The Author is Former Director General of Information Systems and A Special Forces Veteran, Indian Army

The Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 was resolved amicably through direct dialogue between Soviet President Nikita Khrushchev and US President John F. Kennedy, without any sanctions. Both understood that war between two P-5 nations implies nuclear war. Khrushchev acknowledged the threat America felt and dismantled the Russian missiles.

Many American strategists, diplomats and scholars, including Kissinger, George Kennan and John Joseph Mearsheimer had warned that post-Cold War expansion of NATO will be a folly and Ukraine should remain neutral. Moreover in 1997, Joe Biden (now President of the US) himself publicly said the only thing that could provoke a "vigorous and hostile" Russian response would be if NATO expanded as far as the Baltic States (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNgCwoaT9u4). The current Director CIA, William Joseph Burns, after serving as America’s ambassador to Russia also strongly recommended that US-NATO should leave Ukraine a neutral country.

The conflict in Ukraine is because America backtracked on its promise given in 1991 to Soviets that NATO will not expand East of Germany. Witness the expansion of NATO that has taken place:

Ukraine’s NATO membership was in the offing before the Russian invasion though British Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently wrote in New York Times that Ukraine had no serious prospect of NATO membership in the “near future”; poor attempt to cover the truth. Russian forces have found that US-funded bio-labs in Ukraine were developing anthrax and plagues’ viruses as bio weapons. Captured documents included instructions from Pentagon that all evidence should be destroyed in the event of an invasion. Significantly, an agreement signed in 2005 between the US Department of Defense (DoD) and Ukraine’s Ministry of Health authorised developing and storing pathogens in US-funded bio-labs in Ukraine with US (DoD) pledging $15 million support.

The US left Russia no option but to invade Ukraine; possibly to cripple Russian economy through sanctions making it ineffective for many years

There is uproar in the West over Russia invading Ukraine - a sovereign country. But US-NATO has arbitrarily invaded scores of countries without even approval of the US Congress. America’s invasion of Iraq was on false pretext and US bombed it continuously for 42 days before the invasion. NATO bombed Yugoslavia in 1999 (March 24 to June 10); bombing bridges, industrial plants, hospitals, schools, cultural monuments, private businesses military barracks and installations, killing over 1,500 including 528 civilians without UN approval.

American political scientist R.J. Rummel wrote in his book ‘Statistics of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900’ that in the 20th century, “the US probably murdered about 5,83,000 people, conceivable even as many as 1,641,000 all told. Virtually all of these were foreigners killed during foreign wars... It is empirically true that Power kills, absolute Power kills absolutely." In the instant case, Western tails are on fire because Ukraine is a European country and Western Ukraine is Catholic.

The US left Russia no option but to invade Ukraine; possibly to cripple Russian economy through sanctions making it ineffective for many years and then deal with China in similar fashion. Russia intended to liberate Donbas, establish land-link to Crimea, control Black Sea and demilitarise Ukraine so that it remainsneutral. Russian forces have secured the Donbas and Black Sea and are mobbing into Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.

The West continues to pump money, billions of dollars worth of arms and thousands of mercenaries into Ukraine through Poland

Despite Russia-Ukraine talks at foreign ministerslevel, no headway has been made other than establishment of humanitarian aid corridors. There is no prospect of peace because the US does not want it. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is an American puppet playing proxy to the US, has no compunctions about the destruction of his country, Ukrainians being killed and the refugees as far as America’s interests are served.

Zelensky calls Donetsk and Luhansk in Donbas “temporarily occupied territories and pseudo-republics” only recognised by Russia, and refuses to accept Crimea as Russian territory. In addition he demands a “collective security agreement” (including commitment from America, France, Germany and Turkey) providing guarantees for Donbas (indirect NATO involvement), which Russia will not accept. So the talks can hardly make any headway. Russian forces in Donbas cannot be dislodged without direct NATO involvement. The ceasefire, therefore, is contingent upon the mutual agreement over Donbas and Crimea.

The West continues to pump money, billions of dollars worth of arms and thousands of mercenaries into Ukraine through Poland. On March 12, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the media that America had been warned that pumping of weapons from a number of countries is not just a dangerous move; it turns these convoys into legitimate targets.

On March 13, Russia attacked Ukraine’s Yavoriv military base, about 19 km from the Polish border killing 180 foreign mercenaries under training, according to Moscow. Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov claimed that Russia attacked the International Center for Peacekeeping & Security where foreign instructors work, adding, “This is new terrorist attack on peace & security near the EU-NATO border. Action must be taken to stop this.”

Hostilities and violence cannot cease in Ukraine unless the US wants it and the West stops pumping money, arms and mercenaries into Ukraine

But the reality was exposed by Scott Ritter, former Marine Corps Admiral and intelligence officer who served with General Norman Schwarzkopf in the Persian Gulf, going public that the CIA and MI-6 have been training neo-Nazis in Azov. That is why Russian President Putin earlier said that he had sent Russian forces to “de-Nazify” Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden says that World War III will not be fought in Ukraine. Currently, some 30,000 NATO troops are exercising in Norway and another 12,000 are deployed close to the Russian border. But this is all posturing because a US-Russia war implies nuclear war which could cause mammoth damage in the US and Russia and devastate Europe, Britain and Canada. Number of nuclear warheads with China is not known, the US has 5,550 and Russia 6,257. Israel too holds 90 of them. Both Biden and Putin say they do not want nuclear war but America’s brinkmanship could miscalculate Russian redlines.

The Biden administration is frustrated because despite sanctions, the Russian advance is continuing. Moreover, the blowback of Biden sanctioning Russian oil and gas is visible. The energy requirements of Europe cannot be met with Saudi Arabia giving thumbs down to the US and talks on the Iran Nuclear deal stuck in Vienna. The fallback, aside from Qatar, is Venezuela whose oil industry is in dilapidated state and the country has been under harsh US sanctions for the past several years. Concurrently, European leasing companies asked to get back 520 aircraft from Russia will go bankrupt paying penalties by prematurely terminating lease.

Hostilities and violence cannot cease in Ukraine unless the US wants it and the West stops pumping money, arms and mercenaries into Ukraine. Besides, the ceasefire is contingent on Ukraine-Russia mutually agreeing over Donbas and Crimea. This again is not possible because Zelensky follows instructions of Pentagon who want to continue precipitating the situation, especially with no US-NATO troops are involved less those training mercenaries and fighting alongside them in Ukraine.

The US is now making all out efforts to stop Chinese companies from helping Russia. This includes threat of sanctions, as well as the US NSA meeting Yang Jiechi, member of Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party. Whether the US will succeed in persuading China to help America in isolating Russia is very doubtful.