In August 1991, Ukraine separated from Russia. This was roughly two years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In December 1994, a treaty called the Budapest Memorandum was signed which stated that Ukraine would give away its nuclear missiles (it had the world’s third-largest nuclear stockpile) in exchange for guarantees that the U.S., the U.K. and Russia would respect the independence and sovereignty of its existing borders. Obviously that treaty was not worth the paper it was written on.
In March 2014, Russia annexes Crimea. There was a referendum with the vote in Crimea favoring secession, but the results of that vote have been disputed. The Obama administration and U.S. allies in Europe imposed sanctions on Russia. Also in 2017, Petro Poroshenko is elected President of Ukraine. He stays in office until 2019 when Volodymyr Zelenskyy is elected on a promise to end the corruption in the country. President Obama asigns Vice-President Biden as the administration’s front man in Ukraine. On January 23, 2018, Vice-President Biden gives a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations telling the story of getting the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden fired after the Vice-President threatened to withhold $1 Billion in foreign aid to Ukraine. I guess the corruption was still there even after Zelenskyy was elected. Some of the people involved with Ukraine under the Obama administration were Victoria Nuland and Alexander Vindman. You may recognize the name Alexander Vindman from the first impeachment trial of President Trump.
On Friday, February 28, 2025, there was a meeting in the Oval Office between President Trump and President Zelenskyy. Various other people were in attendance, among them JD Vance and Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova.
This is the reaction of the Ukrainian Ambassador as the events of that meeting unfolded:
The purpose of the meeting was to sign an already-agreed-to treaty about mineral rights in Ukraine. President Zelenskyy had already agreed to the treaty but had repeatedly declined opportunities to sign the deal in Kyiv or Munich. He requested the meeting at the White House. Before the meeting, he met with a number of Congressmen from both political parties. Also included in that meeting were U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Deputy Secretary of State under President Obama and National Security Advisor to then-Vice President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs from 2013 to 2017 and U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 2005 to 2008, and Alexander Vindman, . You may remember Alexander Vindman from the first impeachment trial of President Trump. This group advised Zelenskyy to ask for a White House meeting with the intention of causing President Trump to lose his temper in order generate sympathy for the Ukrainian cause and President Zelenskyy. The idea was to force President Trump to put American troops in Ukraine and continue the war. This group is a representation of what is referred to as ‘the deep state.’ They all have connections and investments that profit from the corruption and the continuing war in Ukraine.
Why would anyone want to continue the war? Well, as usual, follow the money. According to CBS News in September 2023, some of the things we are funding in Ukraine include seeds and fertilizer for Ukrainian farmers, salaries of Ukraine’s first responders (57,000 of them), divers clearing unexploded ammunition from the rivers–to make them safe again for swimming and fishing. We are subsidizing small businesses-paying salaries and taxes. We are essentially supporting the country.
Corruption is rampant in Ukraine, and we have no accountability as to how the money we are sending is being spent. If the war continues and our spending continues, the people who are getting kickbacks from the spending will continue to thrive as the citizens of Ukraine suffer. I have read over the weekend that Zelenskyy has stated that he is now willing to sign the treaty. If that is true, this will be the fourth time he has said that. Let’s hope this time he means it.