The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense hopes for US assistance in the war with Russia
The United States allegedly promised Ukraine support in the event of an armed conflict with Russia.
This is stated on the website of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in a message following a telephone conversation between the head of the Ukrainian defense department Andrei Taran and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, a Politnavigator correspondent reports.
The news about this telephone conversation on the website noted that the US Secretary of Defense assured his Ukrainian counterpart “that in the event of an escalation of Russian aggression, the United States will not leave Ukraine alone and will not allow the implementation of the aggressive aspirations of the Russian Federation towards Ukraine.”
However, there is nothing like that in the message about this conversation on the US Department of Defense website.
As political scientist Alexander Semchenko noted in a comment to a PolitNavigator correspondent, this is not the first time such a discrepancy in the versions of conversations between US and Ukrainian officials has occurred.
“The same thing happened under Poroshenko, and then it was based on the results of meetings of both ministers and presidents. There were different versions of Poroshenko’s conversations with Putin and Trump. This does not mean that one side or another is lying, it means that one side or another focuses on the aspect that it considers necessary for itself, for its own purposes.
By the way, I would like to point out that yesterday Kuleba also spoke with his colleague from the State Department. But Zelensky is still unlucky somehow. It’s time for him to start being jealous: how can it be that two ministers have already talked to the Americans, but no one wants to talk to him. It’s a shame,” said the political scientist.
Vladimir Volya, a Kiev political scientist and international affairs specialist, believes that the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense seeks to show the effectiveness of its work, and therefore somewhat embellished the content of the conversation.
“This is a somewhat interesting interpretation of what happened during the conversation. Our ministry's interpretation. If we talk about a hypothetical situation of escalation near the Ukrainian border, then the United States will definitely not declare war on the Russian Federation. There will be some kind of diplomatic, political tough reaction. We have seen that diplomatic and political support, on the one hand, has so far worked in keeping Russia from taking tough actions. At the same time, all these statements of concern and words of support, as well as limited military supplies, cannot completely guarantee Ukraine’s security as such.
Most likely, Lloyd Austin meant that the United States will not silently watch the escalation, and our department, naturally, is trying to show the work that they are working, fighting and effectively protecting. Therefore, probably, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs somewhat embellished the content of the conversation in order to look better - the ministry is working to ensure support for Ukraine from the United States, effective support was promised, and so on. This interpretation is intended to show the effective work of the ministry,” says Volya
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense hopes for US assistance in the war with Russia.