THE US administration of Joe Biden is privately encouraging Ukraine’s leaders to signal an openness to negotiate with Russia and drop their public refusal to engage in peace talks unless President Vladimir Putin is removed from power, the Washington Post reports.
The paper quoted unnamed sources ‘familiar with the discussions’ as saying that this is a calculated attempt to ensure Kiev maintains the support of other nations, who are now finding themselves faced with constituencies worried about having to pay for a war for many years to come.
The report comes as US officials are publicly vowing to support Kiev with massive sums of aid ‘for as long as it takes’ – while hoping for a resolution to the eight-month conflict that has taken a big toll on the world economy and triggered fears of nuclear war.
The paper said US officials acknowledged that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ban on talks with Putin had caused concern in many parts of Europe, Africa and Latin America, where the war’s effects on costs of food and fuel are felt most sharply.
‘Ukraine fatigue is a real thing for some of our partners,’ the Post quoted one unnamed US official as saying.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said during a visit to Kiev last Friday that Washington’s support for Ukraine would remain ‘unwavering and unflinching’ following today’s midterm congressional elections.
Meanwhile, secretary general of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, claimed: It is Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, who is attacking another country, and we should know that Putin started this war.
‘This is a war of choice and he can finish it tomorrow.’
Stoltenberg added that Russia must understand that no one wins a nuclear war and such an action will have severe consequences for Russia. The ‘probability of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine is low, but at the same time the consequences will be very large and very destructive.’
US president Biden and former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump have each sounded the alarm over threats to ‘democracy’ in the US in the countdown to today’s congressional midterm elections.
They all converged on Pennsylvania on Saturday to push their parties to the finishing line in a race that the incumbent Biden described as a ‘defining’ moment.
Pennsylvania is one of a handful of swing states that will decide the overall balance of power when US voters determine who will control Congress during the last two years of Biden’s term.
Speaking to thousands in a Philadelphia arena, Biden said US voters face ‘a choice between two vastly different visions of America.
‘Democracy is literally on the ballot. This is a defining moment for the nation and we all, we all must speak with one voice,’ he said.
Obama, who is seen as the ‘Democratic superstar’, warned that ‘fundamental rights … reason and decency are on the ballot.’
He attacked the Republicans for being increasingly averse to everything from science to respect for rules.
‘Democracy itself is on the ballot. The stakes are high,’ Obama said in an echo of Biden’s warning, his voice going hoarse.
Trump blamed Biden for turning the country into a police state.
‘If you want to stop the destruction of our country and save the “American Dream”, then this Tuesday you must vote Republican in a giant red wave,’ he told a rally, referring to the party’s traditional colour.
As they spoke, a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that as the midterms near, more and more Americans, some nine out of ten – 88 per cent – are afraid that political divisions have intensified to the point that there’s an increased risk of politically motivated violence breaking out in the United States.
Last Wednesday, Biden pleaded with the people of America to accept election results and avoid resorting to violence.
‘We must, with one overwhelming unified voice, speak as a country and say there’s no place, no place, for voter intimidation or political violence in America, whether it’s directed at Democrats or Republicans,’ Biden said.
‘No place, period. No place, ever’
- Sales of US weaponry and other military hardware to Europe are skyrocketing, thanks to the persisting Western-backed conflict in Ukraine, with European countries vowing to expand their arsenals by $230 billion, a research group says.
In many European countries over half of the recent military expenditures went to American arms manufacturers, with Norway devoting 83 per cent to US purchases, the UK 77 per cent, Italy 72 per cent and the Netherlands spending 95 per cent on US-made weapons in the period from 2017 to 2021, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Total European arms imports jumped 19 per cent during that time frame from the previous five years.
‘This is certainly the biggest increase in defence spending in Europe since the end of the Cold War,’ said Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, as quoted in a report by Yahoo News last Saturday.
According to the report, since the Ukraine conflict began in late February, countries in the European Union have pledged to beef up their arsenals by some $230 billion, with Germany alone planning to modernise its military to the tune of $100 billion this year.
The US arms industry, which produces and exports more weapons than any other country — selling over 39 per cent of the estimated $210 billion annual global arms sales from 2017 to 2021 — has been the biggest beneficiary, it added.
‘Many European countries have plans to increase their military spending very significantly, and to increase their purchases of arms as part of that,’ said Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme as quoted in the report.
‘And in some countries they’re accelerating’ purchases originally slated for later this decade he said.
Even before the war, according to SIPRI, European arms imports from 2017 through 2021 were up 19%.
‘They’re growing at a rapid clip,’ said William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, adding:
‘The amount of European arms deals being negotiated since February has almost doubled from last year. And we’ve still got a few months left.’
‘This is all very much driven by Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the realisation in Europe that defence stocks had been run down quite considerably over the last 30 years,’ said Bond.
He said that one reason so many countries turn to US arms manufacturers is that the American defence industry is so large, countries don’t have to wait for cutting-edge arms to be developed.
Another reason is that countries in East and Central Europe ‘want to keep the US on their side and show that they attach value to the Transatlantic alliance,’ including to NATO. ‘And supporting American defence manufacturers is one way in which you can do that.’
According to Hartung, since President Biden took office, European countries account for some $33 billion of arms ‘offers’’ – as the initial stage of arms negotiations is called – with $21 billion in deals on the table since February.
Although some sales have not yet been officially contracted, Hartung told Yahoo News that the $21 billion estimate is assuredly low as it represents only government-to-government deals, not direct commercial sales, which are more difficult to track.
By far, the most popular high-end item from the US in Europe is the American F-35 combat airplane – with Finland putting in an order for 54 of them in 2020, while Poland ordered 32. Another 71 planes were ordered by Norway, the Netherlands and the UK, and even neutral Switzerland ordered three dozen of the fighter planes in September, for over $6 billion.
The Pentagon says US troops are inspecting stocks of American-supplied military equipment in Ukraine as part of efforts to keep track of gear supplied to the country’s forces.
Those kinds of big-money sales ‘cause a lot of tension’ with European arms manufacturers, said Hartung, since across Europe, the American F-35 often outsells European-made fighter jets.
Based on what arms buyers have told him, SIPR’s Wezeman said the F-35 has more bells and whistles than domestic models such as the Eurofighter Typhoon or Saab JAS 39 Gripen.
The US, however, doesn’t lead every arms sector in Europe, where countries tend to buy tanks from Germany, artillery from France, and submarines from Germany, France or the UK.
But because of their high price, F-35s often take a large part of a country’s defence budget pie.
