Washington's perverse foreign policy has resulted in a multi-lose tragedy: China Daily editorial

What has befallen Ukraine is by no means what United States President Joe Biden called "an unprovoked and unjustified attack" by Russia. It is his administration that has continuously escalated the tensions by steadfastly ignoring Russia's security concerns and forcing Moscow to accept that the threatening expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was not a matter for negotiation.

In saying that "we are not going to be in a war with Russia or putting military troops on the ground fighting Russia" on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki made it clear that the Biden administration was inviting such a move.

In the Washington's calculations, sucking Russia into Ukraine no doubt offers the United States a number of benefits. It can claim the moral high ground and continue to portray Russia as being an agent of evil, and by default any countries that are friendly with it.

With the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project suspended, something that has long been a thorn in the flesh of the US economy and its policy approach toward Europe, the European countries will have to rely more on energy resources from the US or the energy providers it controls, although at a higher price, binding their economies closer to it.

It also helps breathe life into "brain-dead" NATO so that the US can tighten the security shackles it has imposed upon European countries and which they were trying to loosen. The European countries have predictably indicated that they intend to tie themselves closer to the US security umbrella, scuppering any notions the European Union may have had of greater autonomy in its foreign relations.

It helps support the dollar hegemony that is propping up the US economy as well. As one of the major grain producers in the world and main food exporter to Europe, the war in Ukraine will directly affect its grain output and aggravate Europe's dependence on US grains. And no doubt any Western sanctions will target trade with Russia, which means alternatives will need to be found that will in all probability require dollar transactions.

What Russia seeks is a buffer zone. What the US pursues is to deny that while regaining its control over Europe. Washington worries that the increasingly independence awareness the Europeans gained during the long tenure of Angela Merkel as the German chancellor, if unchecked, could lead to a transatlantic divorce. That's also why the Biden administration stresses a "value alliance", which is not only to contain China but also to impose a "moral" obligation on the Europeans.

To avoid the fallout from the crisis worsening, the European countries need to finally break the shackles imposed by the US overlording their security by demonstrating the courage and wisdom to guide the resolution of the crisis to the negotiation table.