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To see a list of previous articles, enter “Ukraine” in the Search Box on the upper right, on The Trenchant Observer web site, and you will see a list in chronological order.

Dispatches

1) Shan Li,and Rajesh Roy, and Sabrina Siddiqui, “India’s Neutrality on Ukraine Rooted in Deep Ties to Russia, Lingering Mistrust of U.S.; American officials have struggled to overcome the dynamics of relationships built over decades, Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2022 (7:41 am ET);

2) Philip Wen, “U.K. to Boost Defense Collaboration With India; Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain would make it easier to export defense equipment to the South Asian nation,” Wall Street Journal, April 22, 2022 (10:46 am ET);

3) Rajesh RoyFollow, Vibhuti Agarwal, and Philip Wen, “India to Buy Russian Oil at Discount Amid Ukraine War; New Delhi’s deal with Moscow comes as the U.S. and its allies are seeking to punish Russia economically over the invasion of its neighbor,” Wall Street Journal, March 16, 2022 (12:02 pm ET);

4) “Ukraine War, May 10, 2022 (II): The hard work ahead in the non-allied countries, to get them to joint the anti-Russian coalition,” The Trenchant Observer, May 10, 2022;

5) “Ukraine War, April 7, 2022 (I): U.S. secures suspension of Russia from Human Rights Council, in Pyrrhic victory and shocking failure of American diplomacy; New York Times verifies video of Ukrainian execution of wounded Russian soldier, an apparent war crime,” The Trenchant Observer, April 7, 2022;

6) Joe Parkinson, David Luhnow and Juan Forero, “Russia Alliance Is Missing a Big Bloc: The Developing World; Nations are resisting economic sanctions and voicing criticism over the Ukraine invasion, fearful of political and economic repercussions from Moscow or Beijing,” Wall Street journal, April 14, 2022 (11:41 am ET).

UPDATE

7) David Miliband, i”Law, not impunity, should be the West’s rallying cry; At the G7 summit, democratic countries can broaden their coalition if they frame the invasion of Ukraine correctly,” The New Statesman, May 6, 2002.
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Commentary

Reprinted from “Ukraine War, May 10, 2022 (II): The hard work ahead in the non-allied countries, to get them to joint the anti-Russian coalition,” The Trenchant Observer, May 10, 2022;

U.S. diplomacy, under the leadership of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, has failed miserably to enlist support not only for condemnation of Russia for its invasion of Uktaine and the barbarism of its attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, but also to secure participation in the economic sanctions imposed by the U.S., the EU, and other countries against Russia.

Blinken was very slow to bring the Ukraine situation to the United Nations Security Council and the General Assembly.

When he appeared at the Council meeting on January 31, 2022, he was unprepared and didn’t even set out the legal case against Russia under the U.N. Charter and international law. Instead, he chose to make an emotional appeal to the Council’s members whose effect, if any, surely dissipated within a day.

He was like a lawyer going into a trial with a strong emotional appeal, but unprepared to cite the law or the evidence that might have made a serious impact on the jury.

The U.S. was very slow to make a legal case against Russia in general, and when it did it seemed perfunctory. It was not the kind of serious case that might have caused domestic problems for the governments which refused to condemn Russia, or who “abstained” on a vote condemning barbaric atrocities.

Before the invasion, the U.S. did not even challenge Russia for violating the prohibition in Article 2 paragraph 4 of the U.N. Charter against the threat of the use of force “against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”.

To Russia’s repeated assertions that it could move its troops anywhere it wanted within its territory, the U.S. made no response. It was left to the German ambassador to the U.N. to make the argument, at the Security Council meeting on January 31, that Russia was blatantly violating this fundamental norm of international law.

There appears to be no strategy to win over the non-allied countries, in what is a civilizational struggle against Russia to uphold the U.N. Charter and international law.

The Trenchant Observer

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See also,

Only force can stop Putin

“Ukraine War, April 5, 2022 (II): Force must be used to stop Putin,” The Trenchant Observer, April 5, 2022.