Nuland: Why U.S. never pushed Ukraine into talks with Russia

Ukraine has never been in a position to get a favourable settlement to end the enduring conflict with Russia and so Washington has never actually encouraged Kyiv to negotiate with Moscow, former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and former acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland has claimed.

The ex-official and one of the key proponents of supporting Ukraine through military means made the remark in an interview with Politico published on Saturday.

The former official revealed Washington has never actually pressed Kiev into negotiations with Moscow, claiming its “negotiating position” was never actually strong enough, including in late 2022.

“They were not in a strong enough position then. They’re not in a strong enough position now. The only deal Putin would have cut then, the only deal that he would cut today, at least before he sees what happens in our election, is a deal in which he says, ‘What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is negotiable.’ And that’s not sustainable,” she claimed.

Victoria Nuland has been widely perceived as one of the key figures behind the whole Ukrainian crisis that started with the Maidan events, which ultimately brought down Ukraine’s democratically-elected president, Viktor Yanukovich, in 2014.

The diplomat, who at the time was Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, infamously showed up among Maidan activists, handing out pastries. The affair became widely known as “Nuland’s cookies,” serving as a textbook example of direct US involvement in the coup.

Since then, the U.S. spy organisation CIA has been operating in the Ukraine.

The West seems to have played its hand pretty badly, as Russia is advancing in the front by day and Ukraine is tumbling in all fronts, lacking men and arms to put up even a decent resistance. It takes time for the latest U.S. aid to be realised in the front and in the meantime, Russia is using the time effectively.

At the moment, despite all the cheers, it seems delusional to think that Ukraine will emerge victorious.