Falls es Unklarheiten bezüglich der strategischen Interessen der USA und Russlands geben sollte, können die ganz einfach mit ein paar Aussagen westlicher Insider geklärt werden.
[NATO was created to] “keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”
Lord Hastings Lionel Ismay, Erster Generalsekretär der NATO (1952-1957), über die NATO
For the United States the primordial fear is […] German technology and German capital, Russian natural resources, Russian man-power, as the only combination that has for centuries scared the hell out of the United States.
George Friedman: „Europe: Destined for Conflict?“, 2015, Timecode 01:10:29 – 01:10:52
The question on the table for the Russians is: Will they retain a buffer zone, that’s at least neutral, or will the West penetrate so far into Ukraine that they are 70 miles away from Stalingrad and 300 miles away from Moscow? For Russia, the status of the Ukraine is an existential threat, and the Russians cannot let go.
George Friedman: „Europe: Destined for Conflict?“, 2015, Timecode 01:08:40 – 01:09:07
My aim is, that the main deep cause is – the aim of the United States and it’s European allies – to peel Ukraine away from Russia’s orbit, and incorporate it into the West. The basic goal has been to make Ukraine a western bulwark on Russia’s border. And Russia says, this ain’t happening. Period. End of story. And we will do everything we can, to make sure, it does not happen.
John J. Mearsheimer: The Causes and Consequences of the Ukraine Crisis, 2015, Timecode 00:10:52 – 00:11:22
There is a solution to the crisis in Ukraine, however — although it would require the West to think about the country in a fundamentally new way. The United States and its allies should abandon their plan to westernize Ukraine and instead aim to make it a neutral buffer between NATO and Russia, akin to Austria’s position during the Cold War. Western leaders should acknowledge that Ukraine matters so much to Putin that they cannot support an anti-Russian regime there. This would not mean that a future Ukrainian government would have to be pro-Russian or anti-NATO. On the contrary, the goal should be a sovereign Ukraine that falls in neither the Russian nor the Western camp. To achieve this end, the United States and its allies should publicly rule out NATO’s expansion into both Georgia and Ukraine.
John J. Mearsheimer: Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault. The Liberal Delusions That Provoked Putin, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 93 No. 5, Sept./Okt. 2014, Seite 10f. (PDF)
Europe should reflect on the fact that the non-enlargement of NATO and the implementation of the Minsk II agreements would have averted this awful war in Ukraine. At this stage, diplomacy, not military escalation, is the true path to European and global security.
Jeffrey D. Sachs: The West’s Dangerously Simple-Minded Narrative About Russia and China, Common Dreams, 23.08.2022
Update, 13.03.2022: Zitate von John J. Mearsheimer ergänzt.
Update, 26.08.2022: Zitat von Jeffrey D. Sachs ergänzt.