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CountScrofula Of course there aren't American troops in Ukraine, otherwise it would be a -direct- war not a -proxy- war that's the literal definition of a proxy war.
My bad, I was using a separate definition, wherein the parties have to be representing the interests of outside powers. Yes, the Ukraine War is a proxy war in the same sense that WW2 in Europe was a proxy war. That's entirely fair.
Imma throw some videos at you. This one is from Real News Network, a pretty solid left wing news site. This is discussing the inciting incident that led to this war, the ouster of President Yanukovych in 2014.
Oh God, this one's so full of dishonest shit that I don't even know where to start. When Crimea is transferred from Russia to Ukraine in a treaty, that's just a procedural matter. Whenever parliament passes legislation to remove the president from office after he's fled, it's just a matter of opinion whether or not he's still the legitimate president (not that it's always cool to do that, just saying it's legally unambiguous). But then, if Russia claims that Yanukovych is still President, then suddenly the law does matter and the invasion is legitimate. And when the US invades Iraq, so does it also.
My man can't decide for the life of him if he wants to view things through this liberal, legalistic framework of analysis or through a more materialist one. As far as I'm concerned, the latter is way better and should be more relevant, but my point is that he uses whichever is more convenient in the moment.
And yeah, homeboi has plenty to say about the fact that waging a violent revolution is undemocratic, but is silent on the President's use of
paid brownshirts and physical attacks against journalists which had been occurring to this point. Also, Yanukovych embezzled something like $10 billion, which does erode democracy. If the Euromaidan rebellion happened under the same circumstances except in Canada or the US, you would probably have been cheering it on. It's also pretty noticeable how he harps away on fascist ideology within segments of the Euromaidan movement -- which was very real -- but sorta just ignores all the wildly fascistic policies that've actually come to pass in Russia. Could be chalked up to the fact that internal Ukrainian affairs are more directly relevant to the video, but I'm not inclined to be charitable given the rest of his commentary's slant.
More relevantly to your point though, the man with the world's most punchable face goes on to say that Assistant Secretary of State (of an NGO) stated that the US has invested $5 billion into helping Ukraine get into the EU. This is entirely true, here's the full quote --
Since Ukraine’s independence in 1991, the United States has supported Ukrainians as they build democratic skills and institutions, as they promote civic participation and good governance, all of which are preconditions for Ukraine to achieve its European aspirations. We’ve invested over $5 billion to assist Ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic Ukraine.
We can't really track the $5 billion and its timing exactly, but we know for a fact that Ukraine has wanted to join the EU since at least 1993. So what all this basically is saying is that Ukraine asked to join the EU and the US was like "cool we'll help you get your shit together so they'll let you in." And that's what irks me so much about all these pro-Russia takes on the matter; they all ignore Ukraine's own agency at best and actively delegitimize it at worst.
All that said, he might have a point regarding the NED. I've always been wary of those fuckers, and I can't find any information stating whether they were involved prior to 2014; it's entirely possible that they were, and it would be in character.
