At the beginning of December, almost all Ukrainian politicians were endlessly promoting NATO membership for Ukraine. Ukrainians were told by all television broadcasters (all of which work under heavy state censorship) that NATO membership is the only salvation for the country. Membership is even being presented as the meaning and goal of Ukraine's existence in its current form; otherwise, it is said by Ukraine's unelected rulers, Ukraine may come to resemble neighboring Belarus, which they consider to be a terrible place.

The obsession with NATO membership is a consequence of Ukraine's steady stream of military setbacks as well as its apprehensions over the change in the US presidential administration to take place in January 2025. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (whose electoral mandate expired in April 2024) and the pro-government media in Ukraine have deepened their alarming tones in recent days, shifting to tones of extreme urgency in their appeals to be permitted into NATO membership.

Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha sent a letter in late November to the foreign ministries of NATO countries asking them to quickly extend Ukraine an invitation to join the alliance, specifically naming the dates of December 3 and 4 to formally begin a process. Those were the dates of a-then forthcoming meeting of NATO foreign ministers. Reuters news agency reported on November 29, "Ukraine says it accepts that it cannot join the alliance until the war [with Russia] is over, but extending an invitation now would show Russian President Vladimir Putin that he cannot achieve one of his main goals - preventing Kyiv from becoming a NATO member."

Britain's Sky News reported on November 29 that Zelensky supports Ukraine's accession to NATO with only a part of its territories, writing, "He appeared to accept occupied [sic] eastern parts of the country would fall outside of such a deal for the time being." But Zelensky then emphasized on December 1 that "there can be no invitation to NATO for a part of Ukraine's territories."

NATO wants 'war now, NATO membership later'

Statements by NATO representatives make it clear that Ukraine will not receive any invitation from the organization in the near future. The alliance's new secretary-general, Mark Rutte (prime minister of Netherlands from 2010 to 2024), said on December 3 that the issue of Kiev's membership in NATO was of secondary importance to the provision of military assistance. "We [NATO] have to make sure that Ukraine gets into a position of strength, and then it should be for the Ukrainian government to decide on the next steps in opening peace talks and how to conduct them.”

The above November 29 report by Reuters wrote, "Although NATO has stated that Ukraine's path to membership is 'irreversible', the alliance has not set a date or issued an invitation. Diplomats said there was currently no consensus among its 32 members to do so. Some countries are waiting to decide their stance until they learn the position of the incoming U.S. administration of President-elect Donald Trump…"

According to the author of the Ukrainian Telegram channel Rubicon, a hypothetical realization of the 'NATO membership in exchange for territory' formula would allow Zelensky to retain power in a post-war Ukraine. In such a scenario, Rubicon writes, Zelensky could claim that he "achieved the realization of the eternal dream of the Ukrainian people and brought the country into the Western world, under the protection of American arms, albeit at the cost of great sacrifices and territorial losses."

Rubicon continues, "Given that preserving power is an unambiguous priority for the current Ukrainian elites, it is not surprising that such a scenario seems attractive to them. However, it should be taken into account that 'NATO membership in exchange for territory' is a formula that originated in the ranks of the U.S. Democratic Party. Its main goal is to achieve 'ironclad assurance' that a large part of Ukraine would become an American sphere of influence."

NATO membership as alternative to peace

There is an additional aspect of Kiev's intensified aspiration for NATO membership, and that is to prevent a negotiated end to its conflict with Russia. For Russia, a non-aligned and neutral Ukraine is one of the main goals of its military operation, whereas for the Zelensky-run Kiev, a continuation of military operations means it can indefinitely cancel the holding of elections. In this respect, the statement by Ukraine 'we want to join NATO' amounts to stating 'we want to continue the war'.

In order to please NATO, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukraine Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi announced at the end of November a new, forthcoming military 'counter-offensive' to take place sometime soon. But this 'announcement' is entirely belied by the fact that the AFU does not even have the strength to hold its current positions. Many military analysts in Ukraine are left pondering why a military operation ('counter-offensive') would be announced in advance and how this squares with Western media reports citing a lack of secrecy by the AFU as one of the reasons for the total failure of its previous 'counteroffensive' (in early summer 2023).

