Debunking More Fake News On Ukraine-Russia Conflict
SEVEN month into the Ukraine conflict which started on February 24, fake news continue to circulate. Objective analysts have known from the start that Ukraine cannot win against Russia, even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had his people already negotiating with Moscow in the early months of the conflict, before the West increased arms delivery to Kyiv. Ukraine is the poorest in Europe, and Russia is the biggest landmass, military nuclear power and energy supplier.
In President Biden’s UN speech, he reported that the US has sent over $25 billion in “aid,” but did not say that the majority of these were in military “assistances” and weapons under land-lease, and from the stockpile that had to be replaced to replenish the profits of America’s arms industry.
“Who cares what Ukraine wants?” By April, two months into the war, Foreign Affairs reported that “Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim agreement”… But the US wanted regime change, revealed accidentally in a gaffe or Freudian slip by Biden when he said that Putin “cannot stay in power” in a speech in Warsaw in March 2022, which the White House had to do a quick damage control. The same tactic is used to provoke the Taiwan strait, with the US having sent over $70 billion in weapons.
Biden attempts to debunk the narrative that Russia was forced to act on Ukraine, perhaps forgetting that in 1997, a young Senator Biden already warned that NATO’s expansion into the Baltic States will provoke Russia. He was supported then by dozens of officials and scholars from Kissinger, CIA Director Robert Burns, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Australia’s Paul Keating to former US Ambassador to Russia Jack Matlock, Mearsheimer, Jeffrey Sachs, etc. who warned the same for decades.
NATO’s approach to Russia’s borders was planned years ago. Brian Whitmore of NATO’s Atlantic Council portrays Ukraine as a springboard for triggering regime change actions from Belarus to Georgia to South Ossetia, with the balkanization of Russia as an ultimate goal — “finishing the process that began in 1989,” says Max Blumenthal. Many forget that NATO’s founding secretary general himself said that NATO was formed “to keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.” Now applied in Ukraine? Now, millions of Germans, and people around the world, are painfully paying higher prices for America’s war and the profits of the few.
Ukraine and Russia traded accusations when bomb shells welcomed the UN inspectors to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant. But even the West reported that Russia provided the military escorts to the UN inspectors, whereas Zelenskyy tried to stop and even arrest international inspectors. Ukraine also threatened Amnesty International when the latter reported that the Ukraine army was using civilians as human shields.
Kyiv also attempted to censor and demonize Americans like Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard who are reporting facts and evidence that do not support the Ukraine narrative. Zelenskyy’s government also jailed opposition leaders and closed media outlets that were critical of his government, which most Western and Philippine media fail to report.
Despite what the doomsday forecasts from Western reports say about the sanctions on Russia, and while many Western countries have cut back on oil imports from Russia due to US pressure, many others continue to import from Russia. As of June, the EU bloc continues to import over a million a day. Germany, Italy and the Netherlands were among the largest importers (directly or indirectly), with only China surpassing them. Saudi and Qatar are also importing more than ever. Russia earned $97 billion from oil and gas sales through July, with nearly $74 billion of that coming through sales of crude, according to Institute of International Finance.
India’s oil imports from Russia jumped 50 times since April, from near-zero to almost a million barrels per day and locked in supplies until 2028.
National Security Adviser Clarita Carlos bravely advised the incoming Marcos administration to consider buying from Russia oil, but many of our politicians were quick to thumb her down. Were they working for Filipino or American interest? As early as March 2022, Russian Ambassador Marat Pavlov, in a forum organized by IDSI, already sounded off that Moscow is ready to assist the Philippines in the latter’s energy requirements.
Hardly reported by the Western press, Putin revealed that almost all of the grain exported from Ukraine went to the European Union, not to the developing and poorest countries, as originally intended from the Black Sea Green humanitarian initiative. Only two ships out of 87 delivered grain under the UN World Food Program went to the developing countries. The US State Department called it “simply not the case” but provided no evidence.
Ukraine is not winning the war, contrary to what is frequently portrayed on Ukraine’s counterattack. The wounded Ukraine soldiers report heavy losses in the counterattack on Kherson as reported in the Washington Post on September 7: “If we fire three mortars, they (Russia) fire 20 in return…” Ukraine soldiers are using weapons from 1989 (US delivered?). “They had to carefully ration their use of munitions but even when they did fire, they had trouble hitting targets.”
Zelenskyy reported that Ukraine’s forces retook two villages in the Kherson region. But what he didn’t say is that “[t]he Ukrainian army is releasing little news on the progress of the counteroffensive it launched in the Kherson region, and Kiev has banned reporters from visiting the area.”
The US is weaponizing everything, including those that were previously disengaged from geopolitical headwinds, including bioscience and space exploration. Even legal institutions and frameworks are being expanded in application extraterritorially.
In 2014, NASA suspended most of cooperation with Russia, although Russia extended the divorce to include the separation from the International Space Station in 2022 due to the sanctions against a number of enterprises in the Russian space industry. In 2011, Congress also pressured NASA to suspend bilateral cooperation with China. But the NASA chief now says cooperation with China in space is up to China. With the near expiration of the ISS by 2030, China’s Tiangong will be the only space station in space.
US recession, upcoming November midterm elections and widening partisan politics will only heighten the challenges for President Biden. Economists are warning of a major US recession by 2023, with economic barometers dropping for six straight months amid the Fed’s continued raising the interest rates to counter inflationary pressures. To burnish her chances in the upcoming elections, Nancy Pelosi single-handedly sparked a new military arms race in Taiwan. Even former US presidents are no longer immune to the weaponizing of the judicial system. Unprecedented is the use of the Justice Department and FBI to raid the home of former president Donald Trump. The New York Attorney General filed a civil lawsuit against Trump and his three oldest children for decades-old business deals, and even the IRS has been weaponized. In turn, the Conservatives are increasing their activism and the FBI has reported an increase in threats against the FBI.
President Marcos said that the Philippines cannot live without the US, there are millions of Filipinos in the US, and the relationship must evolve. At the same time, the welfare of the 110 million Filipinos is dependent on a peaceful and stable global economy that is under immense pressure, mostly due to the provocation and war-posturing of the US. Policymakers can only make prudent decisions based on having the relevant and uncensored report. To be selective in the presentation and study of reality is averse to the Philippine and the world’s interest. What position should the Philippines take geopolitically and economically amid the tectonic shifts to benefit the greater number of people?
Dr. Mario Ferdinand Pasion is director of Phil-BRICS Strategic Studies and the chairman of Nationalist Filipinos Against Foreign Intervention.
A similar version was published in Manila Times on September 25 2022. We welcome logical feedback and possibly working together with compatible frameworks. (idsicenter@gmail.com)