Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Qatari Foreign Ministry: Qatar and Egypt welcome Hamas' announcement of its agreement to release American Aidan Alexander.
Hamas says to release US captive Edan Alexander.
Al Mayadeen's sources: Trump will announce that Hamas will release US captive Edan Alexander from Gaza.
Al Mayadeen correspondent: Israeli aircraft bombed the coastal province of Hodeidah on the Red Sea, west of Yemen.
The Israeli occupation military issues a bombing threat against the Yemeni ports of Ras Isa, Hodeidah, and Salif.
UKMTO says vessel reported a small craft colliding with it, attempting to collide with other vessels in the area
UKMTO says it received a report of an incident 80NM northwest of jebel Ali, UAE
Israeli Foreign Minister says 'Israel' fully endorses Trump plan for Gaza aid: Reuters
Iranian state media: The fourth round of nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington has kicked off in Oman
Senior Israeli intelligence official: Contacts are underway between Syria and "Israel" to retrieve the body of the spy Eli Cohen

Who is opposing peace in Ukraine?

  • Dmitri Kovalevich Dmitri Kovalevich
  • Source: Al Mayadeen English
  • 20 Mar 2025 14:57
  • 4 Shares
12 Min Read

As Trump reshapes U.S. policy on Ukraine, Zelensky faces mounting pressure, exposing the West’s contradictions in prolonging the war.

  • x
  • Ukrainian economist Oleksiy Kushch writes that for the Ukrainian elite, the era when it could act as a child and demand money from the ‘adult uncles’ in the West is coming to an end. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)
    Ukrainian economist Oleksiy Kushch writes that for the Ukrainian elite, the era when it could act as a child and demand money from the ‘adult uncles’ in the West is coming to an end. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

March 2025 marks the beginning of a fourth year of the military conflict in Ukraine. Kiev, its sponsors in Europe and the United States, are proving unwilling to end the war being waged despite mounting evidence they are facing a major political and military defeat.

Zelensky vs Trump? 

The five-year, electoral mandate dating from May 2019 of Volodymyr Zelensky as president of Ukraine expired ten months ago. Yet on February 28, Zelensky staged a widely publicized quarrel with the new US administration in Washington headed by Donald Trump. The administration reacted, in turn, with a dramatic suspension of US arms shipments and sharing of intelligence and satellite data. Without this data, Ukrainian troops are 'blinded’ because US military specialists have played a key role in helping choose Russian targets and helping operate complex rocket and missile weaponry. Particular valuable are the images provided, with US government approval, by US commercial satellite imaging company Maxar.

The 'suspensions' were very short-lived. A meeting in Saudi Arabia on March 11 between the Kiev government and the Trump administration saw a renewal of the briefly-disrupted partnership between the two after its brief interruption in supplying military data and equipment. The meeting issued a proposal to Russia (better described as a threat) prepared in advance by Washington for a 30-day 'ceasefire'. Critics in Russia and abroad say the proposal would allow the Ukraine Armed Forces to rest and regroup. If Russia turned it down, the Western powers could then condemn it for refusing peace.

Every serious analyst is pointing out that the ceasefire proposal does not at all address Russia's well-publicized minimum conditions for a peace settlement. In other words, the plan is something of a trap for Russia. For that reason, it will not see the light of day.

Zelensky was absent from the Ukraine delegation in Saudi Arabia. He remains apprehensive over the prospect that Trump may wish to replace him and could do so at any time. Ukrainian political analyst Kost Bondarenko, who now lives abroad, explained on Telegram on March 4 that Zelensky is no longer listening to anyone, including those in his personal entourage. "He is acting hysterically and capriciously, recognizing only his own claimed righteousness. He doesn't even listen to Yermak [head of the Office of the President of Ukraine]. His egocentrism has made Ukraine hostage to his whims."

Europe benefits from the war 
Zelensky is seeking more support from his patrons in the European Union and becoming more dependent on them, especially on the government of Great Britain. The latter continues to encourage him to sacrifice the people of Ukraine in a losing war against Russia.

Former Ukrainian (now Russian) political scientist Rostislav Ishchenko told an interview on March 7 that the only difference between the Trump regime in Washington and the leading governments of the European Union is that 'liberal' Europe wants a consolidated West under a 'liberal' image while the right-wing, conservative Trump regime wants a united West focused on weakening and paralyzing Russia while simultaneously weakening China.

"Trump's goal is not to make life easier for Russia. Trump's goal is to get a peace that is acceptable to America. So far, everything that Trump formulates is absolutely unacceptable to us."

Another former Ukrainian and now Russian political analyst Andrey Vajra told a Crimea news broadcast in February that the war in Ukraine has helped the European elites to appropriate billions of euros. "Europeans understand perfectly well that the war is lost. But the European elite needs to continue stealing [from weapons supplying and the multitude of forms of 'aid']. I have already explained how it is possible to continue stealing billions of euros so long as the killings continue in Ukraine. Far more millions of euros can be had. That's why the European leaders are clinging to a warmaking Ukraine."

