RUSSIA AT WAR WITH UKRAINE AND THE WEST

When the Cold War Ended

The credit for ending the Cold War in December 1991 was thanks to Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan and George Bush(Snr). Declassified documents show that assurances were given to Gorbachev by Baker, Bush, Genscher, Kohl, Gates, Mitterrand, Thatcher, Hurd, Major, and Woerner that, if Russia agreed to German reunification, NATO would not move “One inch eastwards”. There is ample evidence supporting this commitment in the National Security Archive at George Washington University and in the British National Archives.

Russian and US leaders negotiated the end of the US-Soviet Cold War “Without losers”. However, Bush changed his mind and in 1992 declared, “By the grace of God, America won the Cold War”, adding there was now “One sole and pre-eminent power, the United States of America”.

In his 2016 book The New Russia, Mikhail Gorbachev referred to a lost opportunity to build a safer world due to shortsighted gloating by the USA. Former Australian Prime Minister, Paul Keating agreed that the US had squandered an opportunity to come to terms with Russia. Subsequently, when Trump called for friendly relations with Russia he was referred to in the media as a “Putin Puppet”.  When Kissinger visited Moscow in 2016, he said, “Russia should be perceived as an essential element of any new global equilibrium, not primarily as a threat to the United States”.

Promises Broken

The 1991agreement with Gorbachev was disregarded by successive US presidents Clinton, George W Bush, Obama and Biden. The Clinton administration embarked upon NATO enlargement. Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary were admitted to NATO in 1999. Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, and the three Baltic republics of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania followed in 2004.

In 2008, the Bush administration proposed NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia. For Russia, this meant it would lose the buffer which the Kremlin considered vital for its security. Napoleonic France, Imperial Germany, and Nazi Germany had all crossed Ukraine to strike at Russia and no Russian leader would tolerate another military alliance moving into Ukraine. George Kennan described the expansion of NATO as “The most fatal error of American policy in the entire post-Cold War”. John Mearsheimer argued that the US and its European allies were primarily responsible for the crisis which followed, turning Russia into an enemy.[i]

In 2013, US backed pro-western demonstrators ousted the Ukrainian President Yanukovych who was Crimea’s pro-Russian leader, bringing a Western leaning government to power.  That was when Moscow responded by seizing Crimea. Russia then held a referendum in Crimea when the Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to join Russia. Both Donetsk and Luhansk, located in the far east of Ukraine, on Russia’s border also voted for independence from Ukraine, leading to Ukraine attacking Donetsk and Luhansk to crush their bid for independence. Russia responded by recognising Donetsk and Luhansk.

Russia’s Special Military Operation

On 24 February 2022, Putin launched Russia’s “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine. This has been referred to ever since in the Western media as “Russia’s illegal full-scale war”. However, according to Tufts University, the US has engaged in more than 100 (illegal) military interventions since 1991 including devastating wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. Before that, the US (illegally) waged war against North Korea (America’s scorched earth policy), Vietnam (Agent Orange) and Iraq (NO Weapons of Mass Destruction). In 1945, at the end of World War II, the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  

Biden and Boris Johnson Encourage Ukraine to Keep Fighting

In March 2022, only weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky was ready for compromise regarding Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea and was willing to renounce Ukraine’s bid to join NATO. Israeli and Turkish mediators have confirmed that in April 2022, Ukraine and Russia were ready to reach a compromise and Putin was willing to make concessions if Ukraine would return to neutrality and pledge not to join NATO. If the US and its allies had supported the peace talks, the war could have ended without thousands of deaths. Instead, Joe Biden and Boris Johnson encouraged Kyiv to keep fighting.

Their motive was brutally callous. US Senator Lindsay Graham said the mission was to “Use Ukraine to fight to the last person”. California Rep Adam Schiff said, “The US aids Ukraine and her people so that we (the US) can fight Russia over there and we don’t have to fight Russia here”. Congresswoman Dan Crenshaw tweeted, “Investing in the destruction of our adversary’s military, without losing a single American troop strikes me as a good idea” and Mitt Romney argued that arming Ukraine was “Diminishing and devastating the Russian military for a very small amount of money . . . We (America) are losing no lives in Ukraine”.

The Outgoing Biden Administration Pours Oil on the Flames of War

In August 2023 Ukraine received a batch of fighter jets from the US although the US resisted the supply of Army Technical Missile Systems (ATACMS) fearing that this would cross a Russian redline. Then, in September Biden agreed to provide those weapons, but only the short range version. In April 2024 Biden changed his mind again and agreed to send the long-range version. Finally, only days after the defeat of Kamala Harris in the 5 November 2024 US elections, the outgoing Biden administration gave the green light for Ukraine to use the ATACMS to conduct strikes inside Russian territory. On 20 November Biden authorized Ukraine to use antipersonnel landmines against Russia. Amnesty International reacted saying it was “Shocking that Pres Biden made such a consequential and dangerous decision”.

Shortly after Trump was reelected President, he was ready to resume diplomacy with Russia and was willing to negotiate directly with Putin to end the war. However, in March 2025, 18 European leaders announced a “coalition of the willing”, pledging support for Zelensky while keeping military aid flowing.

