The visit and the warm reception accorded to President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington was possible because the war “froze” military operations in Ukraine.
The war, however, is not over.
A few million Ukrainians spent Christmas in pain, with want and deprivation, and the disasters wrought by Russian barbarity.
Not only is the war not over, but there is no end in sight.
What was discussed with Zelensky in Washington was bolstering Kyiv against a Russian counter attack, which many in the Ukrainian government and military expect in spring.
The truth is that it is difficult to end a war when you do not know why you started it.
Ten months after the invasion, Moscow is still trapped in its own propagandistic constructs and idiocy regarding “de-Nazification” and an encirclement by or threat from NATO.
Failure did not make it wiser, not only because the Nazis in the fairy tale have not scared us since World War II, but also because NATO is threatening no one, and one cannot encircle such a huge country as Russia.
Despite all that, this useless and incomprehensible war continues – destroying Ukraine, sinking Russia, burdening the global economy, and making more difficult the life of every citizen, due to the resulting energy crisis and galloping inflation.
Obviously, two countries can have differences and disputes, and that happens often between states, but the war is not being waged because of that.
It is being waged because in the world we want to live in, differences and disputes are not resolved with tanks.
For better or for worse, the bipolar world of raw power, spheres of influence, and the dividing up of the planet is, as it should be, a thing of the past.
Even a new Cold War will be entirely different than the last one.
All of this, however, does not bring us closer to the end of the war.
Putin’s regime appears incapable of managing its failure, and the West is hesitant over which path to choose.
Undoubtedly, the unity and decisiveness of the Western world was the necessary response to such a gross provocation, with the hope that the end of the war will prove to be the only answer to an endless war.
I.K. Pretenteris
