"Nyet Means Nyet": Proof That the US Provoked the War in Ukraine

A 2008 memo written by current CIA Director William Burns, makes it clear US leaders knew what would happen if the West pressed for Ukraine's admission into NATO.

Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs recently talked with Piers Morgan about the war in Ukraine, and his British counterpart seemed aghast that a learned professor like Sachs would believe that America, not Putin, is the real problem.

Sachs smiled back at his British host with an endearing look of patience, one usually reserved for a parent educating a child.

"I was born in 1954,” Sachs said, “and I've seen nothing but US wars and CIA ops my whole life... I'm TIRED of them!"

The CIA has indeed been involved in such nefarious plots for decades, and as Sachs went on to point out, the US government toppled Viktor Yanukovych’s Ukrainian government in Kiev in February 2014.

“I happened to see that with my own yes,” Sachs said. “The US government overthrew Yanukovych.”

This is strong evidence that the US government was provoking a conflict with Vladmir Putin, but it gets stronger.

Thanks to WikiLeaks, we know that the CIA was well aware how Russia felt about Ukraine. A 2008 memo (“Nyet Means Nyet”) written by current CIA Director William Burns, explained the practical dangers of the West trying to admit Ukraine into NATO.

“Following a muted first reaction to Ukraine's intent to seek a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) at the Bucharest summit (ref A), Foreign Minister Lavrov and other senior officials have reiterated strong opposition, stressing that Russia would view further eastward expansion as a potential military threat.

NATO enlargement, particularly to Ukraine, remains ‘an emotional and neuralgic’ issue for Russia, but strategic policy considerations also underlie strong opposition to NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia. In Ukraine, these include fears that the issue could potentially split the country in two, leading to violence or even, some claim, civil war, which would force Russia to decide whether to intervene.”

So what did the US government do literally months after wrapping up its 20-year Afghanistan adventure?

It greenlighted Ukraine into NATO.

The White House even managed to mess that up, apparently because it was unclear on just how conspicuous its invitation to Ukraine should be. What matters is that even as Russian troops mobilized on the Ukrainian border, Biden left the door wide open to admit Ukraine into its Western military alliance.