Last week, Steve Witkov, a special envoy appointed by Trump, wrote about Ukraine's NATO ambitions as “The threat to the Russians,” implies that this was what sparked the war three years ago. “War didn't have to happen – it was provoked. That doesn't necessarily mean it was caused by the Russians,” Witkov told CNN.
His message is clear. Russia was returned to the corner and was forced into action by the Self-Defense Forces when it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Of course, the evidence tells a different story.
The claim that NATO expansion caused war is not new. Western leaders, including the Biden administration, French and German leaders Long voice concerns They often fear that they will promote tensions with Russia regarding Ukraine membership. But what President Trump is doing is qualitatively different and far more dangerous.
The previous administrations tried to prevent a full NATO-Russia conflict, but Ukraine never supported the idea that it was due to the war. Their hesitation was a strategic calculation to avoid another World War I. But Witkov's comments go further. They echo directly Russian propagandaclaimed Ukraine's pursuit of security assurances was reckless and that NATO's ambitions sparked war.
With these statements, the United States is now officially accepting one of Russia's biggest lies.
If NATO expansion was really the trigger, why was Vladimir Putin waiting until 2022 to infiltrate? Why not in 2008? When Ukraine first asked for membership, Or in 2014, when NATO debate later resurfaced. Russia seized Crimea
The truth is that Ukraine is not approaching NATO. There were no membership action plans, and major NATO members revealed they were I don't want to acknowledge Ukraine immediately.
Ukraine's NATO aspirations were not provocation. They were the reaction to Russian attacks: the illegal annexation of Crimea, Russia Proxy Wars in Donbasand Moscow's longstanding efforts to control Ukraine politically, economically and culturally.
In him February 21, 2022a speech justifying the war, Putin barely mentioned NATO. Instead, he stuck with Ukraine as an artificial nation, historical accidents, a whimsical part of what is called the “Russian world.” His argument had nothing to do with military threats or self-defense. It was an assertion of the Imperial qualifications. It reflected his 2021 Essay“On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians” completely denied Ukraine's legitimacy as a sovereign state.
Before the Russian invasion request It further reveals the hollowness of NATO's excuses. Moscow wasn't merely insisting that Ukraine would not join the alliance. It has fully called for the withdrawal of NATO from Eastern Europe to roll back security assurances for Poland, the Baltics and other frontline states. This was by no means about Ukraine. It was a broader push to reaffirm Russia's rule over the former empire.
The Russian attack pattern is the clearest counterargument to the “expansion of NATO” myth. Georgia, Attacked in 2008and was not on NATO membership crisis. Ukraine, Invasion in 2014there was no realistic path to joining the alliance. Russia has not defended itself against NATO, nor has it defended it. It targets neighbors who are seeking independence from its grip.
The dishonorable parrot of Witkov's Kremlin propaganda is not a diplomacy that pursues peace. It is a moraleful attempt to undermine Ukraine and Europe. By framing a defensive attitude as a “provocation” against Russia, while allowing Russian attacks as self-defense, he justifies the very logic used to justify war and conquest.
Oleh S. Ilnytzkyj He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta. He was the editor of “Canadian Slavonic Paper” and “East/West: The Ukrainian Journal of Research.” His latest book is“Nikolai Gogol: The Empire's Ukrainian Writer: A Study of Identity.”
