Alwaght- Over the past three months that Ukraine situation has been overshadowed by Gaza war and the international media focus has been shifted to Gaza from Eastern Europe, the battleground has not seen a dramatic development. Actually, amid the incapability of Kiev to make considerable gains towards goals of its so-called counteroffensive to take back the lost territories, a state of stagnation dominates the front lines.
Hot winter of war
Still, recent massive missile attacks on Ukraine’s depth launched by Russia that caused huge casualties once again drew attention to war in Eastern Ukraine, where there are signs of Kiev retreat from the territories it took back in summer as the NATO military aids dwindle.
It seems that the Russians, who historically consider the cold as their main ally and propeller of great victories over firm enemies such as Napoleon and the Nazi German army, wanted to give a tough response to Ukrainian President Volodymyer Zelensky’s swaggering by their rejuvenated airstrikes. On Monday, Ukraine president announced shooting down three Russian warplanes and destroying a warship, saying: “This Christmas sets the right mood for the entire year ahead—the mood of our capabilities.”
The recent strikes, which the media have described as the most intense Russian airstrikes deep into Ukraine since the war started, are said to have left around 200 dead and wounded, an unprecedented number of casualties in a single day of war in recent months.
The Ukrainian air force announced that air defenses intercepted 21 of the 49 drones launched by Russia. The statement said that most of them targeted the front line and parts of Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions.
In response, on Saturday, the Ukrainian forces attacked the city of Belgorod 30 kilometers deep in the Russian territory, according to the Russian authorities. As a result of these attacks, at least 22 civilians, including two children, were killed and 100 others, including 15 children, were injured.
Russian officials also report separate attacks by Ukrainian drones in several regions of the Russian Federation. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials announced new attacks by Russian drones in the Kherson region at night— developments that heralding intense weeks ahead.
Civilian casualties rising
In the meantime, civilian deaths and injuries caused both sides to trade accusations of acts of terrorism.
In his speech, Russian UN envoy , Vasily Nebenzya, described Ukraine’s attacks as “a pre-planned terrorist act against civilians” and argued that the Western supporters of Kiev are also “responsible for this massacre”, and requested an urgent meeting of the Security Council.
“The West is complicit in the crimes of this gang that holds the power in Kiev. We know that British and American advisers were directly involved in organizing this terrorist act,” he said, warning that the organizers and perpetrators of these attacks “will be punished.”
Nebenzya argued on Friday in a UNSC session that people in Kiev and other Ukranian cities have been killed by the faulty performance of their country’s air defenses. He also accused Kiev government of installing anti-missile systems in residential areas.
Ukraine, however, rejected these accusations and accused Moscow of carrying out “blind” attacks on cities. The US envoy to the UNSC held Putin responsible for these “pointless casualties.” The US will continue to support Ukraine’s self-defense as long as Russia continues its war, the envoy asserted.
Since the beginning of the war, Western countries and NATO have provided billions of dollars in weapons, equipment and other aid to Zelensky government. Earlier this month, during his visit to the US, Zelensky said Washington has provided Kiev with a total of 34 military aid packages worth more than $24 billion in 2023.
In addition to the billions of dollars in aid sent by Washington in the past two years, in the large-scale and unprecedented military budget of $886 billion next year, the White House has set aside a special share for Ukraine.
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday announced additional $250 million aid package to Kiev.
Stating that this is the last package of US military aid to Ukraine for 2023, Blinken said that it includes air defense ammunition, artillery shells and ammunition of the HIMARS systems.
At present, the Pentagon has a a $300 million plan to continue arming Ukraine, which is way smaller than the $61 billion Biden asked the Congress for.
Republicans say they would agree to help Ukraine only if the Democrats gave a green light to the toughest immigration laws introduced by them.
Biden’s crocodile tears: Preferring Ukrainian children’s over those of Gaza
The recent Russian airstrikes on Ukraine were met with a quick reaction from the White House officials, showing that the American leaders, despite focusing on the chaotic situation of the Israeli regime in the Gaza war, spare no effort to discredit Moscow, an issue that, more than anything else, is revealing to the world that humans rights and other humanitarian concepts are nothing but a currency for a political game for the American officials.
In a statement published on Friday, Biden claimed that Putin seeks to destroy Ukraine and subjugate its people. He further called for stopping him.
Although civilian losses in any war are against the international laws regarding the observance of humanitarian rights in conflict and are condemned regardless of who is responsible for them, the crocodile tears shed by the American president for the people of Ukraine in the midst of the brutal massacre and genocide that the Israelis have unleashed to Gaza in front of the world in the last three months are a bitter irony.
More than 21,000 people, mostly children and women, were killed in less than three months in a small and defenseless area, and hundreds of thousands of people were injured and disabled, and the number of casualties is increasing every day. A majority of the 2 million residents of Gaza have been displaced from their homes in the winter cold, the health infrastructure has been completely destroyed and the alarms of a food and health disaster has been sounded, 85 percent of the residential buildings have been destroyed and the Israelis are brutally preventing international humanitarian aid from reaching the civilian people who need it. All these crimes are only taking place with the full support of the White House and Biden himself.
In addition to military aids and full complicity with Israeli campaign against the civilians, Biden, through veto right, has several times blocked resolutions calling for ceasefire in Gaza. The latest was the opposition to a draft resolution that called for “immediate stop to hostilities.” Washington agreed not to veto it only when it receives assurances that it will not affect the Israeli genocide and is only a trivial call for boosting aids to the 2.4 million population of Gaza.
The American unilateralism comes while earlier last month the UN General Assembly passed a ceasefire resolution with 153 affirmative votes.
Indeed, these American double standards are not limited to a specific time nor are they limited to the US president and the American officials. In the early days of Ukraine war, Western media reports of the Ukrainians’ displacement showed the scale of racism entrenched deep in the American governance structure. The reporters described the Ukrainian refugees as “not refugees from Syria, these are refugees from Ukraine… they are Christians, they are white, they’re blond with blue eyes like us.”
These systemic and double standards that are now obvious to the world and discredit the White House pro-rights claims come as over the past three months masses of Americans have held demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza and voiced their opposition to unwavering American support to the Israeli barbarism in Gaza. And even now polls show a serious decline in support for spending American taxpayers’ money to provide military assistance and funding to Ukraine and Israeli regime.
