Categories: ANALYTICS

Ukraine as a bargaining chip: the US strategy and the need for a new approach

I’ve been telling you for almost six months that the US is trying to detach Russia from China, and for that, they need a sacrifice in the form of Ukraine. You don’t believe me because, well, Trump is so good, peace is coming soon, and then there will be elections.

Now, the US Secretary of State is openly saying this. The text is in the comments. Of course, without mentioning the “sacrifice,” but with a detailed explanation of the logic.

I’ve repeated the conclusions a hundred times already:

1. We will not be able to befriend the US administration and “sell” ourselves to them because we are just a bargaining chip for them. Neither Ukrainian politicians, nor ambassadors, nor public figures are to blame for this. It’s nothing personal—just geopolitics.

2. The only thing we can do in the US is to firmly resist attacks, explain the flaws in their strategy, and help our friends in America balance their country’s policy.

3. Our allies are in Europe. We need to double, triple our efforts and accelerate the awareness process. We must build a coalition of decisive partners. Strengthen diplomatic efforts with parliamentary, business, public, artistic (yes, really), and church diplomacy, as well as city-to-city and university-to-university connections, and so on. A single bell from St. Michael’s Cathedral won’t wake up the sleeping beauty.

4. We must strengthen ourselves as much as possible, and for that, we need a complete overhaul of the management system—of the army, the defense industry, the economy, public communications, the civil service, and more. The current system simply cannot handle the situation.

5. We must focus our efforts on decolonizing Russia because our problems will only end when the cause of those problems—the Russian empire—ceases to exist. I remind you that this is exactly what the latest PACE resolution explicitly calls for. So the excuse that our allies are against it has long been irrelevant.

Valeriy Pekar

Ukraine Front Lines