Imperialist Putin attacks Ukraine and terrorises Europe

No one thought it possible. Not in the 21st century, not after two devastating world wars and the building of multilateral bodies, treaties and agreements to sustain peace in the face of conflict. No one believed the demons would come out again, because there was no Cold War, but Putin has made it possible to the astonishment of Europeans.  

On 24 February, Russian troops began their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in a surgical operation by land, air and sea: a hail of shells and missiles destroyed airfields and more than a hundred military installations. Collateral damage has left nearly a thousand wounded and a hundred dead, including several children.  

In less than twelve hours, Russian troops have taken control of Chernobyl and in just 30 hours of invasion they are already stalking the parliament building in Kiev, but the Ukrainian capital is resisting by improvising Molotov cocktails and arming the civilian population. It is David against Goliath. 

The Russian president has practically prepared the operation to the millimetre: his army first entered through Lugansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine; from Belarus it launched missiles at Kharkov and occupied Chernobyl; and from Crimea, they have shelled Kherson and across the Black Sea attacked Odessa. The missile barrage has been preceded by the entry of troops by land. 

Agonisingly in power, Volodymir Zelenski, calls for an international coalition for the West to stop the invader and help Ukraine in the face of the siege. "More than a hundred missiles have fallen. The dead are already over a hundred and they are attacking the civilian population," he denounced in despair.  

 From the White House, President Joe Biden once again reiterated that he would not send troops to fight in Ukraine, and Jens Stoltenberg, head of NATO, also seconded him. Ukraine is in Putin's hands. 

Europe has underestimated the Russian president's determination to rebuild his sphere of influence. Putin has done so despite French President Emmanuel Macron's strenuous efforts to avoid an escalation of warmongering and to bring all parties involved to the table for dialogue and negotiation. The dauphin of the Elysée continues to talk to Putin by telephone, even a day after the start of the warmongering invasion in which Macron once again urged him to take the path of diplomacy. 

Instead, angry at the facts, Boris Johnson said it was the collective time for the West to eliminate its dependence on Russian oil and gas for good.  

"For all his bombs, tanks and missiles, I do not believe that the Russian dictator will ever master the national sentiment of Ukrainians and their passionate belief that their country should be free," the British premier declared. 

In the heat of the impending invasion, Zelenski took several decisions: the adoption of a decree to use arms, the application of the State of Emergency, the introduction of Martial Law, a curfew in Kiev, the urgent call-up of all reservists and a decree on the general mobilisation of all persons of serviceable age in the army from 18 to 60 years of age. 

The situation is dramatic. The grim, unveiled faces of European Commission President Ursula von der Layen and EU foreign minister Joseph Borrell once again showed Europeans the deep concern provoked by Putin's warmongering, whose consequences are expected to be economically negative and disruptive to the dying world order.  

Von der Layen reproached him: "Russian troops invaded Ukraine, a free and sovereign country, and once again in Central Europe innocent women, men and children are dying, fearing for their lives. We condemn this barbaric attack and the cynical arguments to justify it". 

Borrell's voice sounded cataclysmic for Europeans trying to make the best decisions with the sanity and dignity that the moment demands: "These are the darkest hours for Europe since the end of the Second World War because a nuclear power has attacked a sovereign country and is threatening retaliation against any other state that might come to its rescue". 

Within minutes of the bombing and the start of the war in Ukraine, Putin sent a televised message to his people that he had ordered the start of a special military operation.  

"Its aim is to protect the people who have been abused and genocided by the regime in Kiev for eight years, and to this end we will seek to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine and bring to justice those who committed numerous bloody crimes against peaceful people, including Russian nationals," he threatened.  

On the duration of the war, the Russian leader said it will last as long as it has to last and issued a stark warning against any attempt to intervene in defence of the Ukrainian population: "Any interference by third countries will have consequences the likes of which we have never seen". 

 Biden called Putin a "bully" and said he chose a premeditated war that will bring catastrophic loss of life and human suffering. Hours before the imminent bombings revealed by the Pentagon, UN chief António Guterres pleaded with the Kremlin leader to negotiate on terms of international diplomacy. 

"If indeed such an operation is being prepared, I have only one thing to say from the bottom of my heart: President Putin, stop your troops from attacking Ukraine. Give peace a chance, too many people have died already," he cried out in an impromptu speech ahead of another urgent UN Security Council meeting.  

Neither saving the Minsk Agreement, nor the threat of severe sanctions against Russia by the West, nor even Washington's denunciations in the Security Council have stopped the Russian president obsessed with the security of his territory and the presence of Tomohawk missiles just minutes from Russia's living space.  

According to geopolitical expert Raúl González, Putin has been able to calculate the timing of his strategy with Ukraine and manage the timing, because he is launching his war intentions when the US and its allies are most perceptible, especially after the regrettable withdrawal of American and allied troops from Afghanistan. 

The Kremlin has coldly analysed the consequences of each of its possible strategies and the responses they might elicit: It began first with letters to President Joe Biden and NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg requesting and proposing clauses for a new regional security arrangement for Europe that would leave Ukraine with no chance of joining the Transatlantic Alliance, the same for Georgia; that would curb the expansion of NATO infrastructure in Eastern Europe; and that would leave out of NATO the countries closest to Russia's borders seen as potential threats to the Kremlin. 

He has been adept at gauging how far the US and the rest of the West would be willing to yield; at assessing internal divisions in NATO and the EU; and at adding to Russia's credit the support of China, Hungary, Pakistan, Argentina and Brazil. Meanwhile, India, Israel and Turkey have been silent.   

