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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised his Ukrainian counterpart that America’s support for Kyiv is “ironclad” amid new tensions with Russia, saying the “international community will see through any Russian effort to resort to its previous tactics.”
The Trends Journal has covered the tension in the region extensively. (See “U.S. VOWS UKRAINE SUPPORT,” “PUTIN PUTS PRESSURE ON UKRAINE,” and “BIDEN PLEDGES ‘UNWAVERING SUPPORT’ FOR UKRAINE.”)
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said Saturday that there are 100,000 Russian soldiers along the border, which is raising concerns that Moscow could be planning an invasion.
“I hope the whole world can now clearly see who really wants peace and who is concentrating nearly 100,000 soldiers at our border,” he said, according to Reuters. Moscow has laughed off the idea of an invasion. The U.S. has been in touch with its European allies over the Kremlin’s troop movements.
President Biden, who started his term as a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, (See “PUTIN ACKNOWLEDGES BIDEN’S ANTI-RUSSIAN RHETORIC.”) has since softened his tone. The troop buildup could jeopardize that effort.
The New York Times reported that the U.S. recently sent William J. Burns, the head of the C.I.A. to Moscow, to calm tensions.
Blinken has made it clear that there are concerns that Russia could repeat its offensive in certain parts of Ukraine.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, reiterated the issues stemming from the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany. The Biden administration announced in May that it will not hit companies working on the project with sanctions. The BBC called the pipeline a “major geopolitical prize for the Kremlin.”
Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat, criticized the White House’s move at the time and urged Biden to “move forward with the congressionally mandated sanctions.”
Ukrainian officials said the construction of the controversial pipeline could cost the country about $2 billion in “annual transit revenue” and “makes it more susceptible to energy extortion by Russia.”
TRENDPOST: Completely absent in the American media reports of the current U.S. stand with Ukraine is the role Washington and Victoria Nuland played in the overthrow of its government in 2014.
A report from 2014 in the Trends Journal laid out the political maneuvers at the time in Ukraine: “Washington’s coup in Ukraine brought not only a threat to the Russian population in Ukraine but also a direct strategic threat to Russia itself.”
Nuland, who speaks Russian and French, boasted that Washington had invested $5 billion in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Ukraine.
Allegedly, the purpose of NGOs is to “teach democracy.” Ukraine, however, already had a democracy. In reality, the NGO organizations are U.S. fifth columns that can be used to organize protests and to provide support for Washington’s candidates for the Ukraine government.
Indeed, in early February 2014, a recording was leaked of Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, Victoria Nuland, telling Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, that the UN was on board to “help glue” the plan to replace Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych with Arxeniy Yatsenyuk. “Yats is the guy,” Nuland informed Pyatt, urging her to move quickly because “the Russians will be working behind the scenes to torpedo” the deal.
“F#&* the EU!” Nuland told Pyatt. “Exactly,” he responded.
Shortly thereafter, Yanukovych was overthrown and “Yats” became president.
TREND FORECAST: The U.S. will not go to war with Russia over Ukraine. The military in Ukraine is no match against the Russians, and its only hope for security in the future is to become a member of NATO, which Blinken did not indicate is any closer today than it was before Russians amassed at the border.