U.S. & NATO In Confusion – How Putin Cleverly Invades Ukraine Without Making It Look Like An Invasion

U.S. & NATO In Confusion – How Putin Cleverly Invades Ukraine Without Making It Look Like An Invasion

With Ukraine surrounded in the north, east and south, the shelling and mortar fire between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine had begun. The attacks, including a car bombing, were quickly blamed on the Kremlin. Western leaders and Ukrainian officials accused Moscow of orchestrating the havocs to justify an invasion.



U.S. President Joe Biden said it did not make sense that Ukrainian forces would dare to attack when Ukraine was being encircled with up to 190,000 Russian forces, tanks, attack helicopters, missiles and whatnot. But in a reverse psychological warfare, it’s possible that Ukraine purposely attacked pro-Moscow separatists, knowing very well that the world would not believe it would do such thing.



Even after pro-Russia leaders in Donbas posted videos accusing Ukrainian forces of planning an attack, leading to the mass evacuation of civilians, the U.S. continued to accuse Russia of building up a pretext for an invasion. Biden told the world last week that based on reliable military intelligence, Russia was ready to attack last Wedneday (Feb 16).



When Russia president Vladimir Putin did not give the order to attack, Biden then said the attacks could happen in the “weekend”, based on extremely reliable intelligence. When that did not materialize, the U.S. president said he was convinced Putin has decided to invade Ukraine, and argued that an “imminent” assault could happen in “coming days”.



Western leaders, especially British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has pre-emptively told world leaders that an invasion of Ukraine would “destroy democracy”. Like Biden, PM Johnson has condemned Russia, and warned that an invasion would lead to the biggest war in Europe since World War 2. He has even threatened to block money linked to the Kremlin from being laundered through London.



Yet, instead of mobilizing American, British and NATO’s troops to defend Ukraine and democracy, all the Western leaders were just whining, screaming and bitching. Not a single soldier has been sent into Ukraine. In fact, the U.S. only put 8,500 troops on alert, against 100,000 Russian troops last month. Should not NATO mobilize all its troops to face the so-called Russian dictator?



At one time, the warmongering had gotten so ridiculous that even Ukrainian President Zelensky has criticized the West, telling them not to create panic unnecessarily. The former comedian also condemned President Biden’s crisis handling, questioning why the West was still waiting to impose sanctions on Moscow. Would not early sanctions help to prevent Russia from launching an invasion?



It’s funny that when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein annexed Kuwait in 1990, the U.S.-led coalition sent close to 180,000 troops into Iraq to free Kuwait. But when Russian dictator Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea in 2014, the U.S. did not send any troop to free Crimea. Now that Putin is trying to get a second bite, the U.S. has once again shown little interest to defend Ukraine.




Perhaps the U.S. only dares to pick a fight with countries like Iraq, Libya, Syria and Afghanistan. It would think thrice about going against military superpower like Russia. Of course, Biden has been busy predicting and provoking Putin to invade Ukraine so that America could replace Russia as a natural gas supplier to Europe, who depend about a third of its requirement on Moscow.



However, Moscow has repeatedly said that it does not have any intention to invade Ukraine, despite Joe Biden’s insistence for weeks that a war is imminent. It appears that Putin wanted to see Biden squirm. The Russian supremo has more tricks up his sleeve than the U.S. president could imagine. So, how could Putin invade Ukraine without making it look like an invasion?



It’s not an exaggeration to say that the Western countries were caught with their pants down when Mr Putin declares on Monday that Russia would recognize the independence of two self-proclaimed and pro-Russian republics in eastern Ukraine, before sending troops and tanks under the guise of “peacekeepers”. The U.S. and NATO had expected a real military invasion instead.



As Russian tanks roll into Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and neighbouring Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) – an area collectively known as the Donbas, pro-Russian in the two regions of Ukraine unleashed fireworks. Technically, Putin can argue that it was not an invasion as the people happily welcome the Russian troops with open arms – without a single bullet being fired.



It remains to be seen whether the recognition of the two regions and the sending of Russian army into Ukraine are the first step towards a full-blown invasion of Ukraine. For now, the West is confused if the presence of Russian peacekeepers on Ukraine soil is tantamount to an invasion. Interestingly, Ukrainian President Zelensky said himself it was not an invasion, but a violation of sovereignty.



In response to Putin’s latest cunning chess game, Biden has signed an executive order prohibiting trade and investment between American businesses and the two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, under pressure, has suspended the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. British PM Johnson has refrained from declaring that Russia has invaded Ukraine.



It was only on Tuesday that the White House has begun to refer Russian troop deployments in eastern Ukraine as an “invasion” after initially hesitating to use the term – proof that the U.S. had not anticipated Putin’s chess piece. In retaliation, Moscow said the recognition could extend even to a larger part of Ukraine, suggesting that Putin may have more surprises in the coming days or weeks.