{"id":1337405,"date":"2022-02-24T12:39:34","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T17:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1337405"},"modified":"2022-02-24T12:39:48","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T17:39:48","slug":"martel-putin-attacked-ukraine-after-biden-sent-signal-there-would-be-no-significant-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/martel-putin-attacked-ukraine-after-biden-sent-signal-there-would-be-no-significant-consequences\/","title":{"rendered":"Martel \u2013 Putin Attacked Ukraine After Biden Sent Signal There Would Be No Significant Consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmartel-putin-attacked-ukraine-after-biden-sent-signal-there-would-be-no-significant-consequences%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1337405&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/TOPSHOT-UKRAINE-RUSSIA-CONFLICT-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">Before January 22, the situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border appeared much the same as it had the year before: a Russian troop buildup forming to intimidate the Ukrainian side, stuck in a nearly decade-long war in its eastern Donbas region.<\/p>\n<p>On January 22, President Joe Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/speeches-remarks\/2022\/01\/19\/remarks-by-president-biden-in-press-conference-6\/\">told<\/a> the Russian government that invading Ukraine would not result in any meaningful consequences from America.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI think what you\u2019re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades. And it depends on what it does,\u201d Biden mused during an extensive press conference that day. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing if it\u2019s a minor incursion and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do, et cetera.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The events of the past 24 hours \u2013 what Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Dmytro Kuleba <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DmytroKuleba\/status\/1496788635940581376\">described<\/a> on Thursday as a \u201cfull-scale attack\u201d on all of Ukraine by the Russian military, one Vladimir Putin announced in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/asia\/2022\/02\/21\/ukraine-completely-created-russia-putin-recognizes-sovereignty-pro-russian-separatists\/\">speech<\/a> on Monday in which he asserted Ukraine does not have a right to exist \u2013 is not a \u201cminor incursion.\u201d But Biden\u2019s greenlight for the violation of Ukrainian sovereignty, after months of blatant disrespect towards Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that included snubbing requests to meet and lifting key sanctions on Putin for no clear reason, sent a message\u00a0that it was unlikely Russia would be face significant consequences for pursuing full colonization of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>At press time, Putin announced that he had approved a request to aid the \u201cgovernments\u201d of Donetsk and Luhansk, the Ukrainian regions forming what is commonly known as the Donbas, in their war with the Ukrainian state. Putin recognized the Russian proxy entities operating in those regions as sovereign states on Monday, a move with no legitimacy in international law, but one that Putin has successfully used before \u2013 in 2008, when he recognized the Georgian separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia as sovereign states, then <a href=\"https:\/\/warontherocks.com\/2018\/08\/the-august-war-ten-years-on-a-retrospective-on-the-russo-georgian-war\/\">invaded<\/a> to secure his influence over them.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>The explosions are being heard far from the Donbas, however. Mixed, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/europe\/2022\/02\/23\/explosions-heard-in-ukraine-as-putin-announces-military-operation-threatens-consequences-you-have-never-seen-to-countries-who-interfere\/\">unverifiable<\/a> reports throughout the early morning hours of Thursday indicated that the Russians had attacked Mariupol, Kharkhiv, and the capital, Kyiv. Explosions interrupted journalists reporting from Kyiv. Zelensky apparently has enough reason to believe that the Russians will try to take major urban centers that he announced on Thursday he would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ukrinform.net\/rubric-ato\/3411343-zelensky-ukraine-starting-to-give-weapons-to-citizens.html\">give<\/a> any Ukrainian willing to fight a free gun.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to Thursday\u2019s attack, Zelensky had loudly insisted to anyone who would listen that the situation on the Ukrainian border was no different than it was in 2021 and that the \u201cpanic\u201d fueled by the Biden administration was making an invasion more likely.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mentioned this to President Biden \u2026 we need to stabilize the economy of our country because of those signals which say that tomorrow there will be war,\u201d Zelensky <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/economy\/2022\/01\/28\/zelensky-says-ukraine-lost-almost-500-million-to-biden-war-hype-we-dont-need-this-panic\/\">told<\/a> reporters during a press conference after Biden\u2019s \u201cminor incursion\u201d blunder, \u201cbecause these signals were sent by even leaders of the respected countries, sometimes they are not even using diplomatic language! They are saying, \u2018Tomorrow is the war.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis means panic on the market, panic in the financial sector \u2026 how much does it cost to our country?\u201d Zelensky asked.<\/p>\n<p>Some will interpret Zelensky\u2019s public requests to the White House to stop terrifying his citizens \u2013 and his mockery of reports Russia would invade by declaring Politico\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/europe\/2022\/02\/14\/ukraines-zelensky-declares-rumored-date-of-russian-invasion-a-national-holiday\/\">reported<\/a> invasion day a public holiday \u2013 as misplaced optimism in light of the past 24 hours. Zelensky never denied, however, that his country was surrounded by Russian troops. He merely observed that the same thing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-60174684\">happened<\/a> last year, and no one in the international community seemed to care.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not saying that escalation is excluded, we have been talking about this for eight years now,\u201d the Ukraine president said during the same press conference. \u201cThe escalation has already happened. Part of our territories are already occupied.