He has played at misdirection, moving thousands of troops, including through Belarus, from where he has prepared the invasion of Kiev.  It has implemented a hybrid war with selective cyber attacks, three massive ones, suffered over several days in Ukraine, affecting state banks, the defence ministry and various government offices.  

And it has also taken for granted that there would be more and new sanctions for an economy that continues to add punishments since it annexed Crimea and Sevastopol in 2014. 

In addition to the trade, financial, visa, political, cooperation and economic sanctions imposed since then by the EU and the EU, another set of retaliatory measures - a first package - was added after recognising the independence of Donbas. Then, with the invasion of the rest of the territory and the bombings, a second package of punishments was announced.  

In the first package of sanctions the White House included: 1) No US persons may invest in Donetsk and Luhansk; 2) No imports, exports, re-exports, sales or supplies, directly or indirectly, from the US to Donetsk and Luhansk are prohibited; 3) No financing, facilitation or guarantee by a US person is allowed in these areas; 4) No financial, material or technological support is allowed either.  

Directly against Russia, President Biden ordered a new round of sanctions coordinated with the EU, UK, Canada, Japan and Australia.  In particular, with Germany, they have halted the Nord Stream 2 licence; all companies involved in it will be sanctioned by the Treasury Department.  

Putin is left without his powerful cheap gas project to Europe although he has others in operation such as Nord Stream through which his gas continues to flow - so far - to Europeans.  

The measures for Russia include a total blockade of two major Russian financial institutions used to finance the Kremlin and the Russian military: Vnesheconombank and Promsvyazbank and their subsidiaries. Collectively, these institutions hold more than $80 billion in assets and finance Russia's defence sector and economic development.  These measures will freeze their assets in the US, prohibit US individuals and companies from conducting any transactions with them, exclude them from the global financial system and close access to the US dollar.  

Russian sovereign debt is also restricted from being placed, sold or traded on secondary markets. These bans will deprive the Russian government of a key avenue through which it raises capital to finance its priorities and increase future financing costs; and it denies Russia access to key US markets and investors. 

It sanctions any institution in the financial services sector of the Russian Federation's economy: "More than 80% of Russia's daily global foreign exchange transactions are conducted in US dollars and approximately half of Russia's international trade is conducted in dollars. With this action, no Russian financial institution is safe from our measures, including the largest banks". 

The EU imposed another set of restrictions on Russia, starting with a veto on the 351 Duma MPs who voted for the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk and are banned from entering any of the 27 EU member states. 

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, Navy Commander Nikolay Yevmenov, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Kremlin bureau chief Anton Vaino and Margarita Simonyan, head of the Russia Today channel, are also punished. Russia will not be able to finance itself on the EU capital market, nor will it be able to sell or place its debt bonds. 

It is Thursday 24 February, bombs are falling in Ukraine and from the White House, President Biden - in coordination with the G7 countries - has decided to drop a second round of economic and financial bombs on Russia. 

"Today I am authorising more sanctions to maximise the long-term effect. We have full agreement in the G7 that you cannot do business in dollars, euros, pounds and yen. We're going to cut off Russia's access to technology and we're going to cut its influence in high-tech by half. Today we have seen the lowest level of the rouble in its history. Its stock market has plunged. We've cut off access to Russia's largest bank and four other banks," he announced. 

In Biden's words, the assets of two major Russian banks, Sberbank and VTB Bank, are frozen in order to deal a ruthless blow to the Slavic economy. 

"This is a dangerous moment for Europe and for peace in the world. Everyone now clearly sees Putin's desire for empire. He has a sinister vision for the future of our world, where one power can attack another by force. Freedom will prevail," he said.  

Without direct intervention in Ukraine, Biden said that NATO has already activated a response plan for troops to deploy where and when they are needed, and that to that end there will be a larger deployment of US soldiers in Germany to protect allies and will send 7,000 more troops to Poland. 

An occupied, overrun country with thousands of internally displaced persons, the UN estimates 100,000 people but between one and two million refugees on the Polish borders. 

Also the EU, in an emergency meeting, the European Council with the 27 presidents determined another round of sanctions in addition to those of the EU and the G7 to affect Russia in its energy, aviation, financial, technology and visa sectors, practically preventing it from financing itself in the European market, placing its bonds, freezing financial assets, preventing the trade of technological drivers and denying visas to a group of people close to the Russian president. 

Von der Leyen believes that everything will be done to isolate the Russian economy so that Putin will pay dearly for what he is doing with Ukraine: "With these measures, Russia will have limited access to the markets and 70% of its banking sector will be affected. It will not be able to finance itself. 

Both the EU and the US are freezing Putin's and his family's assets and property abroad as well as those of his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov and his family; indeed, Washington prohibits Putin from entering its territory.  

The nuclear bombshell of excluding Russia from the SWIFT system drops on the evening of Saturday 26 February, announced by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission: "I have proposed a series of sanctions coordinated with the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany and Canada that include excluding a number of Russian banks from the SWIFT system, which means they cannot operate globally; freezing the assets of the Russian Central Bank so that it has no liquidity; and, prohibiting Russian oligarchs from using their assets in our markets".  

The war is raging with all its batteries, from hybrid strategy, sanctions, real bombs, sending military aid to Ukraine and Russia's deployment of 10,000 Chechen soldiers and more lethal military equipment. Irrationality clouds thinking.  

NATO's fear is that Putin is not satisfied with Ukraine and has in mind another war operation to invade Moldova in his alienating dream of resurrecting the USSR.