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Timeline of how NATO Provoked the War in Ukraine

David Anderson, 7 Aug 2024
1995 USA flag
William J Burns
Warns of dangers of NATO expansion to Ukraine [1]
1997 USA flag
George F. Kennan
Warns of dangers of eastward NATO expansion [2]
2008 USA flag
William J Burns
Warns of dangers of NATO expansion to Ukraine [3]
2008 NATO flag
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
NATO
Affirms Ukraine will become a member of NATO.
2009 USA flag
Stephen Pifer
Warns of risks of NATO membership for Ukraine
2015 USA flag
Professor John Mearsheimer
University of Chicago
Blames the West for Ukraine unrest [4]
Dec 2021 USA flag
President Putin
Demands guarantees that Ukraine will not join NATO
Jan 2022 NATO flag
Anthony Blinken
Secretary of State
Rejects any negotiation with Russia. Asserts right of Ukraine to join NATO [7]
Jan 2022 NATO flag
Jens Stoltenberg
NATO
Rejects any negotiation with Russia. Asserts right of Ukraine to join NATO [7]
Feb 2022 Russian flag
President Putin
Invades Ukraine
March 2022 Turkish flag
Mevlut Cavusoglu
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Mediates Istanbul peace talks
3 March 2022 Russian flag
Roman Abramovich
Helps mediate Istanbul peace deal
10 March 2022 UK flag
Liz Truss
Foreign Secretary
Imposes sanctions on Roman Abramovtch [9]
April 2022 UK flag
Boris Johnson
Prime Minister
Flies to Ukraine to sabotage Istanbul peace deal [5]
2022 USA flag
Professor David Hendrickson
Colorado College
Believes NATO expansion provoked the Ukraine war [8]
2023 USA flag
Professor Jeffrey Sachs
Columbia University
Believes NATO expansion provoked the Ukraine war
2023 NATO flag
Jens Stoltenberg
NATO
Confirms NATO expansion provoked the Ukraine war [6]

References

  1. “hostility to early NATO expansion is almost universally felt across the domestic political spectrum here.”
    Burns, a political officer in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, reported to Washington. (William J Burns 'The Back Channel')
  2. Expanding NATO would be a “fateful error” because it would “inflame the nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion.”(NY Times 5/2/1997)
  3. “Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for the Russian elite (not just Putin.”
    "hard to overstate the strategic consequences” (of offering NATO membership to Ukraine)
    Burns, U.S. ambassador in Moscow, memo to Condoleezza Rice. (William J Burns 'The Back Channel')
  4. John Mearsheimer, 4/6/2015, University of Chicago, 'Why is Ukraine the West's Fault?'
  5. Roman Romaniuk: 'From Zelenskyy's "surrender" to Putin's surrender: how the negotiations with Russia are going'; 5/5/22, Ukrainska Pravda
  6. Jens Stoltenberg, "Putin went to war to prevent more NATO expansion along Russia's borders",7/9/23, Speech to EU
  7. RFE/RL: "U.S. Rejects Russian Demand On NATO Expansion, But Offers 'Path' Out Of Ukraine Crisis", 26/01/22
  8. Professor David Hendrickson 'The Causes of the War', The American Conservative, 04/03/22
  9. "Abramovich and Deripaska among 7 oligarchs targeted in estimated £15 billion sanction hit", UK Foreign Office, 10/3/2022