What has happened to Ukraine over the last one year of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of that country is heart-breaking. With millions of lives destroyed and over 60,000 dead, the country is now a hollow shell of its former self. It’s a fate that should not befall any country. Whatever be the perception of security threat that Russia says is the reason behind its invasion of Ukraine, is not justification, as by that logic, countries would go around invading each other, making a mockery of the rule of law. A year on, the war needs to end, which it would have last year itself but for the United States and the United Kingdom preventing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from negotiating with Putin. With the US-UK goal being bringing a regime change in Moscow, it does not look like the war will stop until there is an outcome satisfactory to the West and Ukraine—of Putin ousted, jailed and then dragged to the equivalent of a Nuremberg trial. The last one year has seen Mr Zelenskyy, once a small-time entertainer and comedian, become the darling of the western world as a man fighting the “evil” Putin with the zeal of a crusader. Even the most draconian measures Mr Zelenskyy takes, such as banning his rival parties, rarely finds any mention in the Western world, for, according to the latter, the saintly Zelenskyy cannot do any wrong. He is feted as the great war-hero wherever he goes, be it Washington, DC or London—where he gets billions of dollars in money and weapons sanctioned. The US has opened the floodgates for Mr Zelenskyy and is showering him with cash and weapons for free, without even asking for an audit, such is the trust. Apparently, Mr Zelenskyy has taken the lead in this war and the West will do exactly what he wants them to do. No wonder, all this adulation has led Mr Zelenskyy to believe that he is the most important figure on the geopolitical stage today and the West is duty-bound to listen to what he says. And the West is listening to a large extent. His latest demand that Russian athletes should not be allowed to participate in next year’s Paris Olympics and not even compete in the Olympic qualifiers as “neutrals”, has found enthusiastic backers in the western countries.
Mr Zelenskyy has now decided that to starve Russia of funds, nations like India buying oil from that country must be sanctioned. His emissaries have conveyed this message to the United States, only to get a reality check, as his diktat fell flat with the audience. It seems that no one told Mr Zelenskyy that right from the beginning of the war, oil and gas have been kept outside the sanctions and every country is guilty of buying Russian fuel. No one also told him that the US, his biggest mentor, is also one of the biggest buyers of petroleum products from India—products that are made from Russian oil, which the US knows about. Mr Zelenskyy also may not have heard the word Quad before, where India and the US are partners; or about the burgeoning trade relations between the two; or the fact that the two countries are “major defence partners” and unlike Ukraine, India pays top dollar for every equipment bought from the US; or that India is one of the most important powers in the Indo-Pacific region, and that there is no Quad or Indo-Pacific policy without India being central to that policy. India has been clear from the beginning that it will buy oil from wherever it wants to, if it serves its people’s interests and that no attempt to shame India will stop it.
Mr Zelenskyy seems to have come to believe that his—and the West’s—war is also the rest of the world’s war. When in reality, the rest of the world wants the war to end right now so that their suffering because of high food and fuel prices is mitigated. In fact, the rest of the world is watching with horror and praying that allowing Mr Zelenskyy to take the lead will not prove too costly for them.
Mr Zelenskyy should not forget that but for the invasion by Russia, most people would not have heard of him. Ukraine was a geopolitical nonentity. It is just Joe Biden’s obsession with Putin’s removal that is helping Ukraine, which was and still is a geopolitical pawn to serve western interests against Russia. So for him to take on India—currently the world’s most populous democracy and the fifth largest economy on its way to become the third—is a case of biting more than he can chew. While India wishes Ukraine well in its war with Russia and hopes sense prevails and peace returns, Mr Zelenskyy should not labour under the mistaken belief that he can influence India’s geopolitical trajectory. Mr Zelenskyy should not punch above his weight
