In the last three years I had written an entirely GPE approach to understand the whole of the Ukrainian War and put it into the context of an outgoing global hegemon, namely the US.

This essay rests on several theoretcial frameworks and tries to make sense of the structurally based frames of interpretation in interpreting the run-up to and the development of the Ukraine War.

It is an essay that does not throw all analytical frameworks or theories about the reason and causes of the terrible story of war in Europe together and tries to figure out what is ‘the’ best and only ‘truthful’ interpretation to this military and humanitarian mess.

The essay tries to sharpen the idea that to understand political events on the daily political stage, which are – due to Jeffrey Sachs – rather boring if being made the epic center of analysis and interpretation (the daily bussiness of mass media outlets), you have to look deeper.

The message of the GPE framework is to understand geopolitics and geoeconomics you should look on the contradictory integration of national economies into the capitalist world market. Therefore, this essay maintains that the Ukrainian War as well as its development from the Civil War in Ukraine has to be understood from the perspective of the Great Powers being involved within that context.

In a sense complementing the public discourse in the ‘West’ about the sole responsibility of the Russian Empire, the essay tries to make sense and give as much evidence as is possible to the mirrored perspective that US Empire and its European allies also carry some guilt for the escalation of the Ukrainian Civil War in the first place.

This is not to deny the unlawful invasion of Russian forces, not to mention the occupation and even land-grabbing in the line of events, into Eastern Ukraine. But to give justice to the competing narratives and dynamics of the enfolding War Theatre in Ukraine means also to re-think the historical run-up to this very dangerous situation we face now after Donald Trump II has been set on the “throne” of US Empire, again.

We must come out of this rather eternal ‘devil-shifting’ if we want the war to come to an end that serves both the people of Ukraine and Europe as well. Donald Trump’s ‘good bye’ to the Ukraine War Theatre is a possibility to start the Politics for Peace in Ukraine again. But not in (re-)arming Europe in order to substitute itself for the US Empire, we will reach peace. Only in pacifying this war and sidelining the military actors by giving trust a chance will the war come to an end.

But this has to start with a new way of looking on the whole mess, reflexively, and give truth to the dreadful history of both Ukrainian Civil War and the Russian ‘aggression’ and invasion of 2022. We, the ‘west’ are not the good guys in that theatre play, we are also villains, even if of another sort. The Russians have tried several times to negotiate with the ‘West’ and even aligned to the permanently expanding NATO. But enough is enough, they said when NATO tried to install midrange-missiles in Ukraine and Georgia by granting them NATO membership.

It is not convincing that the ‘West’ did not know the Russian complaints. Nevertheless, US Empire and its allies acted otherwise. Still in January 2022 then US foreign minister Anthony Blinken reacted to Russian complaints and their demands of Ukrainian neutrality with ‘we can employ our missiles whereever we want’ (see Sachs 2025). If the Soviets would have acted in similar veins during the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 I would not be able to write this blog anyway. Those who want to understand the Ukrainian War should hear the whole story. Therefore, my essay tried to make sense of the strategy the US Empire pursued in the run-up to this last tragedy of Great Power Politics. Peace will only come when both sides accept their narrative and are going to trust mutually again. This is hard to endure if loved ideologies burst like soap bubbles in the sky, but it is the only way to survive this dreadful war in Europe. Warmongering is no solution, to the contrary, it is the best way to hell. Download here my book-length essay (under review) and try to understand my effort and act for peace.