How Ukraine became a NATO Nation without Becoming a NATO Nation!
Marcy Winograd, Coordinator of CODE PINK CONGRESS, is a long-time anti-war activist who served as a 2020 DNC delegate to Bernie Sanders, co-founded the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party and ran for Congress as a peace candidate during the US war on Iraq. She also serves on the steering committee of the Peace in Ukraine Coalition, which calls for a ceasefire, diplomacy and an end to weapons shipments to Ukraine joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to help fill in some informational voids and answer some important questions, including:
We discuss her recent article Letter to the Left on Ukraine, 12/7/22, she authored in Antiwar.com. Our discussion includes:
Our guest shares her opinion that the Russian invasion was wrong but also explains how in 2020 US NATO awarded Ukraine the status of an “Enhanced Opportunity Partner” which meant they could share intelligence, and participate in NATO led military interventions such as Iraq and Afghanistan (and Kosovo) and join in War games which she describes were becoming regular provocations in proximity to the Russian border. In fact as recently as October 2021 it incuded mock nuclear strikes against who… against Russia.
Our guest describes two strategic bilateral agreements signed with Ukraine that made the question of being a formal NATO member moot. The first was on August 31, 2021 when the US Secretary of Defense & the Ukrainian Minister of Defense signed the U.S. – Ukraine Strategic Defense Framework which reaffirmed Ukraine as a de facto NATO partner, “to continue our robust training and exercise program in keeping with Ukraine’s status as a NATO Enhanced Opportunities Partner.” The other strategic agreement sign just two months later was the November 2021 US-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership which committed the US and Ukraine to joint defense and security operations “deepening cooperation in areas such as Black Sea security, cyber defense and intelligence sharing.
This breeching of the national security redline for Russia when unreported in the west yet essentially meant the Ukraine was already part of the ever expanding NATO alliance that expanded from 12 nations in 1991 to 30 countries today which does not include a half dozen more of these ‘Enhanced Opportunity (NATO) Partners’. We discuss in depth the development of bilateral military relations that included joint Ukrainian – Western training and interoperability exercises inside Ukraine, yet Ukraine is not a NATO nation?
We also discuss important contextual information for our listeners to consider as they decide what to believe within the largely disinformational environment created by our government and mainstream media.