Washington's Role in Ukraine Jeopardizes World Stability

As the Ukrainian conflict grinds on, picturing Washington's role in the chaos is less challenging than predicting an endgame of the crisis. Since late February, the United States has continued to add fuel to the fire by delivering lethal weapons to Ukraine, goading allies into cornering Russia, and imposing massive economic sanctions on Russian institutions and enterprises. 

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All these moves run counter to global efforts to de-escalate the crisis and put world stability in peril. No matter which side gains the upper hand in the crisis, "the United States is the winner," said Chen Fengying, a researcher with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. 

ANOTHER ROUND OF SANCTIONS

On Wednesday, the United States imposed additional sanctions on Russia, targeting its major financial institutions and the two daughters of President Vladimir Putin. The United States will impose full blocking sanctions on Russia's largest financial institution, Sberbank, and the country's largest private bank, Alfa Bank, freezing any of the two banks' assets in the U.S. financial system and prohibiting Americans from doing business with them.

U.S. President Joe Biden will sign an executive order banning new investment in Russia by Americans no matter where they live, the factsheet said, adding the executive order aims to "ensure the enduring weakening of the Russian Federation's global competitiveness."

Since the conflict broke out in Ukraine, the United States has imposed rounds of sanctions on Russia, despite experts' warning that sanctions alone are inadequate to de-escalate the tensions and might even invite a nightmare scenario.

"For the U.S. allies in Europe, the sanctions punish them as much as predictable skyrocketing energy prices bedevil their economies now, and threaten even the very survival of the European economy," said Herman Tiu Laurel, founder of Philippine BRICS Strategic Studies.

"We should fully understand the causes and consequences of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Will the sanctions against Russia solve the problem? Will the sanctions force Russia to withdraw their troops? The answers unfortunately are No. The sanctions will only deteriorate the world economy already weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic," Wichai Kinchong Choi, senior vice president of the leading Thai bank Kasikornbank, said.

U.S. ROLE IN CRISIS

The root cause of the outbreak of the conflict is the continuous eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Putin had repeatedly warned NATO against deploying its troops and weapons to Ukraine, saying this represents a red line for Russia.

Russia's concern that NATO is expanding to its borders has never been heeded by the United States, "which is only interested in maintaining its hegemonic status in Europe, and which has been steadily retreating from that collaborative policy which the West committed itself to after the Cold War," said William Jones, Washington bureau chief of the U.S. publication Executive Intelligence Review.

In the past several weeks, U.S. politicians have flown back and forth across the Atlantic to instigate hostilities against Russia, while showing little interest in acknowledging the root cause of or brokering a political solution to the tragedy in Ukraine.

Immediately after the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out, Biden announced that the United States would provide US$350 million in military aid to Ukraine. On March 16, Biden announced an additional US$800 million in security assistance to Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said that his country has already sent 100 killer drones called Switchblade to Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said that the U.S. and its allies have provided Ukraine with 10 anti-tank systems for every single Russian tank.

John Pang, a senior fellow at New York-based Bard College, said U.S. sanctions "worsen the situation," adding that "they possibly prolong the conflict because of suffering in Russia, but also in Europe and around the world. They will bring the global economy into, very likely, a recession in which millions of innocent people will suffer."

"If you put this together with the fact that... NATO and the U.S. continue to arm Ukraine, the actual effect will be to prolong the conflict, not to end it," he pointed out.

WORLD STABILITY IN DANGER

The United States has sowed discord between Russia and European countries, and driven Russia and Ukraine into a corner of confrontation, causing geopolitical tensions and economic shocks that jeopardize world stability.

The country, unconfident and insecure, still wants to maintain hegemony in the international system or a dominant position in the global economy, thus attempting to suppress countries that it thinks could threaten and challenge it, said Zhao Suisheng, a professor at Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver.

The current disruptions in energy, metals and food markets caused by the month-long conflict in Ukraine are "broad and savage," The Economist magazine reported in mid-March, warning that a retreat to Cold-War spheres of influence or self-sufficiency would be "a mistake" and the costs would be vast.

"We're approaching the most dangerous point in human history... We are now facing the prospect of destruction of organised human life on Earth. What we do know is that Ukraine will be further devastated. And we may move on to terminal nuclear war if we do not pursue the opportunities that exist for a negotiated settlement," Noam Chomsky said.

"Virtually any additional steps -- reducing imports of oil and gas, banning a wider range of exports, or telling European firms to withdraw from Russia -- would entail an economic cost for Europe," Jean Pisani-Ferry, a senior fellow at Brussels-based economic think tank Bruegel, said in an article published by Project Syndicate in late March.