A POPULAR African proverb says, “When elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers” — like what’s happened in Ukraine between Thursday and Sunday, when another four days taught just how much a difference each made.

While the elephants on its borders fought turf wars, the grass stopped growing in Ukraine, the economy ground to a veritable standstill after the U.S. and a dozen nations withdrew their diplomatic staff and asked citizens to evacuate immediately to avoid being caught up in a Russian invasion about to happen “any time now…”

Here are the differences each day made:
Thursday, February 17: After being outflanked and outmanoeuvred by Russia between Monday and Wednesday, the U.S., European Union (EU) and the NATO alliance attended a meeting of the United Nations Security Council called to discuss issues related to the Minsk Agreement (mainly between Russia and Ukraine), that followed the 2014 events in Crimea.

Russian’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, as Chair of the Security Council, used his opening statement to plead to speakers “not to play to the cameras and make this meeting a circus, especially as the date for the invasion is now behind us.”

Speaking next, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken led Washington’s new diplomatic offensive, saying the U.S. and NATO spies and drones were “not seeing” the troop withdrawals Moscow said were taking place and insisting that Russia still intended to proceed with what was now “a looming invasion.”

While still insisting Moscow planned a “false flag operation” to justify attacking in the name of defence, Blinken continued making more predictions, but without dates and threatening tough economic and military action “if Russia invades Ukraine.”

The U.S. Secretary of State also invited his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to talk peace with NATO, the EU and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) – but on one condition, “in Europe…”

Washington tried hard to steal the wind from Moscow’s sails as a veritable procession of European leaders, defense and foreign ministers, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Sholz, flew to Russia to talk with President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow’s diplomacy was also loudly evident in Putin’s silent body language in his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron: the visiting President refused to take a vaccine test on arrival and he was sat at maximum social-distancing levels — at the other end of a virtual mile-long table during his hours-long meeting with his host, with much less distancing in the cases of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko or Chancellor Sholz.

And Lavrov described the slew of meetings as a “Dialogue between the deaf and the dumb!”

Friday, February 18: U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Polish counterpart hosted a joint press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, with Austin promising more U.S. troops for Poland, Romania and other Baltic and Central European former Soviet states neighbouring Russia, now in the NATO alliance.

But while the two NATO Defense Secretaries spoke in Brussels, Putin was meeting with President Lukashenko in Moscow to discuss whether Russian troops in Belarus would withdraw at the end of this month as earlier announced by both sides, or remain.

Here again, the U.S. was talking about peace while readying for war, in keeping with NATO’s new policy of “Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst…” as spelt out recently by its Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

Saturday, February 19: Germany hosted Europe’s annual Munich Security Conference (MSC), where U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris reiterated Washington’s threats of economic sanctions and military action “if Russia invades,” while beleaguered UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Britain was preparing 1,000 added troops for deployment across Europe, with more advanced fighter jets and aircraft carriers also to be sent to different locations, including the Black Sea (neighbouring both Ukraine and Russia).

But Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky didn’t mince words to remind his allies at the MSC with elephant-sized armies that all their talk of war was causing jitters among his citizens and all the warnings about an imminent attack on Ukraine from Russia was just not good for his country’s security.

Sunday, the usual propaganda and psychological warfare in such cases was upped a notch by all sides, each accusing the other of firing the first shots that can escalate into the war none wants.

Today, Ukraine remains caught between proverbial rocks and hard places as the USA and Europe use the presence of Russian troops, within Russia’s borders, to expand NATO’s military presence into the former Soviet Baltic and Central European states bordering or closest to Russia.

In the name of protecting Poland, Romania and other former Soviet republics now in NATO, the USA and Britain are together increasing troop deployments eastward, all but totally ignoring Moscow’s protestations about other signatories not implementing most of the Minsk Agreement’s clauses.

Ditto Moscow’s repeated assurances it doesn’t plan to start a Third World War or willingly induce a permanent logistical economic and military nightmare by invading and forcibly occupying the second-largest country in Europe.

The consensus on all sides is that all want to avoid a war none wants and while the war drums will continue beating sounds of jungle warfare, it’s more likely that Ukraine will remain stuck in the current quagmire for much longer than can be predicted by Washington, or seen around the corner.

President Zelensky was described by a BBC Correspondent as “undiplomatic” in his messaging to NATO allies supposedly risking war to protect his country, as if Kiev has no say in the actions being taken in its name.

All that, while the elephant armies on its borders sharpen and rattle their giant tusks, ready and willing to transform Europe’s peaceful grasslands — in Ukraine’s name — into bloody battlefields of an inevitable World War III.

And again, the last four days clearly showed the difference each made for Ukraine.