{"id":38998,"date":"2022-02-14T11:50:09","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T19:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=38998"},"modified":"2022-02-14T11:50:09","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T19:50:09","slug":"ukraine-collects-weapons-while-downplaying-the-russian-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2022\/02\/14\/ukraine-collects-weapons-while-downplaying-the-russian-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine Collects Weapons While Downplaying the Russian Threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weapons from US allies are pouring into Ukraine: Stinger missiles from Lithuania<\/a>, drones from Turkey<\/a>, MANPADS from Poland<\/a>, anti-tank weapons from the UK<\/a> and artillery systems from Estonia<\/a> \u2013 all as Congress debates whether to send more \u201clethal aid\u201d atop the $200 million<\/a> already authorized. <\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky now finds himself in a predicament. While the appearance of a heightened threat of \u2018Russian aggression\u2019 has allowed Kyiv to arm itself on the cheap, there is no such thing as a free lunch and he is finding out that being the target of war propaganda has a steep price with real consequences for the Ukrainian economy.<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

At this point, Zelensky\u2019s top concern appears to have shifted from Putin to Biden, urging Ukrainians to \u201cremain calm\u201d amid relentless predictions of a Russian invasion from Western leaders and press reports. \u201cRight now, the people\u2019s biggest enemy is panic,\u201d he said<\/a> during a recent visit with troops stationed near the border with Russia.<\/p>\n

Though Ukraine has been cast in the role of defenseless victim to a looming Russian onslaught, it is the White House, not Kyiv, that has hyped the threat with the most urgency. On a near-daily basis, US officials warn of a growing Russian troop presence \u201con Ukraine\u2019s border\u201d \u2013 within Russian territory, in other words \u2013 of \u201cimminent\u201d invasion, and of plans for \u201cfalse flag\u201d operations to create a pretext for an attack by Moscow.<\/p>\n

Without fail, those claims are uncritically repeated by corporate media outlets, to the boon of the arms industry, which requires at least tacit public support for the taxpayer-funded weapons giveaways to continue. <\/p>\n

Zelensky appears to be growing frustrated with Washington, even as Biden professes an unwavering commitment to Ukraine\u2019s security. Despite the near-constant warnings of a Russian assault, the US and its partners have been unwilling to commit to a formal defense pact or to admit Ukraine into NATO \u2013 a long-held aspiration<\/a> by Kyiv. And while US officials have repeatedly claimed to have reliable \u201cintelligence\u201d indicating a coming invasion, Zelensky says<\/a> they\u2019ve yet to share it with him. <\/p>\n

During a phone call on Sunday, Zelensky reportedly requested that Biden come to Kyiv for an in-person meeting, hoping he would see that things are normal there and that the heightened threat had been exaggerated. The White House, however, made no mention of a visit following the call.<\/p>\n

Now, the US and Canada are leading a slate of countries removing \u2013 or at least repositioning \u2013 their diplomatic staff<\/a> from Ukraine. The US has also redeployed<\/a> 160 Florida National Guard troops to Poland after a training mission with Ukrainian forces. A growing number of states are also pressuring their citizens to leave the country, with the US warning an invasion could come as soon as this week. <\/p>\n

Ukraine is finding out the true cost of becoming a pawn in the empire\u2019s war narrative. Left with a struggling economy and in no better position to prevent a Russian invasion, the country may soon learn that, for NATO and its American principals, the quest for geopolitical dominance far outweighs the safety and security of Ukrainians.<\/p>\n

Will Porter<\/i><\/a> contributed to the article. Reprinted with permission from The Libertarian Institute<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Weapons from US allies are pouring into Ukraine: Stinger missiles from Lithuania, drones from Turkey, MANPADS from Poland, anti-tank weapons from the UK and artillery systems from Estonia \u2013 all as Congress debates whether to send more \u201clethal aid\u201d atop the $200 million already authorized. Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky now finds himself in a predicament. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":436,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-38998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/436"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38998"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39000,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38998\/revisions\/39000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38998"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=38998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}