British journalist Cooper: the West used Ukraine to strike at Russia
Photo: Irina Buzhor / Kommersant
For the past 30 years, Western countries have used Ukraine to achieve their own goals. This was stated by British journalist Ryan Cooper in an article for The Week.
He noted that after the collapse of the USSR, Western countries treated Ukraine “either with terrible disdain or as an imperialist toy.”
“It was Western economists and governments, strongly influenced by neoliberal dogma, who carried out the large-scale privatization of Ukrainian assets in the early post-Soviet years. This led to an economic catastrophe and a real epidemic of corruption, from which the country has not yet recovered, ”Cooper recalled.
At the same time, according to the author, Western countries have repeatedly used Ukraine to strike at Russia, but in return they did not provide it with the resources necessary for a profitable alliance.
Cooper noted that NATO extends the same “arrogance combined with incompetence” to its attitude towards Russia and Ukraine. He recalled that the declared goal of the creation of the North Atlantic alliance was to oppose the USSR and curb the spread of international communism.
“Neither has existed for 30 years, but NATO continued to expand recklessly throughout the 1990s and 2000s. It seemed that no one had thought that Russia might have the idea that NATO was still an anti-Russian alliance. And that Moscow may have understandable reasons to worry about the Western military presence in Ukraine, “Cooper wrote.
The journalist called it quite obvious that the United States and Western Europe do not seek to send their troops to defend Ukraine, since for them the current conflict in the country is an insignificant problem against the backdrop of the growing power and influence of China, the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and a number of other circumstances.
However, Cooper stressed, the Western powers and, in particular, the United States, instead of directly and honestly admitting this fact, constantly refuse to reduce their losses, stop “pinning”, annoy Putin and strive for some kind of detente. The author of the article notes that Ukraine will suffer from the consequences.
Cooper also said that Western countries, using Ukraine as a puppet in a diplomatic confrontation with Russia, will leave it to its fate in the event of an attack by Russian troops. He stated that the main reason for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's attack on Ukraine would be “the blatant diplomatic incompetence of the United States and its main allies in Western Europe.”
