Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday signed a decree on the impossibility of holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had called for ceasefire negotiations after signing accession agreements with regional leaders last week.
Meanwhile, the US is arming Ukraine at a break-neck pace, with President Joe Biden going so far as to issue an executive order to the Pentagon on Monday that waives statutory requirements in order to expedite and expand weapons production and purchases.
On Tuesday, the US announced another $625 million in security aid for Ukraine, which includes more HIMARS, in the wake of last week’s announcement of $1.1 billion in assistance. The US has now committed to Ukraine nearly $17 billion in military assistance since 2021.
"Russia already has the logistics, and the popular support, in the four republics where referendums were passed, and has now established a defensive position," Kwiatkowski, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel, said. "This is a major shift, one that actually already happened months ago, but is cap-stoned by the referendum."
The votes in the four republics would now be presented by Russia as expressions of the democratic will of their populations, Kwiatkowski said.
"The side we [the US] are opposing just voted as Russian-speaking people to join Russia, in an obvious aim to end the deadly Ukrainian civil war, ongoing since before 2014," she said.
The US message domestically, the former Pentagon adviser added, is that the US taxpayer is paying billions to save a "functioning democracy" in Europe.
"The problem is, the side we are supporting has outlawed most political parties, and all criticism of Kiev," she said.
There are clear signs that many in the US have grown tired of the conflict, based on recent polling and as evidenced by business magnate Elon Musk putting forth ideas online for ending the crisis.
"I see a populist push for diplomacy and political settlement developing," Kwiatkowski observed. "It is a political problem that requires a political, not military, solution."
However, she added, the United States and the European Commission, seeing this as well, are now taking steps to quash these efforts.
"Obviously, the political leadership of Ukraine and that of the United States wishes to continue the fight and is pouring billions of dollars of military aid into the Ukrainian government and armed forces," she said. "Continued war in Ukraine is the Zelensky-US/NATO end state…. more war and more destruction can and will happen, funded by the US taxpayer, and paid for by the Ukrainian people."
The US will continue flowing weapons and military aid to Ukraine to weaken Russia as a near-peer military power and to enrich the powerful companies that manufacture these weapons and fund the politicians, Kwiatkowski said.
This conflict, she added, is now primarily about justifying NATO and ensuring Europe remains largely economically and militarily dependent on the United States.
"But this divides Zelenskyy, and other leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, from the desires of their own people," the retired US military leader said.
Kwiatkowski also suggested it is hard to know what is actually happening on the ground in light of Western reporting that is overtly pro-NATO, pro-US, and pro-Ukraine.
"We are missing many normally available data points because there is no allowable discussion or debate of the Ukrainian situation in the West, nor in Ukraine itself," Kwiatkowski said.