In early March, the head of German intelligence, Bruno Kahl, stated in an interview with the state-run Deutsche Welle that it would be 'safer' for Europe if the war in Ukraine continued for another five years. He criticized the Trump administration, saying the kind of swift end to the war being voiced by Trump "would enable the Russians to focus their energy against Europe". This suggested 'long war' against Russia is the new, official theme of EU leaders as they strive to convince their populations of the need to massively expand military spending.

Even former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko (2007-2010) of the Batkivshchyna faction in the Ukrainian legislature says she is outraged by Kahl's frank admission. "Bruno Kahl for the first time officially confirmed what we were so reluctant to believe: At the cost of thousands of Ukrainian lives and the very existence of Ukraine, some people decided on a war to ‘deplete’ Russia and thereby enhance the security in Europe? I did not think that they would dare to say it so officially and openly. This explains a lot," Tymoshenko doth protest too much. She was a key fomentor of the violent, Maidan coup in February 2014 and an ardent advocate since then of military and political confrontation with Russia.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has also stated that a peace agreement could be more dangerous for Ukraine than an ongoing war. "I understand that many people believe that a peaceful solution or a ceasefire is a good idea, but we run the risk that peace in Ukraine would actually be more dangerous than the war that is ongoing now."

Such pro-war stances are not only due to the fact that Western companies are getting rich on fulfilling military orders. A permanent war in Ukraine appeals to many Western leaders because this would weaken and pre-occupy Russia. "Israel" has long acted on the same principle in the Middle East. It has waged bloody wars in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon to weaken these countries and prevent them from doing anything to stop "Israel's" genocide against Palestinians and its occupation of Syrian territory.

Those who justify continued war in Ukraine make two contradictory assertions. On the one hand, they argue that the war has greatly weakened Russia and that the government there may soon collapse. Ukrainians should therefore fight just a little longer to secure 'victory'. On the other hand, they say that Russia has become too strong and is a threat to overrun more European countries in the future. Ukrainian social networks have coined an ironic term for this contradictory belief system, calling it 'Russophrenia' (derived from the word 'schizophrenia').

Related News

Why the Israelis cannot win in Gaza or Yemen

Ansar Allah triumphant: US facing Red Sea defeat again

The end of Ukraine's adventure in Kursk
Disaster has befallen the Ukraine Armed Forces present in the Kursk border region of Russia. Large numbers of Ukrainian troops have become encircled—as many as 10,000 according to some  Western media outlets. A March 8 report in a Ukrainian media outlet nervously reassured that the situation in Kursk "is not yet catastrophic".

The Ukrainian military command did not issue any orders to retreat from threatened encirclements in Kursk. This repeats the experiences with earlier military encirclements in Donbass. These have allowed the Russian army to make steady and continued military advances there.

As reported by the online Politnavigator on March 7, a former advisor to the office of Zelensky, Alexei Arestovich, sees a familiar pattern to events in Kursk. "In dire conditions where encirclement is threatened, only the introduction of reserve troops can help. So we [the Ukraine Armed Forces] proceed as usual: drop in a few reserves removed from other threatened locations. These will most likely be unable to stabilize for any length of time because there are few reserves to draw upon. No one is left. Even worse is to keep the army in encirclements or threatened encirclements for too long, waiting for the political leadership to give an order to retreat. But those orders do not come. This scenario has repeated itself over and over again. We need to stop playing by such scenarios."

Arestovich lives in exile somewhere in Europe and has said he would be a candidate in a forthcoming election for president of Ukraine should a free election take place.

On March 8-9, Russian troops managed rather easily to contain the remaining Ukrainian forces in Kursk Oblast and cut off re-supply routes. This was partly helped by the spring thaw because Western-supplied military equipment becomes booged down in mud; it is designed primarily for use on paved or improved gravel roads.

Ukrainian opposition blogger Anatoliy Shariy writes that the losses of the AFU in Kursk are huge - some of the biggest losses that Ukrainian servicemen can remember.

The Ukrainian grouping in Kursk was centered around the border town of Suzdha. It is the site of an important pumping and transit station for a natural gas pipeline built during the Soviet era which connects the vast gas fields of eastern Russia to markets in Ukraine and further west in Europe. In January, Ukraine shut down pipeline shipments through Suzdha, drawing sharp protests and threats of counter-measures from Hungary and Slovakia.

An ironic consequence of Ukraine shutting down the pipeline was that Russian soldiers were able to use the now-empty pipeline to advance some 15 kilometers directly into the center of the Ukrainian grouping in Suzdha. They waited days for orders. Russia then surprised and overwhelmed the embedded Ukrainian forces with a multi-pronged attack beginning on March 8. Many Ukrainian soldiers and allied mercenaries ended up stampeding into surrounding minefields.

