The US fortifies its security using Ukrainian troops: Report
6 Min Read
A report by Responsible Statecraft details how the US prompted the Ukrainian War to enhance its security, neglecting the forces who pay the price.
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Ukrainian soldiers fire a cannon near the eastern city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, Monday, May 15, 2023. (AP)
The discourse over the Ukrainian War, by its Western benefactors, holds a certain bitter paradox when discussed with statements flooded with the moral duty to aid Ukraine and funding it to the big win, but forget, or even neglect, the human devastation it has brought onto the Ukrainian army, the same soldiers who have been funded, defunded, and forced to fight a prolonged war despite the losses they have suffered, Responsible Statecraft analyzed in a recent report.
Citing Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of the Economist, who spoke to the Daily Show, indicated that the United States, despite funding Ukraine to the multibillions, is aiding it in "the cheapest way possible" to improve its national security, while the heavy lifting is being done by the Ukrainians, "the ones who are being killed".
This is what those who support a prolonged, categorical war in Ukraine have been saying since the beginning of the war two years ago, RS said. Since then, US politicians have not shied away from sharing the de facto purpose of the war, and do not mind the fact that Ukrainians are dying for a war the US incited for its own security.
'To the last Ukrainian'
Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) said early on during the war that the billion-dollar packages spent on Ukraine, being the best money they have ever spent, will keep the military fighting "till the last Ukrainian", unveiling the facade of moral highness the US had sold in speeches and statements, and kickstarting the critique of the United States fighting in Ukraine to the last Ukrainian.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said, “It is a relatively modest amount that we are contributing without being asked to risk life and limb,” while North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum coined it a good bargain, Money spent on no American lives lost.
US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell revealed that the US is reconstructing its industrial base without risking American lives, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal affirmed that US interests are being met in Ukraine, “all without a single American service woman or man injured or lost.”
Read more: Putin: Ukraine war a 'great tragedy' resulting from Western desires
A killer business deal
Western-funded think tanks have decided to adopt an economic perspective of what the US is investing in Ukraine, what it is gaining, and what it is losing. So far, the US spent almost 5% of its defense budget in exchange for an indirect fight against Russia.
The Washington Post previously published an op-ed written by former President George Bush's officials, saying “We have a determined partner in Ukraine that is willing to bear the consequences of war so that we do not have to do so ourselves in the future.”
Countless others have loaded US media outlets with reports comparing the amount of aid the US allocated to Ukraine to the benefits it has gained, from fortifying its regional security, to not having to wage war against a mighty Russia, but in the end, it becomes incomparable. The US has risen above the corpses of dead Ukrainians with stocks of money and faced the Russian threat, without having to physically and tangibly face it.
The Responsible Statecraft then described the cost-benefit aspect of the war as "distasteful" and presented the cynical laughs US officials echo, while many Ukrainian soldiers express their aversion to participating in a war that is not theirs to fight. It relays the irreverent attitude the US and NATO have toward the suffering Ukrainians will carry for the indefinite future and highlights that the only sacrifice they are willing to make is the negligible expenditure in the grand scheme of things.
To the extreme
While the US pumps Ukraine full of military aid, Ukrainian men have fled the country or self-isolated in their homes, in thousands, to avoid being drafted into a war they do not believe in, creating a problem the Ukrainian government decided to punish by increasing anti-service bans and capturing men escaping through the borders for possible drafting.
To put this into perspective, 20,000 Ukrainian men fled the country by November 2023, while 16,500 were snagged and forced to stay and "offer" their services for Ukraine. Tens of thousands of others signed petitions to lift travel bans on men aged between 18 and 60 installed to impose war service and warfare on them, RS explained.
Since then, Ukraine has expanded its drafting tactics, created databases to pinpoint potential recruits, and dilated the drafting polarities to under 18 and over 60, regardless of skill and health.
While opposition increases, Ukraine revealed that only 31,000 troops have been lost, a fallacy made transparent by the new bill aimed at drafting 500,000 military personnel, against Russia, which has, despite the war and Western anti-Russian sanctions, sustained its economy and advanced into further territories, most notably the latest win in Avdiivka.
Read more: Ukraine's counteroffensive was doomed from the start and the US knew
Two years of failure
The United States and the West fabricate stories claiming they have successfully isolated Russia, but amid all the money thrown, Russia has emerged stronger and resource-rich. And while sanctions are imposed, the West still profoundly relies on Russian oil and energy.
"What Western leaders have evidently failed to do is be frank with their publics about the enduring nature of the threat from an emboldened and revisionist Russia," Eugene Rumer and Andrew S. Weiss of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace wrote in November.
