By Adam Brown, URN Editor-in-Chief
(This is the first in the URN Pulpit series of editorials. Such sermonizing will
appear on these pages when Adam's muse strikes or his blood pressure spikes.)
The Guardian has just announced the "main winners" in the Russia-Ukraine war. If that news surprises you, just wait until you hear who won.
Now, I have more than 35 years of experience in journalism. This gives me the right to ... well, make accusations in bold headlines and apologize in small print. And to ask rude questions in public. Today though, I exercise my third privilege: to snipe at other journalists when they reach odd conclusions from a known set of facts.
So, the victor in the Ukraine-Russia war apparently had nothing to do with the recent fighting in Avdiivka, or military strategy, or hesitance among Ukraine's key allies, or even tectonic movements in geopolitics.
No, the victor is none other than oil major BP, along with the Four Wingmen of the Necropolis – Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies. Or so the newspaper oddly concludes.
But why?
The answer to that question goes far in explaining why Ukraine, which counts the richest nations in the history of the earth as allies, has not already ejected Russia from its territory.
