Contributed by Joe Montero

Unites States President Joe Biden turned up in Ukraine this week. A big deal was made of it. After all, to go into a war zone is extremely dangerous, which the propagandists zealously promoted. The narrative is that Ukraine backed with Western military support is winning the war.

Nice story. The trouble with it is that it’s fiction. True enough, Biden did turn up in Kyiv. But he did so after an agreement with the Russians  that there would be no attack. Backing this is the little fact that the Russians can hit the capital any time they want. This has been proved. The strategy has never been to take the city. The focus has been on the Russian speaking majority territories.

While there, Biden waxed lyrical about defending democracy against autocracy. He failed to mention that the present administration in Kyiv emerged out of a coup against an elected government and the outlawing of opponents. He failed to mention Ongoing attacks against the Russian speaking population. He failed to mention anything about the key role being played by the Azov Battalion and other Nazi militias in the war effort.   

Zelensky speech with Nazi Azov Battalion prompts Greek lawmakers to walk out

Video from The Hill

On board was the team of handpicked and embedded journalists to do the job of sanitising the story and as propagandists for war. No one else was allowed to be there.

More important is why Biden went there. Two plausible explanations exist, one domestic, and the other involving foreign policy.

There is a presidential election next year. Biden intends to stand. His problem is that he is unpopular. The tide is even turning within the Democratic Party. His main base of support is the Wall Street faction funding the party. Even here there is some uncertainty.

Re-imaging as a war time leader aims at reversing this in the short-term at least. A trip to Ukraine fits the bill well.

Far more important is that the geopolitical strategy of the ruling elite in Washington. A key part of it is the expansion of NATO to the East. Ukraine has become a pawn in this, and a theatre to carry out a proxy war against Russia and to ultimately threaten China from this direction. The objective is to ensure dominance as the only superpower, the shaper of the future of the world, and contain perceived challengers o this authority.

War in Ukraine is not going all that well. This is the truth. The War is not being won. Friction with Europe is on the rise. Disruption to trade and oil and gas supplies is causing economic problems. People on both continents are getting ear weary. They want an end to it. And the trip was timed to coincide with a meeting of European leaders in Brussels.

Biden’s visit to Kyiv served as a means to rekindle support for continuing the war. It demonstrated a position of weakness. Not one of strength.

Rising sentiment for finding a path to peace is the main trend today. This won’t be reversed so easily.

Whether one agrees with the response or not, Russia’s intervention was motivated by the real NATO threat and the appeals for support from the Russian speaking population in Ukraine. Russia has consistently called for peace talks. Washington has opposed them and continues to do so.

Even Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy has tilted this way once or twice. Each time, Washington has forbidden Zelenskiy to go down this road, and Zelensky knowing who butters his bread, has obeyed and reverted the pro war position.

Those pushing for war will lose in the end. But how many lives and how much destruction will this cost?