2) The fact that the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany is allowed to call Putin a war criminal without contradiction is more than strange. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock should have intervened immediately. The ambassador even went further and demanded from Germany "urgently 100,000 helmets and protective vests for the volunteers who are just signing up for the Landwehr to defend their homeland together with the armed forces."(3)Thereupon, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen announced a new "emergency aid package" of 1.2 billion euros for Ukraine. Since the regime change in 2014, the EU has already transferred 17 billion euros in cash gifts and loans to Ukraine.(4)

Is Putin responsible for the escalation?

To answer this question in a sustainable way, a look at Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev's speech, which he gave on the occasion of the Franz Josef Strauss Award ceremony in Munich on December 10, 2011, may help:
"...We are already caught up again in an arms race. In fact, we are talking about a new arms race. In this we are dealing not only with the militarization of the economy, but also with that of consciousness. We are sick, we all need to be treated and cured. ... Relying on a military solution to problems is a mistake. I have the impression that we have certainly not yet worked our way out of the old crisis, and there are already signs of a new crisis on the horizon. ... It is good that there is no longer a Berlin Wall. But unfortunately, new lines of division are emerging again.... Initially, I thought that our politicians in Russia were to harsh on European missile defense and its planned deployment in Europe. Now I keep asking myself today about the sense of the whole project. Because it seems that the missile defense system of the USA was thought as a defense shield against Russia. Any other interpretation seems to be nothing but gibberish and smoke screen to cover the truth. After all, the Russian government has stated, "We are also deploying appropriate defense and defensive assets, and we are ready to use weapons that will ensure our security." So what does that mean, bottom line? It means that the possibility of a new war cannot be ruled out. If Russia and the U.S. are hostile to each other, the whole thing will inevitably grow beyond the scope of a local conflict."
Evocatively, Gorbachev reminded politicians throughout Europe, including in Central and Eastern Europe, of their duty "not to allow a new confrontation under any circumstances."
Just two years after Gorbachev's admonishing words, the U.S. faked the bloody regime change in Ukraine and installed a pro-American government whose President Zelensky, on February 26, 2021, issued a decree to "de-occupy" Ukraine, thus giving another jolt to the escalation screw.(5)

Following the collapse of security talks last week, not only are fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine being stoked and the withdrawal of embassy staff from Kiev announced, but Russia is additionally accused of seeking to install a pro-Russian leader in Ukraine. This was reiterated by U.S. Secretary of State Blinken. He also referred to the warning from London that Russia is allegedly exerting massive political influence in Ukraine and wants to establish a pro-Russian leadership in Kiev. "Such actions, he said, are part of a Russian "toolbox."(6)
This, of course, is exactly what Washington did in 2014. Washington overthrew the elected government as part of the staged Maidan coup and installed a Washington puppet that established a hostile government on Russia's border. (7)At this point, it is worth recalling the various punitive U.S. expeditions against Mexico. The U.S. itself would certainly not tolerate hostile governments in its North and South.

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Treaty Organization in 1991, the U.S. has permanently used wars and regime changes in violation of international law to realize its fantasies of world domination. As a result, chaos, suffering and destruction spread, millions of people were uprooted and forced to flee. Furthermore, the USA maintains about 800 military bases in 80 countries. These include the U.S. base in Ramstein - the linchpin for all warlike activities in North Africa and the Near and Middle East - Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, the U.S. bases in South Korea and Japan, in Cuba, the Philippines and in the Pacific (Guam), as well as a large number in South America. They serve primarily regional hegemony and control including resource security.
Compared to those of the United States, Russia's foreign military bases seem dwarfed: six in the countries of the former Soviet Union, two in Syria, and one in Vietnam. And China so far has only one base in Djibouti.(8)