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Little on the ground in Donbas or the Russian side of the border was different enough from the situation in 2021 to prepare Zelensky to expect a full-scale invasion. Only two circumstances changed, and both were acts by the White House: between February 2021 and 2022, Biden lifted sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, a windfall for Russia that gave it a stranglehold over Germany\u2019s natural gas supply. Then Biden announced he had no problem with a \u201cminor\u201d invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>The outrage largely absent from Zelensky\u2019s public behavior in the past month was on full display when the Nord Stream 2 sanctions, set in place under President Donald Trump, fell. Biden announced in May that he would lift the sanctions to please the German government despite the tremendous leverage that it gave Putin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was almost completed by the time I took office,\u201d Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/05\/25\/politics\/biden-defends-decision-russian-gas-pipeline\/index.html\">shrugged<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cAnd to go ahead and impose sanctions now would I think be counterproductive in terms of our European relations and I hope we can work on how they handle it from this point on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zelensky <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/06\/07\/ukraines-zelensky-unpleasantly-surprised-disappointed-by-biden-pro-putin-policies\/\">told<\/a> Axios in a phone tirade that he found out about the end of the sanctions from television reports \u2013 the White House did not bother to inform him \u2013 and that Biden had given him every signal that this would not happen.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIt still seems to me that Nord Stream 2 \u2026 we understand that this is a weapon, a real weapon, and I speak openly about it,\u201d Zelensky explained at the time. \u201cA weapon in the hands of the Russian Federation, and it is not very understandable, I feel, and definitely not expected, that the bullets to this weapon can possibly be provided by such a great country as the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zelensky demanded a meeting with Biden before Biden spoke to Putin, but Biden ignored him. It would not be the last time. Biden spent months rejecting requests from Kyiv for the two to meet, promising an invite to Washington over the summer but only getting around to it in September. When they met, Biden spent much of the time <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/09\/01\/joe-biden-offers-climate-dialogue-in-response-to-ukraine-presidents-russian-pipeline-concerns\/\">rambling<\/a> about \u201cclimate dialogue\u201d at the expense of the more pressing issue, to Zelensky, of the eight-year-old Russian occupation of his country.<\/p>\n<p>Biden snubbed Zelensky again more recently as the Ukrainian president urged Biden to come to Kyiv and shine a protective spotlight on that city.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am convinced that your arrival in Kyiv in the coming days, which are crucial for stabilizing the situation, will be a powerful signal and contribute to de-escalation,\u201d Zelensky\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2022\/02\/14\/ukraine-zelensky-says-no-info-on-imminent-russian-war-tells-joe-biden-to-come-to-kyiv\/\">told<\/a>\u00a0Biden in one of their last phone calls before the latest invasion. The public knows about this invitation through the Ukrainian office of the presidency; the White House omitted it from its call readout and Biden ignored it entirely.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cminor incursion\u201d comment occurred about a month after Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2021\/11\/24\/biden-aims-to-quash-nord-stream-2-sanctions-in-defense-bill\/\">lobbied<\/a> Congress to reject a Republican-led attempt to restore sanctions \u2013 a sign that the meeting with Zelensky in September did nothing to clarify to him the urgency of keeping money out of Putin\u2019s coffers. Dismissing the possibility of America aiding an ally in the event of an invasion was the second game-changer that distinguished this year\u2019s events from 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Zelensky\u2019s attempts at remaining calm and polite towards Biden \u2013 and western Europe, which largely financed the current invasion through projects like Nord Stream 2 \u2013 ended this weekend in a fiery speech in Munich. Zelensky told the leaders assembled at the Munich Security Conference that anything that happened to Ukrainian civilians would affect the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2022\/02\/21\/volodymyr-zelensky-warns-west-of-karma-for-ignoring-8-year-old-russian-invasion-of-ukraine\/\">karma<\/a>\u201d of the West. He threatened to pursue nuclear weapons because the guarantors of the Budapest Memorandum, which stripped Ukraine of its Soviet-era weapons, had broken their promise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe rules that the world agreed on decades ago no longer work. They do not keep up with new threats,\u201d Zelensky asserted. \u201cThe security system is slow. It falters again. Because of selfishness, self-confidence, irresponsibility of countries at the global level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStand with truth and international law. I\u2019m not calling you by name as I don\u2019t want some other countries to be ashamed. But it is their choice. Their karma. They have it on their conscience,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n<p>At press time, Zelensky has not bothered to ask Biden for help. He\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mobile.twitter.com\/ZelenskyyUa\/status\/1496785547594924032\">announced<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday that any Ukrainian who wants a gun to fight the Russians can have it.<\/p>\n<p><em>Follow Frances Martel on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/francesimartel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/francesimartel\/&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1645618806696000&#038;usg=AOvVaw3CCIT0IfyZXJ0axgUhLn63\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/francesmartel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/twitter.com\/francesmartel&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1645618806696000&#038;usg=AOvVaw1wKwV8ZcnPyWXjThf6jyKy\">Twitter.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before January 22, the situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border appeared much the same as it had the year before: a Russian troop buildup forming to intimidate the Ukrainian side, stuck<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1337405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1337405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1337405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1337405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1337405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}