Ukraine Gains Traction

 In 2025 Ukraine secure thousands of mid-range drones which could hit targets 100 miles inside Russian territory. Russia’s army suffered major losses with most casualties being inflicted by Ukraine’s drones. Ukraine increased its annual drone production to more than 4 million in 2025, turning Russia’s ground offensives into suicide missions. Each day brought new Ukrainian long-range attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, inflicting serious damage on Russia’s economy.

Operations from January to August 2026 were carried out by Ukraine’s Airborne Assault Forces to push the Russian forces back. Ukraine inflicted damage deep inside Russia and its drones were targeting Russian refineries, port infrastructure and air defences, leading to restrictions on Russian fuel sales. The quantity and firepower of Ukrainian drones and missiles allowed Kyiv to hit Russian refineries 1,200 miles away in Siberia. Russian losses amounted to at least 9,500 killed and more than 6,600 wounded and  745 km² of Ukraine’s territory was liberated including 26 villages in Dnipro, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia.

Europe Emerges as Ukraine’s Primary Sponsor

 Andy Burnam

Europe had become the main sponsor of the Ukraine war, emerging as a clear enemy, with the goal of destroying Russia as a major power. A Kremlin spokesman said Russia was now fighting a “real war” rather than a “special military operation” as Berlin, Paris, the Hague, Oslo and Washington were all backing Kyiv, adding that the point may be reached when Russia needs to resort to using its nuclear weapons.[ii] 

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham arrived in Ukraine on 24 August with other world leaders to mark the 35^th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union. Burnham provided Ukraine with secret blueprints for Storm Shadow missiles so that Kyiv could manufacture these weapons for its use against Russia and Burnham said, “The UK is behind you today and for as long as it takes”, while France also agreed to hand over blueprints for its Scalp-EG missiles.

After it emerged that British drones had been used by Ukraine to strike Russian targets, Russia launched a fresh wave of attacks on European armament factories causing a spate of fires and explosions at plants in Estonia, Italy and Bulgaria where drones and ammunition were manufactured for Ukraine.

Former British defence chiefs have called for peace talks with Russia, arguing that Ukraine could not win the conflict without a full-scale NATO intervention. A British defence attaché told The Times on 15 August that Britain should reopen dialogue with Russia while another British spokesperson remarked that many British officials believed, “We’ve reached the stage where we need to be pushing both sides to some kind of resolution”. However, at a recent speech by Burnham in Kyiv with a 34-nation group, he  called on UK’s allies to help keep the Ukrainian military fighting.[iii]

Russia Strikes Back

In July 2026 Kyiv and other cities were hit by Russian ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, described by the Kyiv  mayor as the largest attack the city had experience since 2022. Russia targeted military industrial enterprises and fuel and energy facilities in Kyiv as well as military airfields. Moscow targeted Ukraine’s military installations, drone manufacturing sites, command posts, and decision-making centres. The Russian drone and missile attacks on Kyiv lasted more than 11 hours.[iv] 

Russian forces continued to make gains and appeared well placed to consolidate control over the Donbas, while Ukraine faced mounting challenges with acute manpower shortages, reports of desertions, draft evasion and a much smaller population than Russia. The Ukrainians were slowly collapsing on the battlefield and Ukraine had lost about one third of its population so that the average age of its frontline troops is now 43.  

By now, Ukraine’s allies had left Ukraine extremely vulnerable whereas Russia’s allies provided support which helped Russia to fight, including massive Chinese purchases of Russian oil and critical component supplies, as well as North Korean supplies of artillery shells, front-line soldiers and ballistic missiles.[v] 

The Current State of the War

Russia is using its fleet of jet-powered  Geran drones to attack Ukraine while also firing ballistic and cruise missiles, targeting military factories, energy infrastructure and Ukrainian warehouses, killing hundreds of Ukrainians. In late August, a Russian jet-powered drone struck a Ukrainian ammunition depot, located in a Kyiv suburb. This resulted in 37 deaths and injuries to many more. Zelensky acknowledged that a military depot containing drones and ammunition was wrongly located close to residential buildings, something which is strictly prohibited under international law.[vi] 

A Ukrainian strike on the Russian city of Belgorod hit a commercial facility, triggering fires at seven Russian warehouses, killing two civilians and injuring 16 others including nine children. Kyiv also intensified its drone and missile attacks on civilian infrastructure in Russia and, during the last weeks of August, Ukrainian attacks killed 46 civilians including five children, injuring more than 360 others across Russia.[vii]

Can There Be Peace?

Moscow has said that it was ready to resume peace talks provided they focus on the “root causes” of the conflict and aim to achieve a lasting settlement but not merely a temporary ceasefire. Russia demands that Ukraine abandons plans to join NATO and formally recognises Crimea and four former Ukrainian regions (Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson) as Russian territory, all of which has repeatedly been rejected by Kyiv.

AUDI ALTERAM PARTEM – HEAR THE OTHER SIDE

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[i] The Great Delusion, by John Mearsheimer (Professor Political Science – Chicago Uni) 2018

[ii] RT, The Dangerous Logic of NATO 3.0, 6 July 2026

[iii] RT, How close are Russia and the UK to War, 24 August 2026

[iv] BBC, Most massive Russian attack, 3 July 2026

[v] Foreign Policy, Russia’s allies more helpful than Ukraine’s 16 August 2026

[vi] Wall Street Journal, Russia turns to New-Generation Drones, 1 September 2026

[vii] RT, Ukrainian strike kills civilians in Russia, 31 August 2026