- President Biden and his associates have had a continuous and influential presence in Ukrainian affairs since 2007
- They played a significant role in shaping Ukraine's political direction through diplomatic efforts, support for pro-Western groups, and key appointments
- Their actions were closely tied to broader geopolitical tensions, particularly between the U.S. and Russia, with Ukraine as a focal point
- Many nations in the Global South are not convinced that Russia's actions were unprovoked, which is why they have not condemned Russia's actions
President Biden became Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2007 and held that influential position for two years throughout the 2008 campaign as former President Obama's running mate.
After the inauguration, Biden named Antony Blinken to his innermost circle of officials. From 2009 to 2013, Blinken was the vice president's national security advisor. In this position, he took a lead role in developing US policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran's nuclear program.
Ukraine came on the radar during Obama's first term because America, under former president George W. Bush in 2008, had failed to persuade other NATO countries to invite Ukraine to join the bloc.
On June 3, 2010, under the leadership of then-President Moscow-friendly Viktor Yanukovich, the Ukrainian Parliament approved a bill barring the country from joining NATO. It returned the nation to its professed goals in its Declaration of State Sovereignty of becoming a neutral state. It was a massive victory for Putin.
In late 2013, Ukraine was in the news because of a classic ideological conflict in Kyiv, the capital city in the western part of the state. Victor Yanukovich, with solid support from President Putin, wanted to strengthen trade relationships with Russia. But, the European Union wanted Kyiv and its liberal elite to expand trade relations with the West.
When riots broke out in Kyiv, presumably assisted by Western intelligence agencies like the CIA and MI6, President Yanukovich ordered the police to crack down on the protests.
Across the Atlantic, President Obama appointed former VP Biden as his point man in Ukraine, drawing on Biden's relations with world leaders when he served as the Foreign Relations Chairman.
Biden called on his buddies in the Senate, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who had just won the election and become a member of Foreign Relations, and John McCain of Arizona, to visit Kyiv to show support to the pro-Western faction. They were the first US senators to land in Kyiv in December 2013.
According to Reuters, Joe Biden called President Viktor Yanukovich in February 2014 for the second time in three days and delivered a blunt message.
"Pull back your security forces now and accept a European-brokered settlement, or you will be held accountable," Biden warned the pro-Russian leader. "It WILL catch up with you." It was an extraordinary level of intervention in the affairs of a foreign state.
Reuters reported that while initially defiant, Yanukovich sounded subdued by the end of the hour-long call, according to a senior US official knowledgeable of the conversation. Within hours, Yanukovich signed a deal with the opposition and fled to Russia. The date was February 21, 2014.
During this entire period, the Russian government continued to protest that the actions amounted to a CIA-engineered coup when a legitimately elected leader was evicted - and attacked/annexed Crimea on February 20, 2014, to safeguard the interests of Russian speakers there.
On February 25, 2014, Chris Murphy spoke to C-SPAN, where he was almost boastful about America's interference in a foreign country:
I think it was our role, including sanctions and threats of sanctions, that forced, in part, Yanukovych from office.
Translation: We engineered a coup.
Sen. Murphy went on:
If, ultimately, this is a peaceful transition to a new government in Ukraine, it will be the United States on the streets of Ukraine who will be seen as a great friend in helping make that transition happen.
But, the transformation to make Ukraine an American slave state was far from complete. It had to ensure that a pro-Western leader would be elected to Ukraine's presidency to do America's bidding. With significant American support, Petro Poroshenko, a former businessman, became president on June 7, 2014. The same day, Hunter Biden became a director on Burisma's board.
On November 7, 2014, President Obama nominated Blinken, Biden's right-hand man, for the Deputy Secretary of State post, the second-most powerful diplomatic position in the United States government.
On December 16, 2014, Blinken was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 55 to 38. It was about a week after Poroshenko had pushed through a vote in Parliament that abandoned the country's neutral "non-bloc" status and set a course for NATO membership, a move immediately denounced by Russia as "unfriendly."
Not much happened during the four years of the Trump administration, except when Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff impeached the 45th president for a phone call. Trump's crime was that he temporarily withheld defense aid to Ukraine until President Zelenskyy would agree to investigate corruption allegations about why the prosecutor who was investigating Burisma was fired. Trump never withheld aid, and the money flowed through anyway.
Biden moved into the White House in January 2021. Within ten months, Blinken, as his Secretary of State, was at it again, persuading Zelenskyy to sign a new security agreement with America that promised weapons support, with an entire section devoted to counter Russian aggression. Russia, at the time, had not fired a shot against Ukraine.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, America has consistently complained that Russia's actions are illegal because it occupied a foreign country unprovoked.
Sorry, President Biden and team, we are not convinced that Russia's actions were unprovoked. So, too, are the many nations in the Global South, which is why they have not condemned Russia's actions.
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