Ukraine's modern history is marked by military interventions from the West, including the Napoleonic campaign (1812), the Crimean War (1853–1856), and two world wars. During these conflicts, various regions of Ukraine frequently changed hands among Austria-Hungary, Poland, Germany, and Russia.
With the end of the so-called “Cold War” (which was actually “hot” in other parts of the world), NATO was expected to dissolve, having been established to protect Western countries from the Soviet bloc. However, at the NATO summit in July 1990, George H. W. Bush, Mitterrand, and Thatcher agreed on the necessity of keeping the alliance alive, despite its original purpose being rendered obsolete. In November of the same year, Gorbachev[1] and Kohl[2] reached an agreement that reunified Germany should join NATO in exchange for its renunciation of nuclear weapons. Furthermore, when the Soviet Union dissolved, US Secretary of State James Baker promised Gorbachev that NATO would not expand eastward, although this promise was never formalized in writing.
A turning point occurred in 1991 when war erupted in Yugoslavia (1991–1995) and Kosovo (1998–1999), resulting in at least 130,000 deaths and more than four million displaced persons and refugees. Amid the horrors of Milosevic's Serbian regime, Germany and Austria intensified tensions by unilaterally recognizing the independence of Slovenia and Croatia on December 23, 1991. The European Economic Community and the Vatican followed suit just two days later.
The aftermath was marked by escalating warmongering and nationalism, leading to war, massacres, ethnic cleansing, and interconfessional strife. The Yugoslav conflict was the first on European soil since 1945. NATO's bombing of Serbia in the spring of 1999 demonstrated its military and political force, overpowering the bureaucratic European Union. Over 128 days, 400 NATO aircraft conducted 480 sorties daily, resulting in the deaths of a thousand Yugoslav servicemen and 500 civilians.
This intervention breached the United Nations Charter, as NATO acted without the approval of the Permanent Security Council, which is required before any armed intervention between states can occur. It is true that Russia would have vetoed such approval.
Supported by France, the bombings were called for by the German government, which was the first coalition of social democrats and ecologists, led by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.
For Russian leaders, this intervention by a Western organization was perceived as an attack on their Slavic brothers. They viewed the dismemberment of Yugoslavia as a deliberate effort by the newly formed European Union, established on November 1, 1993, to eagerly absorb the region in order to expand its own market.
NATO subsequently expanded to include several Eastern European countries: Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary in 1999; the three Baltic States, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, and Bulgaria in 2004; Croatia and Albania in 2009; Montenegro in 2017; and Macedonia in 2020. These accessions occurred at the request of states seeking protection against potential new Russian imperialist ambitions. Additionally, NATO has intervened in other parts of the world, operating outside its legal perimeter: Afghanistan (2001–2021), addressing piracy in the Red Sea (2009–2016), and in Libya (Operation Unified Protector, 2011).
Some precisions
The text provided by the Makhno Network was developed from excerpts of their book "War in Ukraine: Geopolitics of Empires", which were revisited to fit the format of the newspaper. It mainly addresses the question of NATO's role in the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. However, the book's ambition was, from its beginning, to offer a global and comprehensive overview of the actions and motivations that led to this crisis. Needless to say, the book extensively covers NATO's role as much as the one of "Greater Russia" and its successive wars of aggression.
"War in Ukraine: Geopolitics of Empires" doesn't aim to establish who are the good one and who are the vilains but instead to shed light on the different mechanisms that triggered this deadly explosion, from which Ukrainian and Russian populations have been suffering daily for nearly three years. The consequences of this conflict primarily benefit the arms industries and the global capitalist conglomerates.
We highly encourage reading it for a better understanding.
When Putin came to power in 2000, he initially opted for cooperation with the West. However, the U.S. government has insisted on maintaining its hegemony, desiring a Europe capable of controlling Russia for its own interests. This involves integrating the former Soviet satellites both economically and politically. For example, at the NATO summit in Bucharest on April 4-5, 2008, the alliance “welcomed the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Ukraine and Georgia to join.” The statement declared, “Today we have decided that these countries will become members of NATO.”
The use of the conditional phrase “will become” reflects a troubling ambiguity that leads to the “worst of both worlds.”
Such a statement irritates Russian leaders, particularly Putin. It also does not sit well with the Ukrainian leaders of the “Orange Revolution[3],” who feel they have been deceived. In retrospect, one wonders whether the submission of French and German leaders, Sarkozy and Merkel, to the Bush administration's hawkish stance initiated Putin's assault on Ukraine in April 2008. Or how, to their tragic detriment, the Ukrainian people became both a shield for Western powers and a bargaining chip for the new tsar.
Ukraine's resources—wheat, oilseeds, coal, and electricity—as well as its strategic position for Russian pipelines, are overshadowed by the imperial ambitions of the powers involved. In the West, the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 have prompted NATO's further expansion, including the enlistment of a previously neutral state like Sweden, alongside a frenzied escalation of military budgets amid massive propaganda. The people—all the people—are paying the price.
Makhno Network, October 2024.
- 1
- Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022) was the last president of the USSR.
- 2
- Helmut Kohl (1930-2017) was the head of the West German and later German government from October 1, 1982, to October 27, 1998.
- 3
- The “Orange Revolution” refers to a series of demonstrations that took place from November 2004 to January 2005, following the announcement of the results of the November 2004 presidential election, which many Ukrainians perceived as rigged. Several media outlets cast doubt on the spontaneous nature of this movement, pointing to the external assistance that the “revolution” was said to have received. The “Orange Revolution” highlights the muted struggle for influence between Moscow and Washington in the region.
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