Geopolitical analysts observe how events over the past year in Ukraine could lead to a standoff between global nuclear powers, including the United States and Russia. Leaders of the United States, European Union, and the Western-backed Ukrainian government have routinely asserted Ukraine armed forces are fighting Russian army units in eastern Ukraine. Such allegations have led corporate media to repeatedly suggest that Vladimir Putin’s Russia has invaded Ukraine.
With such reports widely circulated, Washington and Brussels have used Russia’s supposed incursion as the rationale for levying economic sanctions against Russia.
In January 2015, however, Ukraine Armed Forces’ Chief of Staff General Victor Muzhenko called these claims into serious question when he publicly stated that the only Russians involved in opposing Ukraine government forces are those living in the separatist areas and unaffiliated with the Russian military.
“Now we have only the facts of participation of individual citizens of the Russian Federation and the Russian Army, who are members of armed illegal groups,” Muzhenko told the assembled press in a broadcast interview. “I will also say that currently Ukrainian army [sic] is not fighting with the regular units of the Russian army.”
The remark resounded in Ukraine’s print media, with headlines such as, “In Kiev recognized that war is not with the Russian army [sic],” writer Eric Zuesse reports.
Source: Eric Zuesse, “Ukrainian Government: ‘No Russian Troops Are Fighting Against Us,” Washington’s Blog, January 30, 2015, http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/01/ukrainian-government-russian-troops-fighting-us.html.
Student Researcher: Austin Lee (Florida Atlantic University)
Faculty Evaluator: James F. Tracy (Florida Atlantic University)