Blinken signed this commitment on Nov 10, 2021 in the midst of the Russian buildup on the Ukrainian border. It has received very little notice publicly and Congress was AWOL. Provocation is not too strong of a word. We should have been marshaling diplomatic efforts globally to avoid the imminent conflict. Instead, we led Ukraine down the primrose path to war.
It certainly was a provocation for Russia to be building up forces on the Ukraine border, although I remember at the time hearing it was supposed to be practicing military maneuvers. I guess the whole world did not imagine Putin would do something so rash as invade. And the US people in the know, both in the administration and on the various Congressional defense related committees, probably thought the same. I’m not sure that failure to imagine how evil, or ill, Putin was constitutes leading Ukraine down a primrose path to war.
Provocation is not too strong of a word. We should have been marshaling diplomatic efforts globally to avoid the imminent conflict. Instead, we led Ukraine down the primrose path to war.
Our current group is not too bright on diplomatic efforts. Russia is the aggressor, but we helped spur them on. There were repeated statements in favor of Ukraine joining NATO. There may have been a plan for Ukraine to send forces into Luhansk and Donetsk. Whatever, there was a massive miscalculation about the Russian response. For decades, Russia repeatedly drew a red line on Ukraine and NATO, akin to the Monroe/Polk doctrines. His bluff was called and it was not a bluff. Oopsies.