The West’s response to Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014 has been introduced below contemporary scrutiny this week – as outgoing NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg insisted the struggle in Ukraine might not have occurred if the U.S. and NATO had a stronger response to that incursion.
“If we had delivered a fraction of the weapons we’ve delivered after 2022, we might have truly prevented the struggle,” he mentioned in an interview with Politico.
Stoltenberg, a Norwegian politician, led NATO from 2014 till final week.
President Biden reportedly expressed an analogous sentiment.
“They f—ed up in 2014,” Biden mentioned, based on Washington Publish journalist Bob Woodward’s upcoming e-book, “Struggle,” obtained by Fox Information Digital.
“They f—ed up in 2014,” Biden mentioned, based on Washington Publish journalist Bob Woodward’s upcoming e-book, “Struggle,” obtained by Fox Information Digital. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photographs)
“That’s why we’re right here,” the 81-year-old mentioned. “We f—ked it up. Barack by no means took [Russian President Vladimir] Putin significantly.”
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“We did nothing. We gave Putin a license to proceed!” the president went on. “Properly, I’m revoking his f—ing license!”
In 2014, the Kremlin annexed the Crimean Peninsula after the so-called Revolution of Dignity, when Ukrainians ousted Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych. It was a fast and cold takeover. Russia flooded the areas with migrants and fended off Ukrainian efforts to take it again.
The Obama administration offered Ukraine with defensive weapons, sanctioned the Kremlin and kicked Russia out of the G-8, however some, even reportedly together with Obama’s then-vice president, Biden, imagine he ought to have performed extra.
It got here as Russia had additionally invaded Ukraine’s Donbas area and shot down a Malaysia Airways flight with practically 300 individuals on board.
He stopped in need of offering Ukraine with deadly weaponry. As president, Donald Trump reversed Obama’s coverage, approving a plan to promote Ukraine Javelin missiles for $47 million.
“If we had delivered a fraction of the weapons [in 2014] we’ve delivered after 2022, we might have truly prevented the struggle,” outgoing NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg mentioned in an interview with Politico. (Omar Havana/Getty Photographs)
In a 2014 interview with The Atlantic, Obama mentioned he noticed no profit within the U.S. getting concerned within the unfolding occasions in Europe associated to Russia and Ukraine.
“The very fact is that Ukraine, which is a non-NATO nation, goes to be susceptible to navy domination by Russia it doesn’t matter what we do,” Obama mentioned. “That is an instance of the place we’ve to be very clear about what our core pursuits are and what we’re keen to go to struggle for.”
In 2012, Obama famously downplayed the specter of Russia throughout a debate with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Romney had asserted that Russia was the U.S.’s best geopolitical foe.
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“The Eighties are actually calling to ask for his or her international coverage again as a result of the Chilly Struggle’s been over for 20 years,” Obama chided on the time.
He additionally tasked his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, with pursuing a “reset” in U.S.-Russia relations, scrapping plans by President George W. Bush to construct a missile protect in Jap Europe that Russia noticed as a direct navy menace. Putin known as that call “appropriate and courageous.”
Obama defended his 2014 coverage in a 2023 interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
“We did nothing,” President Biden mentioned. “We gave Putin a license to proceed… Properly, I’m revoking his f—ing license!” (Gavriil Grigorov/Pool/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
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“Ukraine of that point was not the Ukraine that we’re speaking about at present,” Obama mentioned. “There’s a cause there was not an armed invasion of Crimea, as a result of Crimea was stuffed with a variety of Russian audio system, and there was some sympathy to the views that Russia was representing.”
The U.S. has provided some $175 billion in safety help and monetary assist for the reason that outbreak of struggle in 2022.
Earlier this week, Ukraine struck a big oil terminal off the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea within the newest wave of assaults on Russian-controlled vitality amenities.