Former UN expert on promoting a democratic and just international order, Alfred de Zaya, shook up the public in his article "From Vietnam to Afghanistan: the U.S. leaves deserts behind and calls it peace" and took a sharp swipe at U.S. strategists. For him, the U.S. should never have invaded Afghanistan - as well as Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Nicaragua, Libya or Syria. In his opinion, "the U.S. has thoroughly destabilized Afghanistan, and it is not impossible that the conflict will now degenerate into civil war - a continuing tragedy for the long-suffering Afghan people"(9). The U.S. has never really been interested in "nation building", but only in geopolitics. They want to control the region and only want client governments, not independent nations. For de Zaya, the U.S. needs permanent war "to feed the insatiable military machine that requires trillion-dollar budgets. It would be better to spend our tax dollars on conflict prevention, health care, education, etc."(10) De Zaya wants the International Criminal Court to conduct an honest investigation of U.S. and NATO crimes.
For U.S. President Joe Biden, a Russian invasion of Ukraine would be "the largest invasion since World War II."(11) Well, in the US-led war against Iraq in 2003, about 300,000 soldiers of the "coalition of the willing" were deployed.
When asked, Biden added that it remains unclear whether Putin is actually planning an attack. "I'll be completely honest with you: it's a little bit like reading coffee grounds."(12)
Well, you don't have to read coffee grounds to see the intent of U.S. strategists. In order to effectively strangle Russia economically - as so often successfully practiced (Tonkin incident in Vietnam, alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq...) - a reason must be constructed. There again, the U.S. need only look at one of its many scripts. The population of the two separatist People's Republics in Donetsk and Luhansk has had to endure artillery raids by Ukrainian government forces for 8 years now. And the West looks on, refusing international recognition of their independence. After Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence in 2008 - the Serbian province had been separated against Serbia's protests after NATO's war of aggression in violation of international law - Kosovo immediately received recognition from the U.S., France and Germany. To date, EU member states Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus, Greece, Slovakia, and Spain do not recognize an independent Kosovo, convinced that recognizing the unilateral declaration of independence would violate principles of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations.(13)

The number of civilians killed in the civil war since 2014 is estimated at 9,000 by Darya Morozova, Human Rights Commissioner of the Donetsk People's Republic; she partly included members of the People's Militia among the civilians. The official UN estimate of the number of victims of the civil war is 13,000, including 5,000 civilians.(14)

How can the "Western community of values" allow the population in Donetsk and Luhansk to suffer like this? And why is the pro-Russian majority in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk denied the right to self-determination?

Comments:

1) https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article159210844/Russland-will-an-der-Westgrenze-aufruesten.html
2) https://web.de/magazine/politik/ukraine-haelt-ruecktritt-deutschen-marine-chefs-unzureichend-36538206
3) https://rp-online.de/politik/ausland/ukraine-bittet-deutschland-um-100000-helme-und-schutzwesten_aid-65550963
4) https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article236443571/Ukraine-Krise-Die-Drohkulisse-ist-leider-sehr-real.html
5) https://de.topwar.ru/180355-zelenskij-podpisal-ukaz-o-deokkupacii-kryma-i-prizval-krymchan-vozvraschatsja-domoj.html
6) https://web.de/magazine/politik/ukraine-krise/ukraine-krise-usa-reduzieren-botschaftspraesenz-kiew-eu-aussenminister-beraten-36539672
7) https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2022/01/24/wild-accusations-against-russia-are-proof-security-talks-failed/
8) https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=79984
9) Zitiert aus Zeit-Fragen vom 24. August 2021 Nr. 19/20, Seite 1
10) Ebd.
11) https://www.msn.com/de-at/nachrichten/ausland/biden-ukraine-angriff-wäre-größte-invasion-seit-weltkrieg/ar-AAT7mQg#:~:text=Ein%20russischer%20Einmarsch%20in%20die%20Ukraine%20könnte%20angesichts,würde%20%22die%20Welt%20verändern%22%2C%20warnte%20Biden%20am%20Dienstag.
12) https://observatorial.com/news/world/40182/biden-threatens-sanctions-aimed-directly-at-putin/
13) https://de.wikinews.org/wiki/Sechs_EU-Staaten_erkennen_unabhängiges_Kosovo_nicht_an#:~:text=Priština%20%28Kosovo%29%20%2F%20Serbien%2C%2022.02.2008%20–%20Die%20sechs,Europa%20%28OSZE%29%20und%20der%20Vereinten%20Nationen%20verstoßen%20wird.
14) https://de.rt.com/europa/129217-krieg-im-donbass-donezker-und-lugansker-volksrepubliken-melden-fast-hundert-tote-jahr-2021/