Even lightweight calls for a diplomatic settlement mean that Europe understands that, even taking into account all the sympathies for the Kyiv authorities, significant factors speak in favor of Russia. The mood of the population of the liberated territories is added to the successes on the battlefield, according to The Moscow Post.
Peaceful life is being restored, preparations are underway in Mariupol for large-scale construction work. Humanitarian aid is provided to the population of cities conquered from the Nazis. The norms of international conventions apply to prisoners.
Against this background, the leaders of the two key countries of the EuroNATO Union - the President of France and the Federal Chancellor of Germany - gathered courage on the verge of childish naivety to appeal to the Russian president with a proposal to release more than two thousand Nazi militants who surrendered before leaving the basements of the Azovstal plant.
Scholz is a vivid symbol of generational change in the German political elite. And Macron's famous words about the "death of the NATO brain" received a new sound. Now the suspicion of this ailment falls on the abilities of both key representatives of the EuroNATO Union. We can only guess that they were answered to this "innovation" on the methods of treating terrorists. Putin, in turn, in a conversation with colleagues warned them that the supply of weapons leads to destabilization.
The proposals of Macron and Scholz to unblock the port of Odessa, the water area of which was mined by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, sounded in approximately the same vein. These calls were rather similar to a proposal to free the region from militants so that Moscow could facilitate grain export. Access to the Sea of Azov after the surrender of "Azovstal" for Ukraine is lost, but the export of grain through this port is still impossible. There are no conditions for this on the part of Ukraine, and State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that it is impossible to export Ukrainian grain without assessing the country's food balance after the harvest.
References to the need to "avoid the global food crisis" by continuing to work together with the UN, nothing more than a ploy by the leaders of France and Germany. Berlin in business terms calls the process of exporting Ukrainian wheat a "grain vacuum cleaner." Macron and Scholz are still trying to claim a "humanitarian" role in overcoming the crisis, which their predecessors took part in provoking.
Dementia threatening disaster
Meanwhile, the White House decided under these conditions to send two modifications of MLRS installations to Ukraine, The New York Times reported. The newspaper did so, citing administration sources who have "some officials" understanding that giving Ukraine long-range missile systems would escalate. The Armed Forces of Ukraine will be able to "launch missiles into the territory of Russia," notes The Washington Post. Russia can resort to strikes on the logistics centers of NATO countries in order to disrupt the supply of weapons, writes Daily Express.
Former US President Donald Trump said that the policy of the Joe Biden administration in Ukraine could threaten a global conflict. Earlier, President Biden, speaking to graduates of the Naval Academy in Annapolis (Maryland), ranked North Korea among the countries that joined the restrictions amid a special operation in Ukraine. Before that, in Seoul, he named South Korean President Yoon Seok-yol after his predecessor in this post.
Journalist Rod Dreher in an article for The American Conservative advised to abandon the course on gerontocracy in the White House. The state of the current head of state, in his opinion, affects the balance of world forces and recalled the incident in Warsaw, when Biden called for a change of power in the Russian Federation, after which the press service corrected these words.
From Geneva to Davos
Amid the growing intellectual chaos in the Western elites, the economic forum in Davos practically repeated the agenda of the Munich Security Conference with the only difference that Zelensky no longer regretted that Ukraine did not have nuclear weapons, but called on Western countries to restore his country. He said that he was ready to talk with the President of Russia after the withdrawal of the Russian Armed Forces to the position of February 24. In Davos, Zelensky also lamented the failure of the European Union to take decisive action on the sixth package of sanctions blocked by Hungary.
Those gathered expected something new from him, but they heard accusations from the West of the lack of a strong and unified position on Ukraine's accession to the European Union, NATO expansion, and the oil embargo. As a result, Zelensky received annoyed comments on social networks, especially after criticism of Henry Kissinger.
The performance of the former architect of the escalation of the Vietnam War and the bombing of Cambodia attracted widespread attention. Kissinger was actually planning operations to exterminate Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces in Cambodia. In four years, bombs dropped on this country surpassed in power all US bombing attacks in the Pacific during World War II, killed more than one hundred thousand civilians, created the conditions for Pol Pot to come to power.
