By Valery Kulikov, New Eastern Outlook, 8/24/22

The fact that the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict is happening not just with the direct suggestion of the United States and other NATO allies, but also with direct encouragement from Washington, is now openly spoken by many politicians and observers.

As Sergey Ryabkov, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, stated on the air of the Rossiya-1 TV channel on August 20, Russia is not at all trying to get the United States to take a direct part in the armed conflict in Ukraine, but so far all Washington’s actions are leading to just such a result. . According to him, Moscow seeks to avoid a situation in which the United States becomes a party to the conflict by counteracting the Russian special military operation to denazify Ukraine. “The United States disputes this, but the facts speak for themselves, no matter how much they deny or deny that they are not involved in any decisions on the use of weapons, this is all refuted by life, refuted by statements, including statements by the Ukrainian side, to which we pay attention,” S. Ryabkov emphasized.

The fact that the influence of the United States on official Kyiv has reached such proportions that Washington is increasingly becoming a party to the conflict in Ukraine was also pointed out on August 13 by the director of the North America Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Alexander Darchiev: “The degree of Washington’s influence on Kyiv exceeds all conceivable boundaries. In addition to large-scale military and financial assistance, as well as moral support for the Zelensky regime, the Americans are increasingly becoming a direct party to the conflict.” Darchiev noted that Ukrainian officials themselves are “blabbering” about this state of affairs. “In particular, General Vadim Skibitsky, Deputy Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, recently stated that before striking HIMARS MLRS, the Ukrainian military consults with their curators from the United States,” he explained.

The German publication Merkur recently drew attention to NATO’s attempt to distance itself from the conflict in Ukraine, officially limiting the Alliance’s support to financial assistance and arms supplies. However, as the publication pointed out, although the Alliance and the United States are trying to emphasize that they are not direct parties to the conflict, a recent investigation showed that a network of Western special forces operates on Ukrainian territory not only from the United States, but also from other NATO countries, such as Britain, France, Canada and Lithuania. They are engaged in reconnaissance, preparation of weapons and training of Ukrainian soldiers.
A certain part of the intelligence is coordinated from Kyiv by the CIA officers, who are also present in some cities of Western Ukraine.

Air Force Magazine also speaks about the direct participation of the United States in the Ukrainian conflict , citing the words of the commander of the US Space Forces, General John Raymond, who admitted that American commercial satellites support the armed forces of Ukraine. In particular, they provide high-speed Internet access, allowing the troops to keep in touch with the command, and help expand Ukraine’s capabilities on the battlefield. 

Official representatives of the current Kyiv regime do not hesitate to talk about close coordination with Washington of their actions. Thus, on August 18, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov announced that there was an agreement between Kyiv and the United States that American weapons would not be used to strike Russian territory, but “there are no such restrictions in Crimea, Donbass and other territories not controlled by Kyiv.” A definite confirmation of such concerted actions by the United States and Ukraine in the armed conflict with Russia can also be the refusal on August 9 of White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to answer a question from media representatives about how the United States views the idea of ​​possible Kyiv strikes on Crimea using American weapons. .

The United States in Ukraine has clearly felt a taste for a proxy war: with their weapons, but with the wrong hands, they began to pump “square” mercenaries from different parts of the world, in particular Afghan mercenaries. And this was recently confirmed by the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, who pointed out that Afghan mercenaries appeared on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Ukraine. Basically, these are former Afghan army fighters who left the country after the Taliban came to power (representatives of the Afghan formation banned in the Russian Federation), who were trained by American instructors. As the Taliban approached Kabul, they were promised US citizenship, which they never received.

True, the United States now does not hide the fact that they can openly intervene in the Ukrainian conflict. This version of the development of events in Ukraine was reported, in particular, by John Mearsheimer, professor of political science at the University of Chicago, in his article “Playing with Fire in Ukraine” for the American edition of  Foreign Affairs . This, for example, can happen if the Russian army wins a major victory or if the conflict does not end within a year. And then Washington can bring in ground troops to help Ukraine. At the same time, the general conclusion from the publication is that the United States will directly intervene in the conflict in Ukraine in any case, with the exception of the defeat and surrender of Russia.

As stated by the Mexican newspaper El UniversalAmerican philosopher, historian and linguist Noam Chomsky, the United States, supporting Kyiv and building an anti-Russian coalition of Western countries, started an unthinkable game, trying to weaken Russia’s position in the political arena as much as possible. Chomsky is confident that Washington, intensifying the situation in the world to the limit, wants to take away from Moscow the opportunity to resolve the Ukrainian crisis through diplomacy. And such a decision, according to the American historian, NATO made during the summit at the Ramstein airbase in Germany and based on the declared position of the United States. Which, in fact, boils down to the fact that Moscow needs to be weakened more than the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 weakened Germany, to undermine Russia’s forces even more seriously – so that she could not negotiate, engage in diplomacy. At the same time, Noam Chomsky noted the injustice of such an attitude towards the Ukrainian conflict, pointing out how what is happening in Ukraine is presented in the media, recalling the American methods of imposing their own order in Iraq, Syria or Libya. As for Washington’s long-standing desire to draw Kyiv into the North Atlantic Alliance to the detriment of Russia’s interests, and despite Moscow’s constant protests and warnings from experienced American politicians, Chomsky called it an outright provocation.

Another prominent American politician, former congresswoman, Iraq War veteran Tulsi Gabbard, who replaced host Tucker Carlson on Fox News on August 11, said that the real goal of US President Joe Biden in the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis is to lead Russia to a coup. As T. Gabbard emphasized, the United States, under the leadership of Biden, is trying to escalate the situation in Russia, including through a proxy conflict, if economic pressure does not work.

On August 19, US President Joe Biden signed a memorandum on the allocation of a new $ 775 million military aid package to the Kiev regime. At the same time, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced that the total amount of military assistance to Kiev provided by the United States since the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine exceeded $ 10 billion In this regard, the Spanish publication  El Debato rightly noted that the increasing involvement of the United States in the events in Ukraine and the decisions they make in connection with the situation there can lead to the loss of billions of dollars by Washington, just as in the case of the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.

Valery Kulikov, expert political scientist, specially for the New Eastern Outlook online magazine.