From article What 10 Years of U.S. Meddling in Ukraine Have Wrought (Spoiler alert: Not democracy). Aaron Mate. April 30, 2024. Section 2.

Seeking to capitalize on the unrest in Ukraine in 2013, U.S. figures including State Department official Victoria Nuland, Republican Sen. John McCain, and Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy visited Maidan Square.

In a show of support for the movement’s hardline faction, which went beyond supporting the EU trade deal to demand Yanukovych’s ouster, the trio met privately with Tyahnybok and appeared with him on stage.

The senators’ mission, Murphy said, was to “bring about a peaceful transition in ukraine.”

The Maidan Movement’s most significant U.S. endorsement came from then-Vice President Joe Biden.

“Nothing would have greater impact for securing our interests and the world’s interests in Europe than to see a democratic, prosperous, and independent Ukraine in the region,” Biden said.

According to Andrii Telizhenko, a former Ukrainian government official who worked closely with Western officials during this period, the U.S. government’s role went far beyond those high-profile displays of solidarity.

“As soon as it grew into something, into the bigger Maidan, in the beginning of December, it basically was full coordination with the U.S. Embassy,” Telizhenko recalls. “Full, full.”

When the protests erupted, Telizhenko was working as an adviser to a Ukrainian member of Parliament.

Having spent part of his youth in Canada and the United States, Telizhenko’s fluent English and Western connections landed him a position helping to oversee the Maidan Movement’s international relations.

In this role, he organized meetings with and coordinated security arrangements for foreign visitors, including U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, Nuland, and McCain.

Most of their briefings were held at Kyiv’s Trade Unions Building, the movement’s de-facto headquarters in the city’s center.

Telizhenko says [U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey] Pyatt routinely coordinated with Maidan leaders on protest strategy.

In one encounter, the ambassador observed Right Sector members assembling Molotov cocktails that would later be thrown at riot police attempting to enter the building.

Sometimes, the U.S. ambassador disapproved of his counterparts’ tactics.

“The U.S. embassy would criticize if something would happen more radical than it was supposed to go by plan, because it's bad for the picture,” Telizhenko said.

That winter was marked by a series of escalating clashes.

On February 20, 2014, snipers fatally shot dozens of protesters in Maidan square.

Western governments attributed the killings to Yanukovych's forces.

But an intercepted phone call between NATO officials told a different story.

In the recorded conversation, Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet told EU foreign secretary Catherine Ashton he believed pro-Maidan forces were behind the slaughter.

In Kyiv, Paet reported, “there is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovych, but it was somebody from the new [Maidan] coalition.”

In a bid to resolve the Maidan crisis and avoid more bloodshed, European officials brokered a compromise between Yanukovych and the opposition.

The Feb. 21 deal called for a new national unity government that would keep Yanukovych in office, with reduced powers, until early elections at year’s end.

It also called for the disarmament of the Maidan forces and a withdrawal of riot police.

Holding up its end of the bargain, government security forces pulled back.

But the Maidan encampment's ultra-nationalist contingent had no interest in compromise.

“We don’t want to see Yanukovych in power,” Maidan Movement squadron leader Vladimir Parasyuk declared that same day. “And unless this morning you come up with a statement demanding that he steps down, then we will take arms and go, I swear.”

In insisting on regime change, the far-right contingent was also usurping the leadership of more moderate opposition leaders such as Vitali Klitschko, who supported the power-sharing agreement.

“The goal was to overthrow the government,” Telizhenko says. “That was the first goal. And it was all green-lighted by the U.S. Embassy. They basically supported all this, because they did not tell them to stop. If they told the Maidan leaders to stop, they would stop.”

Yet another leaked phone call bolstered suspicions the U.S. endorsed regime change.

On the recording, presumably intercepted in January by Russian or Ukrainian intelligence, Nuland and Pyatt discussed their choice of leaders in a proposed power-sharing government with Yanukovich.

Their conversation showed the U.S. exerted considerable influence with the faction  seeking the Ukrainian president’s ouster.

Tyahnybok, the openly antisemitic head of Svodova, would be a “problem” in office, Nuland worried, and better “on the outside.”

Klitschko, the more moderate Maidan member, was ruled out as well.

“I don’t think Klitsch should go into government,” Nuland said.

“I don’t think it’s necessary. I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

One reason was Klitschko's proximity to the European Union.

Despite her government’s warm words for the European Union in public, Nuland told Pyatt: “Fuck the EU.”

The two U.S. officials settled on technocrat Arseniy Yatsenyuk. “I think Yats is the guy,” Nuland said.

By that point, Yatsenyuk had endorsed violent insurrection.

The government’s rejection of Maidan demands, he said, meant “people had acquired the right to move from non-violent to violent means of protest.”

The only outstanding matter, Pyatt relayed, was securing “somebody with an international personality to come out here and help to midwife this thing.” Nuland replied Vice President Joe Biden and his senior aide, Jake Sullivan, who now serves as Biden’s National Security Adviser, had signed on to provide “an atta-boy and to get the details to stick.”

Just hours after the power-sharing agreement was reached, Nuland’s wishes were granted.

Yanukovych, no longer protected by his armed forces, fled the capital.

Emboldened by their sabotage of an EU-brokered power-sharing truce, Maidan Movement members stormed the Ukrainian Parliament and pushed through the formation of a new government.

In violation of parliamentary rules on impeachment proceedings, and lacking a sufficient quorum, Oleksandr Turchynov was named the new acting president. The Nuland-backed Yatsenyuk was appointed Prime Minister.

In a reflection of their influence, at least five post-coup cabinet posts in national security, defense, and law enforcement were given to members of Svoboda and its far-right ally Right Sector.

The uncomfortable truth is a sizeable portion of Kyiv’s current government – and the protesters who brought it to power – are, indeed, fascists,” wrote Andrew Foxall, now a British defense official, and Oren Kessler, a Tel Aviv-based analyst, in Foreign Policy the following month.

While denying any role in Yanukovich’s ouster, the Obama administration immediately endorsed it, as Secretary of State John Kerry expressed “strong support” for the new government.

(end of section 2)

… …

The two U.S. officials settled on technocrat Arseniy Yatsenyuk. I think Yats is the guy, Nuland said.

By that point, Yatsenyuk had endorsed violent insurrection.

The government’s rejection of Maidan demands, he said, meant people had acquired the right to move from non-violent to violent means of protest.

The only outstanding matter, Pyatt relayed, was securing somebody with an international personality to come out here and help to midwife this thing. Nuland replied Vice President Joe Biden and his senior aide, Jake Sullivan, who now serves as Biden’s National Security Adviser, had signed on to provide an atta-boy and to get the details to stick.’”

While looking like trying to solve problems the more problems and complications the better for our “international relations expert” Dems and RINOs.

Zeir toy International Affairs Rubik’s Cube gets bigger, more complex, and increasingly fun for dem to play with and profit from, and spend our money on.

We need peace and wealth for All not fun and our money for dem and zeir partner overseas troublemakers.

So, instead We need the simple, ‘international relations experts’-free, Real Republican Libertarian Rubric Cube here, in Ukraine, Russia, China, and everywhere.


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