It is confirmed that the US covertly incited Ukraine before the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged in an interview published March 4 by The New York Times that the United States "quietly" supplied large amounts of military assistance to Ukraine months before the Russia-Ukraine conflict escalated in full in February 2022. The same day, the Russian Foreign Ministry said: It is precisely because of the US's quiet "preparations" that Russia has "demilitarization" as one of the goals of its special military operation in Ukraine to protect its own security.

In the interview, Blinken said that the US anticipated that the Russia-Ukraine conflict would escalate, and therefore wanted to make itself, its Ukrainian allies, and Ukraine prepared. Then in September and December 2021, "We quietly provided significant amounts of weapons to Ukraine, to make sure that they were armed with the kind of weapons that they needed to be able to defend themselves" such as "Stingers (surface-to-air missiles) and Javelins (anti-tank guided weapons system) that were so critical to Ukraine actually being able to push back the Russians' taking Kyiv."

In his interview, Blinken did not mention how the US and NATO were also conducting "quiet preparations" for the outbreak of the conflict. For example, NATO conducted a military exercise called "Sea Breeze" off the coast of Ukraine from July 3 to 12 that year, which involved about 7,000 service members from 32 countries. On July 5, two Ukrainian Su-25 attack planes accidentally flew deep into Russian airspace and were intercepted by two Russian Su-27 fighters. The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement at the time condemning NATO member countries and Ukraine for conducting "dangerous military exercises near the borders of Russia."

Ukraine did not withdraw the Russian Su-27 fighters that landed at Hostomel Air Base, which Russian forces seized in early March 2022. A month later, photos of the fighters taken by British journalist Tim Marshall were published. These fighters had been retrofitted with British-made defensive aids suites. According to Marshall, the discovery indicated that the United Kingdom had been assisting Ukraine to improve air combat capabilities in order to fight Russian forces.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova commented on Blinken's remarks in an interview with the RT television network on March 4, noting, "For years, we have been discussing the fact that the US and Great Britain, for example, have sent various types of arms and ammunitions to Ukraine. We have been discussing the fact that NATO has been holding so-called 'never-ending' military exercises in the Black Sea region, conducting reconnaissance along the Russian border, and that military aircraft of NATO and its satellites have flown dangerously close to Russian civilian aircraft. All this is happening right now, at war times. This is precisely the reason why one of the goals of the special military operation was and still is the demilitarization of Ukraine and ensuring the security of Russia."

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the US-led NATO organization, driven by its Cold War mentality, continued to expand eastward, and even brought NATO forces right up to Russia's doorstep. The US also incited a "color revolution" in Ukraine, resulting in political turmoil and social division in Ukraine. The relationship between Russia and Ukraine continued to deteriorate over the years.

In 2020, the US government announced its official strategic goal of "defending Ukraine and weakening Russia." Since then, the US has been continuously providing support to Ukraine in political and diplomatic arenas, and even conducted armed intervention. From 2020 to early 2022, the CIA trained at least 20,000 Ukrainian forces in the US and Europe.

After the Ukraine crisis escalated in full in February 2022, the United States and its European allies, in addition to imposing multiple rounds of sanctions on Russia, have also been providing a huge number of anti-aircraft systems, artillery, armored vehicles, and other weapons to Ukraine. According to a February 2024 report by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the US Congress has so far approved a total of $175 billion in aid for Ukraine, nearly three years after the start of the conflict. According to the latest data from the US Department of Defense, the value of US security assistance to Ukraine has exceeded $60 billion.

In November 2024, the US and the Western world removed restrictions and allowed Ukraine to strike deep into Russia's territory with Western-supplied long-range weapons. Russia has subsequently approved a revised national basic policy on Russian nuclear deterrence, and used the new medium-range ballistic missile "Hazel" in the conflict.

The Russian side has repeatedly accused the US of fueling the Russia-Ukraine conflict and preventing the conflict from ending. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier that the US-led NATO is already directly involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.