The U.S. is escalating its role in Ukraine war.
There are nearly 3.7 million internally displaced people in Ukraine (as of February 2024).
Nearly 6.5 million refugees from Ukraine have been recorded globally (as of February 2024).
Approximately 14.6 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2024.
Early in this war following Russia’s February 24, 2022 invasion I had hoped for quick talks and negotiations.
Instead the war has dragged on.
An estimated 3.7 million people have been driven from their homes and are internally displaced and nearly 6.5 million people have crossed into neighboring countries in the region including Poland, Hungary, Moldova and other countries globally.
The UNHCR estimates 14.6 million people in Ukraine will need humanitarian assistance in 2024.
My fears have been realized.
Not my worst fears. That may still come.
My wish for peace talks was dismissed by many who I knew as politically Left or Progressive.
“What was there to talk about?”
They said this was simply a war for self-determination. One side was right. One side was wrong.
Early on they told me that Ukraine was winning and that Ukraine would triumph and that the triumph would come quickly.
“The only thing to negotiate is when Putin will step down,” they told me.
“Any negotiating was like surrendering the Sudetenland to the Nazis.”
Now, over two years into it, things are more dire for Ukraine.
Actually worse.
Whenever peace talks are brought up, the idea is quickly shot down by the United States.
Instead, the United States is egging Ukraine on, ignoring the pain that war has brought to the Ukrainian and Russian people.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken signaled on Wednesday that the U.S. is weighing the idea of allowing Kyiv to strike Russian territory with American-provided weapons in light of the evolving battlefield situation in Ukraine.
It was the first time that a top Biden administration official has publicly indicated that the U.S. is considering the policy shift. Previously, the U.S. has said it wouldn’t allow Ukraine to attack targets on Russian territory with ATACMS missiles or other U.S. weapons.
Blinken’s remarks follow statements from a string of European officials who said they favor allowing Ukraine to use Western-supplied weapons against targets on Russian territory that Moscow has been using as a staging ground for its invasion.
Jens Stoltenberg, secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said earlier this week that the “time has come to consider whether it will be right to lift some of the restrictions” on Ukraine.
To those who deny that this is fundamentally a proxy war between Russia and the West, the plans for escalation by NATO and the United States should put that notion to rest.
The okay to use American weapons on Russia inside Russia is dangerous and frightening move.