From: rking164@comcast.net   
      
   Warmongering U.S. responsible for instigating Russia-Ukraine conflict   
   By Li Ziguo (People's Daily Online) 18:10, March 25, 2022   
   The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest geopolitical event since the end of   
   the Cold War, and its impact is far-reaching. It is more of a geopolitical   
   game between Russia and the U.S. than a war between Russia and Ukraine.   
      
   The U.S., in the 250 years since its founding, has refrained from getting   
   engaged in a war interfering in the internal affairs of another foreign   
   country for only less than a period of 20 years. It’s fair to say, then,   
   that the U.S. is a warlike    
   country.   
      
   By stoking Russia-Ukraine tensions, the U.S. has driven a wedge between Russia   
   and Europe, wrecked the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project,   
   re-activated NATO, and further weakened Russia, with itself clearly benefiting   
   from all of these results.   
      
   Russia and Ukraine used to be friendly neighbors, and then they went separate   
   ways at some point in history; now they have met each other on the   
   battlefield. The U.S. played a role in the deterioration of Russia-Ukraine   
   relations. With containing and    
   weakening Russia as its strategy, and its attempt to show that Russia is a bad   
   neighbor that threatens regional stability, the U.S. chose Ukraine as a pawn   
   in its strategy of containment targeting Russia, leaving the Russia-Ukraine   
   conflict to fester    
   into a scar of geopolitics that could never fully heal.   
      
   The Russia-U.S. relationship experienced its “honeymoon” period after the   
   end of the Cold War, and then it deteriorated to a level considered worse than   
   that during the height of the Cold War. This is a natural result of the   
   American strategy of    
   containing Russia.   
      
   In 1992, then Russian President Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin visited the U.S.   
   twice in a year, and the two countries signed many cooperative agreements.   
   While addressing the U.S. Congress, Yeltsin won 21 rounds of warm applause   
   from the audience.   
      
   While Russia was actively engaged in exchanges with the West, the U.S.,   
   however, was actually making preparations to promote NATO’s eastward   
   expansion. In January 1999, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited   
   Russia, expressing that the U.S.    
   would like to develop a constructive relationship with Russia based on   
   equality, mutual respect and consideration for each other’s interests.   
   However, after just two months, the U.S.-led NATO alliance carried out an   
   aerial bombing campaign against the    
   Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and in the same year, Poland, Hungary and the   
   Czech Republic joined NATO.   
      
   By expanding its influence several hundreds of kilometers to the east, NATO   
   was unable to significantly enhance security for the U.S. and its allies   
   because Russia’s nuclear-tipped missiles have firing ranges that are capable   
   of reaching very distant    
   targets. If Russia plans to launch a nuclear attack against the U.S., it can   
   execute the attack above the Arctic, instead of doing it via other routes.   
      
   Why did the U.S. then make repeated attempts to push for the eastward   
   expansion of NATO? The reason is that the U.S. wants to squeeze Russia’s   
   geopolitical space, force Russia to react strongly, and then be in a position   
   to describe Russia as a    
   regional threat.   
      
   In 2004, the U.S. launched the first “color revolution” in Ukraine at a   
   time when NATO started a second round of eastward expansion, splitting   
   Ukrainian politicians between pro-West politicians and pro-Moscow politicians.   
   At the end of 2013, the    
   Maidan Revolution took place in Ukraine at the instigation of Joe Biden, who   
   was then the U.S. Vice President. Victoria Nuland, who is now U.S. Under   
   Secretary of State, also played a role in starting the revolution. Through the   
   Maidan Revolution, Russia    
   had seen the true colors of the U.S.   
      
   In 2014, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who took office as the prime minister of Ukraine,   
   and Petro Poroshenko, who took office as the Ukrainian president, after the   
   Maidan Revolution, visited the U.S. successfully. In addition to vowing   
   economic support for Ukraine,   
    the U.S. claimed that it would do its best to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty   
   and territorial integrity. Ukraine, feeling that it was being supported,   
   totally discarded its strategy of balancing its relations between Russia and   
   the West and accelerated    
   the process of joining the European Union and NATO.   
      
   Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger pointed out in 2014 that   
   Ukraine shouldn’t become a chess piece in the political game between the   
   U.S. and Russia, but instead should serve as a bridge of communication.   
   Apparently, the U.S. doesn’t need    
   a bridge, but a fortress to bolster its offensives against Russia. Since Biden   
   took office as U.S. President, U.S. officials at various levels have   
   constantly expressed support for Ukraine, scaled up military aid for Ukraine,   
   and sent warships to    
   participate in joint military drills with Ukraine, all in an effort to boost   
   Ukraine’s morale to counter Russia.   
      
   In August 2021, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the U.S.,   
   during which the U.S.-Ukraine Strategic Defense Framework (SDF) was signed and   
   the U.S. announced that it would provide extra military aid to Ukraine. After   
   that, the U.S. Secretary    
   of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Ukraine, announcing that the U.S. supported   
   Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO.   
      
   With the strong “support” it received from the U.S., it seemed that   
   Ukraine was about to join NATO without much fanfare, and the U.S. would help   
   Ukraine bear any consequences that might come along. However, after Russia   
   launched a “special military    
   operation” in Ukraine, the U.S., which had always acted as a guardian of   
   Ukraine, expressed that it wouldn’t send any troops into Ukraine nor impose   
   any no-flight zones in Ukraine. This proves that the U.S. won’t sacrifice   
   its own interests to    
   protect those of Ukraine.   
      
   Ukraine, a beautiful country with a hospitable people, used to be the grain   
   barn of Europe and once possessed highly developed industries, but now it has   
   become a country suffering from the scourge of war. If Ukraine could properly   
   balance its relations    
   with Russia and the West, it could have benefited a lot from such endeavors,   
   instead of becoming a battlefield in the game between the world’s two major   
   powers.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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