Zadnja Gallupova raziskava javnega mnenja med Ukrajinci je pokazala, da si več kot 52 % Ukrajincev želi konca vojne in mirovna pogajanja, tudi za ceno izgube ozemelj, le 37 % bi jih nadaljevalo z vojno. Problem je, ker to mnenje ukrajinskega naroda nikogar ne zanima – ne zanima nelegalnega predsednika Zelenskega, ki po preteku mandata ne želi razpisati volitev, ne zanima Bidnove administracije, ki sponzorira vojno, ne zanima ZDA in Francije, ki sponzorirata vojno, ne zanima evropskih voditeljev, ki sponzorirajo vojno in ne zanima zahodnih medijev, ki tudi papagajsko ponavljajo propagando, s katero sponzorirajo vojno.

Še več, v paniki, da bi se morda vojna prehitro končala, so ameriška, britanska in francoska vlada naredile še korak naprej k eskalaciji vojne z odobritvijo, da lahko ukrajinske sile zahodne rakete daljšega dometa uporabijo tudi za napade na cilje globoko na ruskem ozemlju. S čimer so ogrozile varnost evropskih držav, od koder prihajajo te rakete.

Data via Gallup. Graph adapted by Clark McGillis.

The US amped up military support for Ukraine in two ways this week, and one of them was deemed escalatory by Russian President Putin, who responded with a kind of counter-escalation.

First, President Biden authorized Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with US-supplied long-range missiles—which Ukraine did on Tuesday. Then Putin amended Russia’s nuclear doctrine, lowering the threshold for the use of nukes. Under the new guidelines, nuclear retaliation is possible when any nation supported by a nuclear power attacks Russia with conventional weapons.

Then, as if to drive the point home, Russia, for the first time ever, hit Ukraine with a multiple-warhead ballistic missile—a missile designed to accommodate nuclear warheads. After the strike, Putin raised the prospect of also striking US or British targets. (Britain had followed Biden’s lead by authorizing Ukraine to use its air-launched Storm Shadow missiles against targets in Russia, which Ukraine promptly did.) Russia, Putin said, has the right to strike “military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities.” He had previously warned that if Biden crossed the threshold he crossed this week, the West and NATO would be in direct conflict.

The US also announced this week that it will send anti-personnel landmines to Ukraine. The move reverses a policy laid down by Biden in 2022, when he revived an Obama-era ban on using or transferring such mines outside the Korean peninsula. In 2020 Biden had called then-President Trump’s reversal of the Obama ban “reckless,” saying “it will put more civilians at risk of being injured by unexploded mines, and is unnecessary from a military perspective.” More than 160 countries have signed the Ottawa Treaty, which bans anti-personnel mines, but the US and Russia have not.

Both US moves came amid growing Russian success on the battlefield, and growing fears that a breakthrough somewhere along Ukraine’s front line could lead to rapid Russian gains. The moves also came amid signs that the Ukrainian people are increasingly supportive of a peace deal even if that leaves Russia in control of some Ukrainian territory. A recent Gallup poll found that, for the first time, more than 50 percent of Ukrainians want their government to “negotiate an ending to the war as soon as possible.”

Vir: Robert Wright, Nonzero