February 26, 2025
PETALING JAYA – “IT may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.”
“America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.”
Both of these famous quotes by Henry Kissinger seem apt for Ukraine, which has been embroiled in a war against Russia, and also for countries in Europe that have been cheerleaders and part-funders of the conflict.
But the world has changed abruptly over the past month since Donald Trump became president of the United States for the second time.
We are now witnessing the most dramatic shift in US foreign policy since the early 20th century. What was regarded as unthinkable for decades has become a jolting new reality.
Who would have imagined that bitter enemies the United States and Russia would move closer to each other at the incredulous expense of Ukraine and the European Union?
Just months ago, recurrent headlines on the war suggested that it was leading towards a nuclear catastrophe and World War 3.
But last week’s high-level meeting between Russian and American officials in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, appears to indicate the rearrangement of the emerging multi-polar global order.
Without even discussing with Ukraine, the US and Russia agreed to “consider each other’s interests” and laid the groundwork for post-conflict geopolitical and economic cooperation.
This is a far cry from the previous aims to “isolate and humiliate” Russia. Companies from the United States and its allies, which had left Russia and ended up losing billions, now want to return and resume business.
In a flash, Europe has found out that the new America does not give a hoot for the ideological commitments of the past.
The so-called “collective West”, the trans-Atlantic bond between the United States and Europe, is now in shreds with variances in views and fury over the newfangled American stance.
The latest cover of German magazine Der Spiegel has a picture of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy with this bold headline: ‘VERRATEN’ (Betrayed).
The sub-heading reads: ‘First Zelenskyy, soon us?
But in spite of this, the EU has just approved its 16th package of sanctions against Russia and 53 entities, including those from China, India, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Singapore.
Among others, it includes a ban on imports of aluminium, supply restrictions on software, equipment, and tech for oil and gas production, and even a prohibition on exports of game consoles to Russia.
But let’s not forget the conflict in Ukraine that began exactly three years and two days ago was a proxy war.
It was fought by Ukraine and its legion of mercenaries from all over the world – on behalf of the United States and member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato).
The United States and its allies accused Russia of “unprovoked” invasion against Ukraine, but in reality, it started in 2014 when the United States staged the Maidan coup – a “colour revolution” – to overthrow the democratically elected government of president Viktor Yanukovych.
Yanukovych was ousted following months of protests over his government’s decision to build closer ties with Moscow.
When Russia launched what it called a “Special Military Operation” into Ukraine in 2022, its main objectives were to prevent Nato membership for Ukraine, stop the eight-year-long killings of ethnic Russian civilians in the Donbass region, and to eliminate the neo-Nazis within the ranks of the Ukrainian army.
For two years, the United States and Nato sent billions upon billions worth of weapons to Ukraine, including “game-changer” armaments, such as state-of-the-art tanks, sophisticated fighter jets and air defence systems.
The US and its allies promised total victory for Ukraine and economic ruin for Russia. Their leaders pledged to continue the war “until the last Ukrainian”.
They also swore the return of Crimea, which voted unanimously to join Russia in a 2014 referendum although it also offered the option of remaining part of Ukraine with increased autonomy.
The United States, United Kingdom and EU, along with Australia, Canada and Japan, imposed more than 16,500 sanctions on Russia and a freeze on its foreign currency reserves worth US$350bil (RM1.54 trillion) – about half its reserves – along with 70% of assets belonging to Russian banks.
But surprisingly even against such odds, Russia has prevailed.
In October last year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) confirmed that it expected the Russian economy to grow by 3.6% in 2024, up from the 3.2% predicted in April.
It was comfortably ahead of the United States (2.8%), Germany (0%), France (1.1%) and the United Kingdom (1.1%).
IMF also recognised Russia as the world’s fourth largest economy with its GDP in 2024 at 3.55% of the world’s GDP in purchasing power parity.
The war has been very costly for the United States under president Joe Biden and for European countries, which used to depend on cheap Russian oil for their industries.
It has also killed over 12,000 civilians, wounded at least 30,000, and forced six million Ukrainians to flee the country and find refuge all across Europe.
As for the numbers of soldiers killed or maimed, there are no credible and independent estimates, just speculation.
The largely pro-Western mainstream media claims that Russian losses range from 100,000 to 200,000 dead and 500,000 wounded with Ukraine having around 100,000 dead and 400,000 wounded.
But it is Ukraine that has been aggressively pulling men off the streets and whisking them to recruiting centres using intimidation and even physical force.
Even as early as in December 2023, The New York Times reported that this was being done with Ukraine’s military facing mounting deaths and a stalemate on the battlefield.
“The harsh tactics are being aimed not just at draft dodgers but at men who would ordinarily be exempt from service – a sign of the steep challenges Ukraine’s military faces maintaining troop levels in a war with high casualties, and against a much larger enemy,” noted the report.
Media consultant M. Veera Pandiyan likes this observation by George Orwell: “All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.” The views expressed here are the writer’s own.