Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 14. (International Observation) The U.S. and Europe are scheming to hype the situation in Ukraine
Xinhua News Agency reporter Deng Xianlai and Li Jizhi
Recently, the United States and European countries have launched a series of diplomatic actions around the Ukraine issue. U.S. President Biden spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the 12th, saying that if Russia “invades” Ukraine, it will “pay a heavy price” immediately. In this regard, Russian officials criticized the “hysteria has reached its peak” on the US side.
Although European countries also maintain communication and coordination with the United States, they are more inclined to cool down the situation. Many analysts pointed out that the United States tends to “fight the fire” and European countries tend to “put out the fire”.
U.S. heavy “arch fire”
Recently, the United States has played up the tension in Ukraine by means of public hype, sanctions threats and military escalation.
The United States keeps releasing intelligence to the outside world, claiming that the war is imminent. Sullivan, the U.S. National Security Adviser, claimed on the 11th that U.S. intelligence has shown that Russia may “invade” Ukraine before February 20. There are also US media reports, citing US government officials, that intelligence shows that Russia has set the time of the invasion on the 16th. But these claims were not only denied by Russia, but also by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky on the 12th asked those who spread such news to give solid evidence, and he insisted that Ukraine was under “safe and reliable protection” in a phone call with Biden on the 13th.
Including Biden’s remarks above, the United States has repeatedly threatened that if Russia “invades” Ukraine, the United States will join forces with allies and partners to impose severe economic sanctions on it. High-tech fields such as national defense and military industry impose export controls on Russia, restricting its access to advanced technologies.
The United States recently shipped several batches of weapons to Ukraine and promised to provide Ukraine with more military and economic assistance. The United States has also stepped up its deployment of troops to NATO allies close to Ukraine, such as Poland and Romania, a move criticized by Russia as a “destructive move” that will increase military tensions.
Analysts pointed out that although the United States claimed to be willing to engage in diplomatic contact with Russia, it tried to exaggerate the imminent war, and made a gesture of preparation for it, which further made the situation tense.
Europe’s “fire fighting”
Dignitaries from many European countries have been actively mediating the situation in Ukraine recently, including French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Russia and Ukraine on February 7 and 8, a phone call with Putin on the 12th, and German Prime Minister Scholz’s visit to the United States on the 7th of this month. Scholz is also scheduled to visit Ukraine and Russia on the 14th and 15th.
Although the European side is also threatening sanctions against Russia and even negotiating with the US side, its attitude is still different from that of the US side. For example, during Scholz’s visit to the United States, Biden publicly stated that if Russia “invades” Ukraine, the United States will “end” the “Nord Stream-2” natural gas pipeline project connecting Russia and Germany, but Scholz has never let go of his promise would support ending this project.
At the same time, in the diplomatic mediation, European countries are more inclined to seek solutions rather than just hard pressure on Russia. For example, in his several rounds of diplomatic activities, Macron expressed his understanding of Russia’s security concerns and put forward his own vision for the future security mechanism in Europe. Germany and France also restarted the “Normandy model” talks with Russia and Ukraine, trying to promote the implementation of the new Minsk agreement reached in 2015. On the 8th of this month, the leaders of Germany, France and Poland met in Berlin, and the three parties emphasized that they should maintain dialogue with Russia to prevent Europe from falling into war.
In addition, Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, issued a statement on the 12th, emphasizing that the EU and EU countries are still coordinating actions on the situation in Ukraine, and the EU diplomatic institutions are still operating in Kiev. Borrell’s statement is clearly different from the US evacuating embassy personnel and citizens in Ukraine.
Consider the difference
Analysts pointed out that the differences in the way Europe and the United States dealt with the Ukraine crisis have exposed the deep differences between the two sides in terms of geostrategy. The Biden administration’s poor performance in domestic affairs will use the Ukraine issue to divert the attention of the domestic public, and at the same time, it will win over and bind European allies by turning Russia into a common enemy, so as to maintain the European order dominated and controlled by the United States. It is therefore in the interest of the United States to keep the situation in Ukraine tense.
Alexander Denkin, a former assistant to the Russian Prime Minister, and Thomas Graham, a former senior director of Russian affairs at the US National Security Council, published a joint article in Politico on the 9th, pointing out that the European order formed after the end of the Cold War has led to problems similar to the Ukraine issue. “Intermittent crises” are unavoidable, and Russia’s national interests must be taken into account in order to achieve lasting peace in Europe. But the United States is reluctant to change the current European order, which is entirely in the interests of the United States.
Analysts pointed out that the military conflict over Ukraine will have limited impact on the United States, but it will lead to a series of unbearable consequences for European countries, including a large influx of refugees, huge economic losses due to sanctions against Russia, and the grounding of the “North Stream-2” project. . For this reason, avoiding conflict in Ukraine is Europe’s primary goal.
PBS commentator Nick Schifflin said in a program that the differences between U.S. and EU friends are rarely revealed in public, but are clear in private. Europe, especially countries close to Russia, have close trade relations with Russia, and Europe has more concerns about sanctions against Russia. By contrast, Russia accounts for a small share of U.S. foreign trade.
Hal Brands, a professor at the School of Advanced Studies in International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, wrote on the Bloomberg website on the 11th that once a war breaks out on the European continent, its intensity and casualties will be the same in most European countries today. people have not experienced in a long time. The war would create large numbers of refugees and further destabilize Europe.