Interesting chapter from Alexander Bick who led the NSC's Russia-Ukraine Tiger Team on the Biden administration's thinking during the Russian buildup: "Over the fall, the administration was trying to balance two contradictory objectives—to ensure that Ukraine had the capabilities to defend itself, while avoiding any steps that might increase the likelihood of an invasion or affix blame on the United States. As Colin Kahl, then under secretary of defense for policy, later put it, 'we didn’t want to inadvertently speed up the Russian clock, incentivize Putin, or give him a pretext to make a decision he had not made. Us leaning too far forward could create dynamics either within the alliance or as we were trying to build world opinion against the Russians that made us look like we were the provocateurs.'" muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/oa_edite…
They were happy to provoke Russia into war. Otherwise they would have been willing to sign a deal that left Ukraine militarily neutral between Russia an NATO. There was never any question that continuing to move Ukraine toward NATO alliance would lead to confrontation. harpers.org/archive/2023/0…
@dcrane729 @RALee85 Ukraine was neutral in every way until 2014, when Russia sent its agent Igor Girkin to capture Crimea and Donbas.
@FactsInEvidence @dcrane729 @RALee85 How do you define "neutral"
@TAZUTRA @FactsInEvidence @dcrane729 @RALee85 Probably the same way Girkin / Strelkov, Prighozin et al who’s admitted it’s putinesque propaganda does—GFTOH with that debunked nonsense