The picture shows American equipment to be shipped to Ukraine.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has lasted for a whole year since it broke out on February 24, 2022. The most intense geopolitical confrontation in Europe since the cold war has blocked the recovery of the world economy and its negative impact has spread to the world. At present, more and more countries and people have recognized the ferocious face of the US and the serious harm of its fan-flaming actions for pursuing hegemony.

The outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict was largely the result of US’s deliberate action of fueling fires. For a long time, the US has regarded Russia as a hypothetical enemy in the way of its pursuing hegemony. While knowing that NATO's eastward expansion would tear up the red line of Russia's security interests, the US has kept squeezing Russia's strategic space, resulting in a vicious cycle of "provocation – resistance – provocation again – resistance again" between NATO and Russia. Ukraine, due to its special geographical location and its historical and cultural origin highly close to Russia, has turned out to be a pawn and victim of the US seeking global hegemony.

The boiling situation of Russia-Ukraine conflict cannot be separated from the continuous fueling from the US side. Delivering weapons, hyping public opinion, manipulating the Nord Stream blasts, and encouraging western countries to transport weapons to Ukraine, the US, ignoring the voice of the international community to promote peace, has repeatedly stifled the opportunities for the Russia-Ukraine conflict to cool down and come to reconcile. There were even some American politicians who talked a lot of nonsense to have the conflict move on till the last Ukrainian. On February 20, US President Joe Biden visited Kyiv and declared that the US troops are to stay there, explicitly exposing his intention to push the conflict forward.

At the same time, in order to completely cut off the possibility of reconciliation between Europe and Russia, the US played the so-called democracy and morality cards to force Europe to join the anti-Russian united front, coerced relevant countries to take sides, and shaped the trend of political correctness for anti-Russian operations. Especially after the Nord Stream blasts, some American politicians declared publicly that "this is a huge opportunity".

Behind the spreading impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict lies the US’ constant fueling. Since the outbreak of the conflict, the US and its allies believed that they possessed the moral commanding point, the economic dominance and the rule-making power, and constantly violated the existing international rules. They took the Russia-Ukraine conflict as an opportunity to weaponize global public goods, had several major Russian banks expelled from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Tele communications (SWIFT), and confiscated Russian property, etc., which seriously damaged the credibility of the global public goods and caused irreversible damage to the international governance system.

To deliver a plug-pulling blow on Russia, the US has also taken measures such as food embargo, oil and gas embargo and price limit targeting the energy and food sectors, intending to shake the economic foundation of Russia and destroy the foundation of Russia's governance. However, these irresponsible and indiscriminate sanctions have not only affected the country subject to the sanctions but also caused a global shortage of food, energy and fertilizer, exacerbating the instability in many regions. As a head of a food trading company in Afghanistan sighed, "The US thought that it was just to impose sanctions on Russia, but in fact on the whole world."

The US is the only beneficiary of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The energy supply imbalance has got intensified in the European region, due to the impact of conflicts and sanctions, resulting in spillover problems like price rise and economic decline, which have in turn intensified political differences and public dissatisfaction, as shown by the significant decline in political stability. The American arms, energy and food dealers, on the other hand, have made a lot of money by taking the advantage of the conflict. Franklin Spinney, a former Air Force officer and staff of the Office of the Secretary of Defense for many years, expressed in his blog that the Russia-Ukraine conflict has made some Americans "open champagne to celebrate".

Facts have proved that the US is taking the advantage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict to pursue dirty private ends. The various measures taken by the US to fan the flames of the conflict have completely ripped off its self-decorated camouflage of "freedom, democracy and human rights" for a long term. At the critical juncture of historical evolution, human society must not go back to the old way of bloc antagonism and split confrontation, nor fall back into the trap of zero-sum game and conflicts. Those American politicians who violate and constantly move against the trend of the times featuring fairness and justice are doomed to get burned to play with fire.

(Author is from the Chinese PLA’s Academy of Military Sciences)