“In an unenviable position”: why Zelensky called it a mistake for the United States to escalate the topic of “Russian invasion” into Ukraine

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky called it a mistake for the United States to constantly escalate the topic of “Russian invasion”.

He stated this in an interview with representatives of foreign media.

“I believe that they (the United States.

) are today participants in this information situation that has developed around our borders.

Since the White House understands that there are risks, they talk about it all the time, they constantly support this topic, and they make this topic as sharp as possible.

In my opinion, this is a mistake,” Zelensky said, adding that the world “reacts very powerfully” to such information.

He also called the US position on the evacuation of diplomats from Ukraine erroneous.

“These are wrong and excessive steps that do not help us,” the Ukrainian leader said.

At the same time, Zelensky stressed that not only the United States is sowing panic, but also other Western countries and their media.

“Signals even came from respected heads of state who are already frankly, even in non-diplomatic language, simply saying that tomorrow there will be a war: (so they say. -

) in England, Germany, France, Lithuania, the Ukrainian president complained.

- The feeling from the media is precisely that we have a war, that we have troops on the roads, we have mobilization, people are going somewhere.

This is not true".

Kiev does not need “this panic,” Zelensky stressed.

According to him, such an escalation of the situation causes economic harm to Ukraine - $ 12.5 billion has already been withdrawn from the country.

“Our state cannot cope with such challenges on its own.

This is very costly for Ukraine,” Zelensky said, calling the West’s information policy unbalanced.

• The building of the administration of the President of Ukraine in Kiev

• RIA News

• © Stringer

At the same time, the Ukrainian president once again called on Western countries to provide greater support to Ukraine.

“We don’t need to be warned – we need help,” he said.

Under the gun of the American media

Following Zelenskiy’s remarks, CNN cited its sources as saying that “tensions are mounting” between the Ukrainian president and Biden administration officials amid disagreements over “how to interpret and publicly disseminate U.S. intelligence data suggesting that Russia may be preparing a large-scale offensive against Ukraine".

“At the same time, Biden and his advisers are annoyed by Zelensky’s public understatement of the threat and thinly veiled attacks on the American president,” writes CNN.

According to journalists, Washington is confident that public warnings and threats against Russia about serious consequences “are the key to deterrence,” and expresses bewilderment at the statements of the Ukrainian leader.

“We ask questions: why are you starting a quarrel with the United States?

Why are you leaking and distorting information if the United States is among the few of your true friends?

And why ask for more weapons if, as you say, the threat has not changed?

- quotes the words of an unnamed American official CNN.

In turn, the American publication Politico, also citing sources, stated Zelensky's fears that the United States "is deliberately inflating the threat from Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to gain space for political maneuvers when concluding a deal with the Kremlin."

It is worth noting that the United States is escalating the situation every day, declaring that Russia is allegedly preparing an “invasion” of Ukraine.

Thus, the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, during a briefing on January 28, said that Russia had allegedly been transferring its troops to Crimea for several months and deploying them along the border with Ukraine. 

“Obviously, now he (President Putin. -

) has such an opportunity (attacks. -

) and many different options (actions.

), including the capture of cities and large territories, as well as coercion or political provocations such as recognition of breakaway territories, ”said the US Secretary of Defense.

• Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin

• AFP

• © Nicholas Kamm

Recall that Moscow has repeatedly refuted the statements of Washington and other Western countries about the allegedly preparing "attack" on Ukraine.

On January 20, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, noted that such accusations against the Russian Federation are being made by Western countries in order to create “information cover for preparing their own large-scale provocations, including military ones” in Ukraine.

In turn, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergei Lavrov, in an interview with Russian radio stations on January 28, stressed that Russia does not want war, but will not allow its security interests to be ignored. 

"Reassure Investors"

As Vladimir Shapovalov, deputy director of the Institute of History and Politics at Moscow State Pedagogical University, noted in a RT commentary, due to Washington's active promotion of the topic of "Russian invasion" in Ukraine, panic began.

And for this reason, Zelensky had to question the objectivity of the US assessment of the situation.

“Zelensky, who already understood that this informational hysteria negatively affects the country's economy, began to talk about the exaggeration of the “threat”.

And he ended up in an unenviable position: in the situation of his complete subordination to the United States, he is still forced, because of the danger from his enemies inside the country, to actually refute the American message about the imminent “attack” of the Russian Federation on Ukraine in order to somehow level the panic in the country, in including in the markets,” the expert said.

However, as Shapovalov notes, it is already clear that Zelensky’s words will not affect the situation “around Washington’s hysteria.”

“The United States continues to follow the knurled path.

And this indicates that, having invented a story about the “Russian invasion” and formed a strategy for their information campaign, they do not think about the interests of Ukraine at all,” the expert emphasized.

At the same time, the appearance in the American media of information about the disagreements between the United States and Ukraine over assessments of the “Russian threat” indicates that a political struggle is going on in the United States, and within the Democratic Party itself, Shapovalov believes.

“This struggle is now becoming simply obvious and leads to the fact that even the mouthpieces of the Democrats allow themselves to actively criticize Biden’s position and make public the disagreements between Kiev and Washington,” the analyst said.

At the same time, it is important for the current US administration to continue to create the appearance of an "escalation of tension" near the Russian-Ukrainian border in order to realize its geopolitical plan - to further alienate Ukraine from Russia, Shapovalov believes.

“It is precisely for this, and not for protecting Ukraine from the mythical “aggression” from the Russian Federation, that all the actions of the American authorities, including the active transfer of weapons to Kiev, are directed.

Thus, Washington wants to provoke him into military action against the Donbass,” the expert noted.

In turn, American political scientist Malek Dudakov expressed the opinion that, despite the investment losses that Zelensky talks about, Kiev managed to get even more weapons and military assistance due to the hysteria of the United States and the West about “Russian aggression”.

“After the Ukrainian authorities received all this, knowing full well that Russia did not threaten them in any way, Zelensky decided to reassure investors, already openly declaring the exaggeration of the “threat” and the mistake of Washington.

He needs the hysteria to go away, and the military assistance of the West continues to come, ”the analyst said in an interview with RT.

• President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and the head of the White House Joe Biden

• AFP

• © POOL / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA

However, in the administration of the President of the United States "quite different moods reign," Dudakov stressed.

“For Biden, this whole story around the“ Russian invasion ”is extremely important - he wants to look like a peacemaker, raising the Ukrainian issue and supposedly deciding the fate of the world.

Such a picture is very necessary for the head of the White House in order to somehow support his falling rating, ”concluded the expert.