The Ukraine-America Relationship: What's Next? ask Askold S. Lozynskyj

Ukraine-America Relationship: Secretary of State Blinken travelled to Kyiv to give Ukraine’s president Zelensky a heads up on the July NATO Summit in Washington.

Lest President Zelensky have any illusions of receiving an invite to NATO at the Summit, the Secretary was diplomatic in suggesting that Ukrainian will be provided not a timeline but in essence an action plan for future membership.

Corruption will be the overwhelming, albeit disingenuous message since Ukraine has certainly manifested its military capability including arms production, particularly drones.

This was not strictly speaking duplicity but political showmanship and a glaring message of President Biden’s policy towards Ukraine.

Certainly no one except Blinken himself and his closest colleagues, including perhaps President Biden, know what is the Secretary’s position on Ukraine’s NATO membership.

He is merely a messenger.

Interestingly enough, but undoubtedly President Biden and U.S. intelligence are in charge, indeed. In an election based on an electoral college where one state and several hundred votes can be decisive, President Biden cannot stand to lose the Ukrainian American electorate, but he won’t.

Biden often points out that he is running against the alternative, not an ideal when the alternative is a narcissist under four indictments on 88 counts who fancies himself a friend and even an disciple of the Russian thug Vladimir Putin.

Yes, Donald Trump is also a thug.

Nevertheless, Joe Biden’s fecklessness should be addressed – Biden owes Ukraine!

His debt dates back to the presidency of his former boss Barrack Obama. President Obama will go down in history as the first American black president and father of the Affordable Care Act. He will not be remembered as the incompetent foreign policy president.

This is America.

Despite being the leader of the Western free world for more than a century, America’s population is notoriously primitive when it comes to issues outside its borders.

One of America’s most respected presidents was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, properly lauded for his social programs but little criticised by history for his ineptness on foreign policy, even more so because his administration was riddled with Soviet agents and Roosevelt was not aware of this.

He was even accompanied by one at the Yalta Summit where the President of the United States served as the ultimate appeaser to Josef Stalin, history’s second biggest killer after Mao.

Two issues are very clear. One, that Ukraine will neither be invited nor given a timeline to NATO membership in Washington in July. Two, rational Americans will enable President Biden to serve a second term.

Whilst a large segment of Americans may indeed be primitive in foreign affairs, a larger segment are essentially good and moral people, which means that even if they do not understand foreign policy or Geo-strategic issues, they recognise that it is wrong for Ukrainian children to die as a result of Russian aggression.

There are interim substitutes for a NATO invite.

Perhaps most importantly, America must allow Ukraine to prescribe the war strategy and simply respond to Ukrainian requests.

Ukraine needs a quasi iron dome as the United States provided for Israel. An important part of this are the “Patriots” which have been distributed much less than generously, while many remain in NATO countries not under attack.

Secondly, America should not prescribe where and what Ukrainians may attack.

Russian oil refineries on Russian territory are not only fair game but strategically important. World oil prices pale by comparison with Ukrainian lives. Even American generals are not prepared to tell Ukraine how to fight its war. So much less qualified is President Biden.

Moving forward it is important to recognise that this Ukraine-America relationship is an alliance of equals. There is a quid pro quo on each side.

The Ukrainian side is defending all of Europe at the cost of its own human lives.

America is supplying money, mostly through arms supplies, investing not only in global security but also enhancing its own defence industry.

While President Biden has stressed this many times, his behaviour often has been arrogant particularly through his surrogates. Arrogance and fecklessness are not mutually exclusive.

Allies need to recognise their roles. Ukraine’s mandate is to prevail against Russian aggression. America’s is to supply what Ukraine needs.

This would be so much clearer if Ukraine was invited to join NATO.