The Hill Writer Discovers What I Told You for Three Years: “Sadly, Trump is right on Ukraine.”

The Hill is a mainstream media outlet. So when they feature an article reversing course on an issue, it means something. That happened yesterday with this article by Alan J. Kuperman, identified as “a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches courses on military strategy and conflict management.” Article title: “Sadly, Trump is right on Ukraine.”

He begins:

I rarely agree with President Trump, but his latest controversial statements about Ukraine are mostly true. They only seem preposterous because western audiences have been fed a steady diet of disinformation about Ukraine for more than a decade.

Right – unless you’ve been reading my stuff here, and elsewhere. He continues:

It is time to set the record straight on three key points that illuminate why Ukrainians and former President Joe Biden — not merely Russian President Vladimir Putin — bear significant responsibility for the outbreak and perpetuation of war in Ukraine.

First, as recently documented by overwhelming forensic evidence, and affirmed even by a Kyiv court, it was Ukrainian right-wing militants who started the violence in 2014 that provoked Russia’s initial invasion of the country’s southeast including Crimea.

Kuperman doesn’t name the “right-wing militants,” but they’re the Banderist Nazis, followers of Stepan Bandera, who murdered tens of thousands of Russians, Poles and Jews. They include the Right Sector, Azov Brigade and other units of the Ukrainian Army. After Jews, nobody hates Nazis more than Russians, because Hitler murdered 27 million Soviet citizens in World War II, out of a population of 200 million of them – not just Russians, but Byelorussians, Ukrainians, Kazaks, et al. Remnants of Bandera’s killers survived in Ukraine and, with CIA help, caused problems for the Soviet regime. Unfortunately, they were revived when the Cold War ended in 1991 and Ukraine got its independence.

Kuperman:

Back then, Ukraine had a pro-Russia president, Viktor Yanukovych, who had won free and fair elections in 2010 with strong support from ethnic Russians in the country’s southeast.

In 2013, he decided to pursue economic cooperation with Russia rather than Europe as previously planned. Pro-western activists responded with mainly peaceful occupation of the capital’s Maidan square and government offices, until the president eventually offered substantial concessions in mid-February 2014, after which they mainly withdrew.

Just then, however, right-wing militants overlooking the square started shooting Ukrainian police and remaining protesters. Police returned fire at the militants, who then claimed bogusly that the police had killed the unarmed protesters. Outraged by this ostensible government massacre, Ukrainians descended on the capital and ousted the president, who fled to Russia for protection.

Again, the “right-wing militants” were Banderist Nazis. This was the time when Victoria Nuland passed out cookies in the street, while she made an infamous phone call – the audio is on YouTube – to U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, ordering him to put her favorite in charge of the government: “I don't think Klitsch should go into the government. I don't think it's necessary. I don't think it's a good idea... I think Yats is the guy.” And on the EU’s involvement, she ordered, “… and, you know, f--- the E.U.”

Kuperman:

Putin responded by deploying troops to Crimea and weapons to the southeast Donbas region on behalf of ethnic Russians who felt their president had been undemocratically overthrown. While this backstory does not justify Russia’s invasion, it explains that it was hardly “unprovoked.”

I’ve always agreed Putin should not have invaded, but waited until the U.S. got a better president than Biden and his Armageddon Crew of Blinken, Sullivan and Nuland. But here we are.

Kuperman:

Second, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky contributed to a wider war by violating peace deals with Russia and seeking NATO military aid and membership. The deals, known as Minsk 1 and 2, had been negotiated under his predecessor President Petro Poroshenko in 2014 and 2015 to end fighting in the southeast and protect endangered troops.

Right. Let me add Poroshenko was the unelected dictator Nuland – and Obama and VP Biden – ended up putting in charge in 2014.

Kuperman:

Ukraine was to guarantee Donbas limited political autonomy by the end of 2015, which Putin believed would be sufficient to prevent Ukraine from joining — or serving as a military base for — NATO. Regrettably, Ukraine refused for seven years to fulfill that commitment.

Zelensky even campaigned in 2019 on a promise to finally implement the accords to prevent further war. But after winning election, he reneged, apparently less concerned about risking war than looking weak on Russia.

As I’ve said many, many times, there’s no way Russia ever would allow Ukraine to join NATO. Sometimes Ukraine partisans say, “Any country has the freedom to join any alliance.” No it doesn’t. If Mexico joined an alliance with Russia and was going to put missiles in Baja, before the ink was dry on the treaty in the streets of Mexico City you would be hearing “From the Halls of Montezuma….”

Kuperman:

Zelensky instead increased weapons imports from NATO countries, which was the last straw for Putin. So, on Feb. 21, 2022, Russia recognized the independence of Donbas, deployed troops there for “peacekeeping,” and demanded Zelensky renounce his quest for NATO military assistance and membership.

When Zelensky again refused, Putin massively expanded his military offensive on Feb. 24. Intentionally or not, Zelensky had provoked Russian aggression, although that obviously does not excuse Moscow’s subsequent war crimes.

There have been war crimes on both sides. Wars that last this long, including all those the U.S. has been involved in, always bring war crimes. Which is another reason why wars ought to be avoided.

Kuperman:

Third, Joe Biden too contributed crucially to the escalation and perpetuation of fighting. In late 2021, when Putin mobilized forces on Ukraine’s border and demanded implementation of the Minsk deals, it seemed obvious that unless Zelensky relented, Russia would invade to at least form a land bridge between Donbas and Crimea.

For the rest of the history of the United States, and may it be long and glorious, we and the world will suffer from the criminal idiocy of Biden and his crew of miscreants.

Kuperman:

Had Trump been president, he would not have provided such a blank check, so Zelensky would have had little choice but to implement the Minsk deals to avert war. Even if Zelensky had still refused and provoked Russia to invade, Trump would have denied him a veto over peace negotiations, which Biden recklessly gave by declaring, “There’s nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

That pledge tragically emboldened Ukraine to prolong the war in expectation of eventually decisive U.S. military aid, which Biden then refused to supply due to fear of nuclear escalation.

I’m glad Kuperman finally brought up the nuclear weapons, which I always do at the beginning, as you know if you read my stuff. Because that’s the most important thing.

Kuperman’s ending:

The basic outlines of a deal to end the fighting are obvious even if details remain to be negotiated, as Trump and Putin started doing today in a phone call. Russia will continue to occupy Crimea and other portions of the southeast, while the rest of Ukraine will not join NATO but will get security guarantees from some western countries. The sad thing is that such a plan could have been achieved at least two years ago if only President Biden had made military aid conditional on Zelensky negotiating a ceasefire.

Even more tragic, whatever peace deal emerges after the war will be worse for Ukraine than the Minsk accords that Zelensky foolishly abandoned due to his political ambitions and naïve expectation of bottomless U.S. support.

Actually, I think that’s too optimistic for Ukraine. Russia at this point has a gigantic, well-equipped army in Eastern Ukraine, and will do what it wants, and there’s nothing Trump or NATO can do about it. This isn’t a prediction, but more likely than Kuperman’s scenario is Russia occupies land up to the Dnepr river, an excellent defensive border, plus Odessa, traditionally and still an ethnically Russian city, leaving Ukraine with no coastal area.

In any case, Kuperman provides, reluctantly, a sensible summary of what really happened. Which you already knew if you’ve been reading my articles for the past three years.