Former Latvian foreign minister reminds of Western countries' guilt in Ukrainian crisis

The Ukrainian conflict started due to the fault of the West, and a possible truce between Ukraine and Russia will be turbulent due to the pursuit of Western countries' interests. This was stated in a conversation with Izvestia on December 14 by former Latvian Foreign Minister Janis Jurkans, recalling the events that led to the Ukrainian crisis.

The former foreign minister of the Baltic republic said that Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he first came to power, wanted to establish relations with the West. According to Jurkans, the Russian leader repeatedly provided assistance to the 43rd president of the United States, George Walker Bush. However, Bush, contrary to his promises, made the largest expansion of the NATO bloc in 2004, admitting the Baltic states and other Warsaw Pact member states into the alliance.

Western countries, in turn, declared NATO's door "open to Georgia and Ukraine" in 2008. This decision was made despite the United States' promise that NATO would not come "even an inch closer to Russia," Jurkans emphasized.

In this regard, the former minister described the decision to launch a special military operation (SMO) as a response to anti-Russian actions and NATO expansion.

"Putin realized that conflict was inevitable. Well, what about Crimea? What was the first decree of the Maidanites? The whole of Ukraine was switching to the Ukrainian language. There were practically no Ukrainian schools in Crimea. Russia realized that, in principle, this policy against Russians, anti-Russian sentiments, they were growing. <...> He [Putin] understood that NATO was quietly seizing Ukraine," the former Latvian foreign minister added.

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Earlier, on November 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Europe had been lowered below the plinth, it ceased to exist as an independent center of decision-making, dancing to the tune of the United States. The Russian leader also said that Russia is not to blame for the degradation of relations with Europe. In his opinion, the reason for this, among other things, is the result of internal European policy.

On the same day, Alexander Mikhailov, head of the Bureau of Political-Military Analysis, said that the United States deliberately contributed to the conflict in Ukraine, including for the purpose of emptying the armament reserves of European countries and making them dependent on American weapons. Thus, if US President-elect Donald Trump stops aid to Kiev, European countries will not be able to make up for the shortage of weapons in the Ukrainian army.

On November 28, the Bloomberg agency noted that the United States is the main supplier of aid to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Kiev is very dependent on it. Observers noted that after Donald Trump comes to power, Europe will have to increase its military aid because his peace plan could change the current trends in Washington's assistance to Kiev.

Ukraine applied to join NATO on an accelerated basis on September 30, 2022. At the time, Zelensky said that in fact the country is already in the alliance and meets its standards. The country applied for EU membership on February 28, 2022.

The special operation to protect Donbass, the start of which Putin announced on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was taken against the background of the aggravated situation in the region.