It’s not encouraging based on Nikki Haley’s Thursday UN Security Council remarks – sounding like neocon Samantha Power never left.
Her maiden voyage appearance as US envoy “condemn(ed) Russian actions” in Ukraine – ignoring flagrant Kiev aggression, including shelling of Donetsk civilian areas.
“The United States stands with the people of Ukraine, who have suffered for nearly three years under Russian occupation and military intervention,” Haley ranted.
“Until Russia and the separatists (sic) it supports respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, this crisis will continue.”
Shocking stuff! Haley speaks for Trump. Her disgraceful misrepresentation of hard facts didn’t go down well in Moscow.
Russia’s lower house State Duma International Affairs Committee chairman Alexey Pushkov blasted her, saying “(i)t looks like the new US representative at the UN came with remarks…written by (Samantha) Power.”
“How can Russia be blamed when (Ukrainian forces) are firing at Donbass?” Moscow’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin condemned Kiev’s escalation, saying its regime “desperately, frantically” needs money so it provoked conflict to “swindle (it from) the European Union, certain European countries and from the United States and from international financial institutions by pretending to be the victims of aggression.”
He accused Kiev of trying to use the armed clashes that it provoked as a pretext for a complete rejection of the February 12, 2015” Minsk II agreement.
He called for deescalation “to prevent disaster and to return the situation to the political track (so) the situation in (Donbass won’t) develop (into a) worse-case scenario.”
Kiev’s UN ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko turned truth on its head blaming “the Russian army and Russian-backed separatists (sic)” of starting the latest escalation.
Militantly anti-Russia European Council president Donald Tusk issued a statement, saying “we are reminded again of the continued challenge from Russia’s aggression in eastern Ukraine.”
In her remarks, Haley continued her anti-Russia rant, saying “Eastern Ukraine…is not the only part of the country suffering because of Russia’s aggressive actions.”
“The United States continues to condemn and call for an immediate end to the Russian occupation of Crimea. Crimea is a part of Ukraine. Our Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control over the peninsula to Ukraine.”
Fact: Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to return to Russia, wanting no part of Kiev’s putschist regime. Putin accommodated them. The Republic of Crimea is Russia’s Southern Federal District. That won’t change!
Fact: Haley’s remarks suggest improving Russia/US ties won’t come easily at best, perhaps wishful thinking at worst.
Fact: Donbass freedom fighters decisively smashed Kiev’s earlier aggression, why its forces resort to shelling alone so far this time around.
They can’t win militarily. Aggression was launched for political and economic reasons. The regime wrecked the country. It’s a financial deadbeat, in default on its debt, unable to function without foreign aid.
Conditions are deplorable. Waging war on Donbass distracts attention from state-inflicted misery. How long it can work is uncertain.
In 2004 and 2014, US-instigated color revolutions replaced sitting governments with illegitimate pro-Western puppet regimes.
Will another uprising follow, this time internally generated, replacing US-installed putschists with leadership looking east, not west? It’s unlikely soon, maybe longer-term.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected].
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
