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US Secretary of State Anthony BlinkenPool / Getty

(LifeSiteNews) –– One year ago, a telling admission was made by a U.S. congressman.

When asked to explain his support for sending tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine, Congressman Dan Crenshaw said on May 11, 2022, “Yeah, because investing in the destruction of our adversary’s military, without losing a single American troop, strikes me as a good idea. You should feel the same.”

The United States’ policy regarding Ukraine has been ungenerously described as “fight to the last Ukrainian.” It may be rare to witness anyone close to power admitting it, but this certainly appears to be the case. 

It is not the case, however, that the campaign in Ukraine could be sustained without direct assistance from NATO. 

In a week which saw a rare mention of the word “nuclear” by the Russian President, the charge by the Russian Defense Minister Shoigu that the West is taking steps towards a nuclear exchange at least merits some consideration. 

How far has U.S. and NATO involvement gone? The Russians claim openly that they are fighting Polish soldiers on the Donbass front, an observation which is made uncontroversial by their claim it has been going on for some time. 

Both the Russian authorities and those of the Donbass militia have charged that Polish mercenaries, and regular soldiers, are among foreign fighters from 54 countries actively recruited by Ukrainian diplomats. 

What of U.S. and other NATO forces? Whilst it might take a few hours to train someone in basic javelin operation, the vaunted HIMARS batteries are not controlled by a single operator with something resembling a PlayStation controller. 

The Javelin has two fire modes and is intended to be fired by a single soldier. HIMARS crews were deployed in a time frame which did not allow for Ukrainians to be trained to operate them – with the servicing training taking almost five months 

The author of the above post says rightly that the claim of NATO crews operating HIMARS has “plausible deniability,” but it remains unlikely that Ukrainian soldiers were capable or even permitted to do so when they were first introduced last summer. 

Regardless of who operates mobile launch systems, it is openly acknowledged that NATO – mainly the U.S. – provides all launch coordination support for Ukrainian missile and drone attacks. 

The Politifact site, which debunks any claim of NATO personnel in Ukraine, fails to tell the whole truth when asked about Western involvement. Posted on 7 February 2023, the archived page repeats a statement from NATO:

There are no troops or trainers under NATO command in Ukraine, and no NATO personnel have been killed in the conflict.

This rebuttal may be technically true, taken in the light of Austrian Colonel Markus Reisner’s recent remarks.

A serving senior officer in a NATO army, he was questioned in February about the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine. A member of the audience asks, “Arms supplies to Ukraine, yes, it’s wonderful – but what about the personnel? Who will manage these tanks? Ukraine…or do NATO soldiers have to serve?”

Alleging NATO already has a large presence on the ground, the audience member continues, “And how many? In fact there are already NATO soldiers in Ukraine. Now they say Poland has already deployed 20,000 soldiers in Ukraine…So how do you assess the situation?”

“You don’t need to send soldiers to Ukraine” replied the colonel. “I take off my uniform, sign a contract, and go to Ukraine. I am no longer a serviceman of the Austrian Armed Forces, but a contractor.”

This is not a hypothesis, according to Reisner – in fact:

This is the solution we see.

What then are we to understand is the situation? 

From that we can conclude is that a large number of foreigners find themselves in Ukraine but not as NATO soldiers.

The issue of NATO involvement, directly, in training, supply and in direction of Ukrainian armed forces operations is a seriously aggravating factor. If the Austrian colonel’s remarks represent reality, it is no longer a fight to the last Ukrainian.  

The involvement of the West in this war is beyond question, and that it would have ended in settlement – as early as March 2022 – without its intervention is highly likely. With the addition of the industrial base of China in a “no limits” partnership with Russia, it appears that NATO will be overmatched in resupply capability for the foreseeable future. 

A rare outbreak of sanity occurred during Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent media appearance. A woman interrupted his Senate testimony with the words:

Secretary Blinken we need peace talks with [sic] Ukraine now. The American people do not want to keep fueling a proxy war with Russia which could lead to world war three and a nuclear holocaust. You’re supposed to be a diplomat – start negotiating.

The neoconservative war faction is incapable of diplomacy. None of them have ever counted the cost of any of their disastrous wars to date. Instead, they maintain a policy of provocation against a strengthening enemy whilst ensuring this war continues for as long as possible. This is not a question of who is right – the U.S. or the Russians – but who will be left if the nuclear threshold is reached. 

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