Other experts do not understand what kind of 'counter-offensive' could be mounted in conditions where the AFU has been steadily retreating. "In the last seven days alone, the Russian army has captured almost 235 square kilometers of territory, a record advance so far for one week in 2024," notes a perplexed, former legislator and former speaker of the fascist Right Sector grouping Boryslav Bereza on Telegram. "What kind of 'counter-offensive' are we talking about?", he asks.

Yevhen Ievlev, an AFU serviceman, told the Kyiv 24 television channel in late November that, in his view, the Ukrainian Armed Forces urgently needs to mobilize almost two million new recruits before any consideration of a 'counter-offensive' could be made. Many of these recruits will die, he notes, leading him to ask who, exactly, would control the newly 'liberated' territories?

Tensions over extending military conscription

At the beginning of December, the tensions over 'soldiers or weapons for Ukraine' only intensified, with the US and NATO countries demanding that Kiev step up military conscription, while Zelensky says the priority should be the provision of more weapons. This conflict is coming to a head over demands by the Western powers that Ukraine lower the age of its obligatory military service for men from the age of 25 to 18 years.

The age limit was already lowered in the spring of 2023, from 27 to 25. Associated Press wrote at the time, "Zelenskyy took almost a year to sign the law lowering the conscription age, perhaps reflecting how unpopular such a move might be." BBC Russia wrote on December 10, 2024, "This decision was not easy. For society this issue is painful and the president delayed the signing of the new law by nine months."

The outgoing Biden administration is increasingly voicing disappointment with the failure of Ukrainian authorities to take more decisive steps to replenish the heavy losses being suffered by their armed forces. Additionally, the Washington Post voiced concerns in a December 2 report that the US simply does not have enough weapons to supply Ukraine in the quantities being asked for.

The outgoing Biden administration in Washington is now urging Kiev to lower its military conscription age to 18. But because of the plummeting birth rates in Ukraine during the economically harsh decades following the demise of Soviet Ukraine and the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the numbers of 18- to 25-year-olds in Ukraine is not high, and their conscription will consequently provide very little replenishment for the army.

Adding to the misery for Ukraine's military leaders are the large numbers of men who have fled the country or who are taking advantage of exemptions from service. For example, Reuters reported in August 2024, "In the first six months of 2024, Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science reported an astounding 246,000 individuals applying for postgraduate or masters-level courses, compared to only 7,000-9,000 doing such courses before the war."

On December 4, Ukrainian media reported US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urging Ukraine to step up its military conscription. Similar calls are also being issued by some in the Republican Party camp in Washington. Republican Congresswoman Victoria Spartz has gone so far as to tell a recent interview with CNN that in order to win its war, Kiev needs to mobilize the entire country similar to what the USSR achieved during World War II, She believes that lowering the mobilization age to 18 is now insufficient. "When the Soviet Union fought World War Two, everyone was contributing to the war, from the smallest child to the oldest person. You cannot just have some young, brave people fighting on behalf of everyone else..."

Most people in Soviet Ukraine and the Soviet Union were of course profoundly affected by the catastrophic war launched by Nazi Germany in June 1941. But Spartz' image of children and the elderly fighting in trenches or other combat operations is far from the truth. Only some 14% of the Soviet Union population overall was directly mobilized in the armed forces, and only some two-thirds of those took part in combat operations.

Ex-company commander of the neo-Nazi Aidar battalion writes on Telegram that the AFU recruits only half the number of men needed to replace sanitary (non-combat) losses alone. And that does account for high losses to desertion. In other words, the continuation of warfare in the conditions into which Ukraine has been pushed and cajoled amounts to a systematic destruction by US and NATO military hawks of an entire people. Some may even call this a form of genocide.

Ukraine's bad example for Georgia

The example of Ukraine has become an extremely negative one for most post-Soviet countries. In November-December, for example, protests supported by the West have taken place in Georgia, in the Caucasus region and bordering Russia. Events there are following the pattern of the 'Euromaidan coup' in Ukraine in 2013-2014, which effectively destroyed the country. 

A large reason for the protests in Georgia is that the current government has placed a hold on integration of the country into the European Union. A similar decision was taken by the elected president and government of Ukraine in late 2013, which far-right forces then used to spark a violent drive to a coup on February 21, 2014.

The driving force behind the current protests in Georgia are local, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), of which there are a great many in the country. Almost all of them are funded by the West. Georgian authorities warn that the West wants to turn their country into a second Ukraine. "We will not give anyone an opportunity either outside or inside the country to use Georgia in the interests of a foreign state. We will not give an opportunity to carry out 'Ukrainization'," said Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze on December 3. Earlier, he said that a Maidan scenario cannot and must not be realized in Georgia.

