PEACE IN UKRAINE SERIES: PART 2

The USA are no strangers to illegally usurping elected governments (Klein 2008). From Iran to Chile, to Libya, Iraq and through to Ukraine to name but a few [of the ‘successful’ cases], one of the most frequently deployed tools of U.S. foreign policy is conducting coup d’états of foreign governments. Illegal and immoral as they may be, the American game is finding a way to present these coups to the world benevolently as democratic revolutions. This game is usually conducted through a heavily controlled flow of propaganda from the United States. Whilst the flow of this the (dis-)information war reached new heights in 2022, this piece solely focuses on the disinformation surrounding the events of 2014. This part is aimed at dispelling the propaganda upholding the myth that the Euromaidan was Ukraine’s independent ‘democratic revolution’ - disgracefully titled by more liberal authors as the “Revolution of Dignity” (Wittke 2019) - by identifying the United States' role in the Ukraine’s 2014 coup. Knocking down the foundational myths that Ukraine’s neo-fascist parties have developed a platform on in the years since and displaying the monstrous economic force that America has propelled these neo-fascists with. This will be a necessary start point to paint a clearer, more objective picture on the ‘internationalised’ aspect of an Internationalised Internal Armed Conflict (IIAC).

US FUNDING OF UKRAINIAN NEO-NAZIS

The U.S.’ role in driving the conflict cannot be understated and, had the volume of Russia’s complaints at the time been amplified so the world could hear them, the current conflict in entirety could have been avoided. As protestors built up in Kyiv in the lead up to the Euromaidan, senior Russian Presidential advisors were warning that the USA was funding the Ukrainian [neofascist] opposition ‘to the tune of $20 million per week’, even providing military training and weapons to militants of Ukraine’s extreme-right parties on the grounds of the U.S Embassy (Benjamin and Davies 2022 p.38). This total was on top of the $5 billion invested in ‘democracy’ in Ukraine by the USA between 1991-2014 that had made its way to these same extreme-right parties (Mearsheimer 2014, Benjamin and Davies 2022). It was these same militants which then later adopted a central role in inciting violence and battling police during the Maidan (Hahn 2016, Benjamin and Davies 2022). Those 20,000 inciting and escalating violence at the Euromaidan protests were on the most part, members of Svoboda and the Right Sector with Svoboda’s co-founder, for example, pronounced as the “Commandant” to the armed fighters resisting the police at the EuroMaidan (Benjamin and Davies 2022 p.33). These were groups that identified vociferously with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), idolising Stepan Bandera, as seen from the below image, both of whom aligned with the Nazi’s in World War II and committed heinous, genocidal atrocities against 1.5 million Jews, Russians and Poles in Ukraine (Benjamin and Davies 2022 p.33). Svoboda’s leader in 2015 even urging that Bandera was [again] ascribed the title “Hero of Ukraine”, a title removed by the pre-coup President, Victor Yanukovych (BBC 2015). Far-right ties that Zelenskyy and his Servant of The People party have only strengthened since his election (Melanovski 2021). Exemplified best by his martial law crackdown that outlawed any political parties, or media networks that opposed him and his narrative; even imprisoning opposition leaders (Nebehay 2021, Caddle 2022, Tovey 2022)

Image: Ukrainian Ultra-Nationalists parade with posters of Bandera at the lead as Svoboda (blue & yellow) & Right Sector (red & black) flags fly behind (BBC 2015)

JOE BIDEN, THE MIDWIFE OF THE UKRAINIAN COUP

As mentioned in the first piece of this series, the Euromaidan lasted from November 2013-February 2014, with the worst of the violence occurring over a three day span in late February, which we will extrapolate shortly. Interest must first turn to January 2014, as things were ‘heating up’ so to speak, when a phone call between the U.S Assistant Secretary of State, today the U.S. Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt was made, now leaked and released online. A call exposing the nefarious planning of the Ukrainian regime change (coup) between the couple, the exact regime change that transpired in the months following (Mearsheimer 2014 p.81, Benjamin and Davies 2022 pp.36-37). Here they are heard ‘handpicking’ which of the opposition figures [that they were financially supporting] would be placed in what positions following the coup, like, for example, agreeing that Arseniy Yatseniuk was their best choice for Prime Minister of Ukraine (Benjamin and Davies 2022 pp.36-37). Any guesses on who found themselves Prime Minister within the same week that the Euromaidan concluded? Yup, Arseniy Yatseniuk. The diabolical duo of Nuland and Pyatt then went on. Deciding to present their plans to the United Nations representative in Ukraine, Robert Serry, as they wanted to have “the UN to help glue it” (Benjamin and Davies 2022 p.37), without informing any EU officials who [were in on the coup plans but] favoured the Boxer Wladimir Klitschko for the PM position, which could potentially impede the pathway unfolding in front of them, “you know, fuck the EU” said Nuland (ibid.). Tertiarily, Nuland discusses with Pyatt her ongoing discussions with the team of then Vice President, now President of the United States Joe Biden. Most notably that Biden was not only well informed of the scheme, but “willing” to “midwife this thing” (ibid.).

This was the same Joe Biden that met Ukrainian legislators in April, less than two weeks after his successful coup and told them “This is a second opportunity to make good on the original promise made by the Orange Revolution” (Mearsheimer 2014 p.86). The Orange Revolution being the first set of Western sponsored ‘pro-democracy’ protests (Nov 2004-Jan 2005) in Ukraine. To guarantee that this coup remained a success, the USA provided $2.5 billion dollars to the neo-nazi/neofascist government[s] between 2014 and 2021 (Benjamin and Davies 2022 p.74). Meaning that between 1991 and 2021, the USA alone had subversively funnelled $7.5 billion into political activity inside Ukraine. An amount that has rocketed since the Russian intervention, higher even than the entire Russia’s entire defence budget of 2021, as is exposed in part 7 of this series. There were, after all, only two countries in the world who have persistently voted against the UN General Assembly Resolution ‘Combatting the glorification of Nazism and Neo-Nazism' (A/RES/75/169): Ukraine and the United States (UN 2020).

Image: u/Elisson on Reddit (2021)

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