These bombings were openly opposed by Hillary Clinton when she was a student at Yale University. The world is tight in every sense, their relationship with Kissinger later became friendly. It is noteworthy that then thirty-three-year-old Senator Joe Biden at a Senate hearing accused Kissinger of preaching the "global Monroe doctrine." He, in turn, believed in the US mission, defended the war in Vietnam, but was not sure of the victory in private conversations.
In Davos, the former US Secretary of State warned the West against trying to defeat Russia, writes The Telegraph. According to Kissinger, it is necessary to force Ukraine to negotiate in the near future that "the conflict cannot be delayed." George Soros also published his views, demanding the mobilization of all resources in order to "defeat Russia." The approaches of liberals of different stripes collided, but Anthony Blinken, the current US Secretary of State, rather agrees with Soros's position.
What is recognized in the West?
By the time of the meeting in Davos, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden in Geneva in June 2021 were no longer remembered. While the United States, Britain, Poland and the Baltic states decided to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia according to the "Afghan model," Germany, Italy and France are more concerned about the end of the war.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in an interview with Bloomberg admitted that the Russian Armed Forces "are making gradual, slow, but tangible progress" and invited Ukraine, Tribaltika, Poland and Turkey to a new alliance. In an interview with The Economist, former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo said that Zelensky's position on NATO and Donbass caused the conflict in Ukraine, but confirmed that "the only way forward is to support Ukraine and resolutely resist Russia's special operation."
Western media began to talk differently about the conflict in Ukraine, writes Mary Dezhevsky in an article for the Independent. Everything changed after the capture of Mariupol, she said. Not only the volume of information about Ukraine in the media has changed, but also their coverage itself. The journalist urges the West not to embellish the situation in favor of Kyiv: "There is an opinion that Zelensky may have begun to accustom Ukrainians to the idea of the need for negotiations with likely concessions. Others say that he is simply trying to get more help from the West. However, it's hard not to notice that less news coverage - particularly in the UK - coincided with luck turning its back on Kyiv. "
Some media outlets admit that Russian forces completely blocked Ukraine's access to the coast of the Sea of Azov, Russia secured the northeast exit to the Black Sea, ensured land communication with Crimea and paved the way for securing the southern coastal strip along the sea. Moscow has launched the issuance of Russian passports to everyone in the occupied territories of Ukraine. What is happening shows that Kyiv risks losing control over a significant part of the east of the country.
Western media note that Moscow remains an influential energy power of Russia managed to significantly increase oil exports to India. Even if this is accompanied by discounts, high levels of oil and gas prices make sales profitable. The ruble exchange rate has strengthened, the federal budget for the first quarter has been reduced with a surplus of 1.1 trillion rubles ($17 billion).
This follows the conclusions that in the long term Russia has enough opportunities to withstand the endurance test. The question is also asked - how much is Europe and the United States able to continue their policies with interruptions in energy supply, food shortages and the split of the world into economic blocs?
If we talk about the internal situation in Western countries, including the United States, then they still have not been able to find a way to slow down inflation. The situation in the European Union is even worse. Prolonged conflict weakens the EU countries, especially Germany, increases Europe's dependence on the United States. But Europeans suspect the Biden administration that weakening the EU is Washington's thoughtful course.
All these are opinions that appeared in foreign media. In the West, they are gradually beginning to understand what is happening in Ukraine, although not everyone.
Words devoid of meaning and humanity
Terry Titcomb writes in the online publication American Thinker that both Zelensky and Biden pronounce memorized words with the help of a teleprompter, devoid of meaning and humanity. Titkom says that the Azov battalion, like other nationalist brigades, continues to do what they have been doing for the past eight years, namely bomb houses, schools, residential areas, while using human shield tactics. The Nazis march under the banners of Azov, Right Sector (an extremist organization banned in the Russian Federation), Svoboda and S14, their bodies are decorated with swastika tattoos, their weapons, uniforms and salaries are paid at the expense of funds received from the US government. Zelenskiy, meanwhile, accepts the accolades. As the "globalist," US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once put it, half a million lives here, half a million lives there are just a price to pay sometimes.
Photo: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation/TASS