"For many Georgians, any analogy with Ukraine raises alarm rather than hope," writes The Economist on December 2. The publication openly refers to the 'Georgian Maidan’ as being an "anti-Russian protest".

Political leaders in Georgia have resisted Western attempts to use their country to open a ‘second front’ against Russia. They remember too well the reckless conduct of a previous government in Georgia in 2008, which provoked a short-lived and disastrous (for Georgia) military clash with Russia.

Two months ago, the honorary chairman of the governing Georgian Dream party Irakli Garibashvili told media that a senior Western official told former Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili that Georgia should "fight Russia for three or four days and then launch guerrilla warfare in the forests." Garibashvili also said that in 2008, Georgia and Ukraine were not accepted into NATO by the alliance's "real coordinators" because they were preparing to use the populations of both countries as cannon fodder against Russia.

The Zelensky regime has imposed sanctions against the leadership of Georgia and is calling on the EU and US to do likewise.

The worst nightmare for the NATO leadership would be reconciliation between Ukrainians, Georgians, Moldovans, and Russians, as eventually took place between Russians and Chechens following two brutal wars in the 1990s and 2000s.

Dealing with Ukrainian men as 'cornered rats'

Modern Ukraine is under the full control of the Western countries, and as a result, has become hell for the Ukrainians themselves. Every day, men are fleeing the country westward along snow-covered mountain trails or other perilous routes, while growing numbers of women are leaving the country with their children in order that the children may never be subject to military conscription. (In addition, millions of former residents of Ukraine have taken refuge in Russia.) During the daytime hours in Ukrainian cities, only elderly women can be seen walking the streets. In the darkness of evening (most street lighting no longer operates due to war damage), the only visible lighting are the flashlights of the ‘man hunters’, that is, the military enlistment officers, hunting down dwindling numbers of men of military age, to soon be carted off to the front lines.

Even the pro-war Telegraph newspaper in Britain quotes Ukrainian military enlistment officers acknowledging that they are treating the Ukraine population like 'cornered rats'. “Sometimes it’s like dealing with a cornered rat,” Officer 'Artem' told The Telegraph as he explained how he muscles his targets into vans and sends them off to awaiting military recruitment centres. He added, “They continue fighting us even while locked in our vehicle. Those who resist always threaten to take revenge on our guys or their families.”

At first, Artem said, he felt pity for the detainees, but then he realized that if such people are not shipped to the front, he would be there in their place.

Western governments and even some of the 'human rights organizations' they help finance are not only turning a blind eye to the large-scale human rights violations taking place amid conscription in Ukraine, but are also urging Kiev to intensify its efforts to, in the words of Ukrainian military commander Artem, 'corner conscription evaders like rats'.

The many Telegram channels based in Ukraine which report on conscription compare Ukraine's practices with the actions of the German Nazi armies occupying Soviet territories.

Heorhiy Mazurashu a legislator from Zelensky's 'Servant of the People' party machine, has accused Ukraine's political and military leadership of acting like "modern-day slave owners". He urges his followers and readers not to believe polls about the moods in Ukrainian society which are duly forwarded by representatives of the Ukrainian government to Western media and creditors. "According to polls, 70% of Ukrainians are in favor of fighting to the last man, but only 30% of those live in Ukraine," he comments wryly, saying that social surveys of the attitudes of Ukrainians are not conducted in Ukraine but abroad.

Despite all the obvious violations of human rights taking place in Ukraine, including the mass kidnappings of men to fight and die on NATO-created battlefields and large-scale corruption in the provision of military supplies, Western politicians persist in calling Ukraine a ‘democracy’. But for most Ukrainians today, Western-style democracy has simply become synonymous with the destruction of the country and its population.

Most recent news: Russian troops advance to within kilometers of center of key transport city of Pokrovsk in Donbass region, CNN, Dec 12, 2024.  [Pokrovsk had a pre-war population of 60,000. It lies some 60 km west of Donetsk city and 75 km south of the key industrial and transport city of Kramatorsk. It is approximately 200 km south of Kharkov, the second largest city in Ukraine, and 150 km east of Dnipro, the fourth largest city in the country.]