Closing week, Trump-appointed particular envoy Steve Witkoff referred to as Ukraine’s NATO ambitions “a threat to the Russians,” implying that that is what provoked the battle 3 years in the past. “The war didn’t need to happen — it was provoked. It doesn’t necessarily mean it was provoked by the Russians,” Witkoff stated on CNN.
His message is apparent: Russia was once sponsored right into a nook, compelled to behave in self-defense when it introduced its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The proof, in fact, tells a distinct tale — one in all imperial ambition, no longer self-preservation.
The declare that NATO growth caused the battle is not anything new. Western leaders, together with the ones within the Biden management, France and Germany, have lengthy voiced issues about Ukraine’s club, regularly out of concern of escalating tensions with Russia. However what President Trump is doing is qualitatively other, and way more bad.
Earlier administrations sought to stop an all-out NATO-Russia battle, however they by no means counseled the concept that Ukraine was once guilty for the battle. Their hesitation was once a strategic calculation to keep away from any other global battle. Witkoff’s feedback, then again, move a lot additional: they at once echo Russian propaganda, arguing that Ukraine’s pursuit of safety promises was once reckless and that NATO ambitions brought about the battle.
With those remarks, the U.S. has now formally embraced one in all Russia’s greatest lies.
If NATO growth have been really the cause, why did Vladimir Putin wait till 2022 to invade? Why no longer in 2008, when Ukraine first sought club, or in 2014, when NATO discussions resurfaced after Russia seized Crimea
In fact that Ukraine was once nowhere close to becoming a member of NATO. There was once no Club Motion Plan, and key NATO individuals had made it transparent they have been unwilling to confess Ukraine any time quickly.
Ukraine’s NATO aspirations weren’t a provocation. They have been a reaction to Russian aggression: the unlawful annexation of Crimea, the Russian proxy battle in Donbas, and Moscow’s long-standing efforts to keep watch over Ukraine politically, economically and culturally.
In his Feb. 21, 2022, speech justifying the battle, Putin slightly discussed NATO. As a substitute, he fixated on Ukraine as a synthetic state, an twist of fate of historical past, a wayward a part of the so-called “Russian world.” His argument had not anything to do with army threats or self-defense; it was once an statement of imperial entitlement. It echoed his 2021 essay, “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians,” which outright denied Ukraine’s legitimacy as a sovereign country.
Russia’s pre-invasion calls for additional divulge the hollowness of the NATO excuse. Moscow didn’t simply insist that Ukraine by no means sign up for the alliance — it demanded NATO withdraw from Jap Europe fully, rolling again safety promises for Poland, the Baltics and different frontline states. This was once by no means near to Ukraine. It was once a broader push to reassert Russian dominance over its former empire.
Russia’s development of aggression is the clearest refutation of the “NATO expansion” fable. Georgia, attacked in 2008, was once no longer at the verge of NATO club. Ukraine, invaded in 2014, had no life like trail to becoming a member of the alliance. Russia was once no longer and isn’t protecting itself towards NATO — it’s focused on neighbors looking for independence from its grip.
Witkoff’s disgraceful parroting of Kremlin propaganda isn’t international relations in pursuit of peace. This is a demoralizing try to undermine Ukraine and weaken Europe. Via framing any defensive posture as a “provocation” towards Russia whilst excusing Russian aggression as self-defense, he legitimizes the very common sense used to justify battle and subjugation.
Oleh S. Ilnytzkyj is a professor emeritus on the College of Alberta. He was once editor of “Canadian Slavonic Papers” and “East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies.” His newest e book is “Nikolai Gogol: Ukrainian Writer in the Empire: A Study in Identity.”
