New Delhi
Volodymyr Zelensky represents the pulse of his country, they all want to fight the Russian aggression.
Vladimir Putin on the other hand wants to revive Russian imperialism.
Eastern Ukraine has always been close to Russia.
But today a survey says about 34 percent of Ukrainians are ready to pick up arms against Vladimir Putin's forces.
NagalandPage
Killings and arson have become commonplace in Ukraine. The Russian leadership under
Putin had presumed that Ukrainians and their non-text book variety president would crumble
under intense pressure.
But Volodymyr Zelensky on Feb 26, 2022 morning posted a video of himself on Twitter.
Russians had started claiming that he had fled the war-ravaged country.
But Ukraine’s president emerged from his office unshaven, looked red-eyed and declared:
“Good morning to all Ukrainians! There are a lot of fakes out there…[but] I am here.”
One video among billions of social media postings and a mere half a sentence '....I am here' perhaps
stalled the course of human history at least for the time being.
Snap elections were held not long ago and Zelensky himself characterized the contest as “maybe more important
than the presidential election.”
His 'Servant of the People' party won an absolute majority, capturing 254 of
450 seats (26 seats, representing Crimea—a Ukrainian autonomous republic that was illegally annexed by
Russia in 2014—and the war zone in the east, were not contested).
"The result marked the first time in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history that a single party could command absolute
control over the legislative agenda," says a report in www.britannica.com.
Did it mark a new beginning in the history of Europe, Russia and the world ?
The man perhaps draws his strength from a dash of humour too. Holding the country together
in its "darkest hour" of history, as says 'The Economist', when the US offered to evacuate him to safety, he
shot back in a dramatic style - “The fight is here; I need anti-tank ammo, not a ride".
The message was unique and powerful. Come what may, 'fighting back' with back on the wall is
the heart and soul and real backbone of human existence, human civilisation.
Yes, of course, he has made life tensed and competitive if not miserable for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Now the 'worst fear' from the Russia-Ukraine conflict is if Putin falters and
fails on ground in the face of stiff fight by Ukraine people and forces, he could actually take
the road to 'unrestricted war' and use of nuke powers.
But what matters most for Ukrainian president Zelensky is that the capital
Kyiv has not fallen. There is strong resistance in eastern Ukraine and he is
'happy' to play the role of a national leader.
"That was not the role he had chosen, but the one that was thrust upon him when Russia
invaded Ukraine on February 24th. He has carried it off with dignity and strength," says the 'Economist'.
He has been resisting Moscow's ideas and offers from the beginning.
On April 21, 2019 Zelensky was elected president of Ukraine with an impressive 73 percent of the vote.
Within days the president-elect faced his first foreign policy challenge, when Putin announced
his decision to offer 'Russian passports' to the Ukrainian citizens in separatist-controlled areas
of war-torn eastern Ukraine.
Zelensky ridiculed the offer, responding with a Facebook post that extended "Ukrainian citizenship" to Russians
and others “who suffer from authoritarian or corrupt regimes".
In 2013 Zelensky 'rejoined' the 'Kvartal 95 Studio' - a publicly held television entertainment production company,
operating in Ukraine since 2003.
But his entertainment career would soon intersect with the seismic events rocking Ukraine’s political landscape.
In February 2014 the government of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was toppled.
There was turmoil in the country and it was against this backdrop that 'Servant of the People' was
premiered in October 2015.
Zelensky was cast as Vasiliy Goloborodko, a history teacher who goes on to become President .
The show was a massive hit.
But more importantly, the drama protagonist Goloborodko’s unlikely path to the presidency of Ukraine
would provide something of a road map for Zelensky.
The Kvartal 95 officially registered 'Servant of the People' as a political party in Ukraine in 2018.
And the real life drama and challenges for the Ukrainian President persist since then.
ends
Russia and its 'enablers' will be held to account, says US
New Delhi
For the Biden administration it could be a case of leaking wounds as an injured tiger.
The Ukraine crisis for President Joe Biden and his team represents the second major foreign policy test and failure since Afghanistan.
Nevertheless, Biden's Secretary of State Antony Blinken has tweeted to assert that - "Russia’s government and its enablers will be held to account. The United States, our Allies, and our partners are United With Ukraine".
This missive came after he held discussions with Ukrainian Foreign Minister
Dmytro Kuleba. Blinken referred to the 'inspiring resolve' Ukraine is showing and
'historic support' rendered by the international community.
Of course this could go down well during peacetime. But during military conflict what counts
is what goes around in the battlefield.
And that reality is far from cool or satisfactory for the US or even NATO. Of course in the UN General
Assembly, 141 countries approved a resolution reprimanding President Vladimir Putin's decision
to invade Ukraine, 35 countries including China and India abstained.
Together India and China have on their reasons and merits kept RIC (Russia, India and China platform)
intact. Five countries including Russia and Syria voted against the UN resolution. So did
Belarus, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (more commonly known as North Korea) and Eritrea.
Some say in typical military and geo-strategic sense Putin's gamble has been paying off at least in the initial few rounds.
Putin wants to assert Russia’s relevance on the world stage, seeking to up the political stakes for the US
President and even test the unity of NATO countries.
He’s already on his way to achieving some of these ends.
The Russian President has been able to distract the US and other important players from their
diplomatic priorities.
For instance, the US-China love-hate trade wars and strategic oneup-manship in the Indo Pacific is
not being discussed.
Japan, Australia, the US and Indian top leaders met virtually on March 3, Thursday, under Quad format
but here too the Ukraine crisis had to be discussed.
To sum up all these, one can say Putin is trying to revive Russian imperialism as also its own 'global relevance'.
Moscow is no longer silent as was presumed once.
Charles Kupchan, a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University and a player with
the President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council, says “Putin craves being at the table and profoundly
laments the Soviet Union’s dismantlement and Russia’s fall from grace......
He is back in the center of attention".
As a spy and believing in power games of communists, he is a good story teller too.
So he is telling fellow Russians that he is at war not with just a neighbouring Ukraine,
he is actually locked in a battle with America and with NATO and its proxies.
The challenges for a lameduck administration under Biden - after the Afghanistan fiasco -
are of course far from over.
ends
Time magazine
Putin wants to assert Russia’s relevance on the world stage, embarrass Biden, and test the unity of NATO countries. He’s already well on his way to achieving those ends. Putin has successfully dragged Biden into having to respond to a frustrating series of escalations, complicating the U.S. response to Russia’s actions, distracting from other diplomatic priorities, and upping the political stakes for Biden. His approval ratings sagged after a turbulent withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer led the Taliban to take control of the country, and this represents Biden’s second major foreign policy test as President.
Putin’s gamble is paying off—at least in the short term. “He’s back in the center of attention,” says Charles Kupchan, a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University and former director of European affairs on President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council. “Putin craves being at the table and profoundly laments the Soviet Union’s dismantlement and Russia’s fall from grace.”
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