Russian military correspondent Anna Dolgareva spoke to Russian military scouts in Suzdha and reported, "For six days, the Russian fighters sat inside the pipeline awaiting orders to move. They spent some 24 hours of difficult walking to get there. The pipeline still contained traces of methane gas and so holes were cut in the pipe along the way for ventilation."

This operation was made possible because Ukraine shut off gas transit causing European countries to buy much more expensive liquefied gas from producers in the United States. Western sanctions against Russia have cost Europe its supply of relatively cheap Russian gas, replaced by shipments of expensive liquefied natural gas from the United States as well as gas from Norway and Algeria shipped by pipeline.

Ukrainian elite on ‘starvation rations’
Representatives of the Ukrainian political elite are today extremely worried about Zelensky's quarrel with the new US administration that exploded into view in Washington on February 28. For most, funding from the United States is their main source of income.

Since the early 1990s, Ukraine has developed an entire class of government officials and politicians who have 'monetized' Russophobia and anti-communism. A key piece of moving up the career ladder has been to act the loudest in stigmatizing the former Soviet Union and modern Russian Federation, and figuring out how best to draw Western funding for such efforts. This scheme has worked well for decades, but now the apparent chaos being sown by the new Trump regime in Washington has upset the old arrangements. The chaos is merely the expression of a governing U.S. regime facing a looming defeat of its proxy war in Ukraine along with its European partners.

Some legislators realize that Zelensky's harsh outbursts and confrontation with Trump and Trump's vice president in Washington on February 28 could cost the country dearly, but others are betting on maintaining an aggressive, pro-war rhetoric. They are looking to the British government to help out.

Alexei Arestovich writes that Zelensky's ‘disobedience’ is based solely on his desire to extract security guarantees for himself and his entourage. He says the problem for the White House is that "providing personal guarantees to thieves risks setting yourself up before American justice."

Ukrainian economist Oleksiy Kushch writes that for the Ukrainian elite, the era when it could act as a child and demand money from the ‘adult uncles’ in the West is coming to an end. The West is so used to that arrangement that Zelensky's apparent conflicts with the U.S. administration are bewildering, a kind of ‘revolt against the boss’.

Kushch summarizes Ukraine's situation after Zelensky's quarrel with Trump in this way, "Like a teenager who 'unexpectedly' has a child and finds all responsibility now rests on him, 'daddy' U.S. may threaten to stop helping out as punishment for any 'disobedience' while 'mommy' Europe promises to continue giving money but not forever."

The Ukrainian elite has been thoroughly corrupted by years of generous Western 'aid' handouts. It no longer knows how to earn revenue and wealth on its own. So if some character named Zelensky becomes an obstacle to the continued flow of ‘daddy's’ money, he becomes expendable. So much the worse for him.

 

The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.
  • Ukraine
  • Russia
  • war in Ukraine
  • United States
  • Ukraine crisis
Dmitri Kovalevich

Dmitri Kovalevich

Special correspondent in Ukraine for Al Mayadeen English.

Russia & NATO

Russia & NATO

As the Draconian Western-led sanctions on Russia exacerbate the economic crisis worldwide, and as Russian troops gain more ground despite the influx of military aid into Ukraine, exposing US direct involvement in bio-labs spread across Eastern Europe and the insurgence of neo-Nazi groups… How will things unfold?

Most Read

All
Throughout Operation Prosperity Guardian, current and former US military and intelligence officials expressed disquiet at the enormous “cost offset” involved in battling Ansar Allah. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab El-Hajj)

Ansar Allah triumphant: US facing Red Sea defeat again

  • Opinion
  • 3 May 2025
"Israel" appears to be the only place in the world where there are actual demonstrations defending rapists as national heroes precisely because of their crimes. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

'Israeli pride' - Celebrating rape in the Zionist entity

  • Opinion
  • 4 May 2025
Why the Israelis cannot win in Gaza or Yemen

Why the Israelis cannot win in Gaza or Yemen

  • Opinion
  • 7 May 2025
The hero who overthrows tyranny: The path of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam

The hero who overthrows tyranny: The path of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam

  • Blog
  • 2 May 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

More from this writer

All
The government in Kiev is an institution at the service of the Western powers. Since 2014, it has obliterated Ukraine's sovereignty in a destructive path aiming to become the West’s ‘anti-Russia’. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab El-Hajj)

An elusive ceasefire in Ukraine as Kiev and its Western backers play for time

Ukraine is resembling the fall of Saigon in 1975 as its governing regime takes to echoing Trump’s anti-China policies

Ukraine is resembling the fall of Saigon in 1975 as its governing regime takes to echoing Trump’s anti-China policies

A governing regime in Ukraine whose days are numbered

A governing regime in Ukraine whose days are numbered

Every day, more and more facts are emerging in Ukraine about the detention camps that Zelensky has created in order to sustain its power and continue the NATO proxy war. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

Three years of a cruel and destructive NATO proxy war in Ukraine

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS