Kurt Volker: The West was too late to embrace the fact that Russia had been preparing for war all these years

In recent years, the West has failed to grasp the fact that Russia was preparing for a full-scale war in Ukraine, and continued building up relations with the Kremlin. This turned out to be a grave mistake.

This was the idea stated by Amb. Kurt Volker, United States Special Representative for Ukraine negotiations in 2017-19, at the 15^th annual Kyiv Security Forum, established by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s “Open Ukraine” Foundation.

“We failed to adequately react to the “little green men” in Crimea and Donbas, because we really could not think or believe that Russia was trying to steal territories from Ukraine,” he said.

“The Europeans did not supply weapons to Ukraine because they did not want to add fuel to the flame, we did not supply weapons to Ukraine until 2017 because we feared escalation of the conflict. During the Minsk negotiations, we claimed that we wanted Ukraine to implement and adopt the respective laws stipulated by the Minsk agreements. Still, no requirements were put to Russia, even though it failed implement the sole commitment of ceasefire – Russia was preparing for the next war,” said Amb. Kurt Volker.

According to him, of little awareness of this impending threat, the West lost a lot of time and did nothing to discourage Russia from the war with Ukraine. 

“I have to give credit to the Biden administration because they stood ready for a full-scale invasion and started arming Ukraine. Naturally, it might have been worth doing on a larger scale, and now it ought to be done on a much larger scale. Nevertheless, the United States and Europe have finally united in a true partnership regarding Ukraine, and this way we are rescuing the future of all European security,” said Amb. Kurt Volker.

Noteworthy, the 15^th annual Kyiv security forum “For Our and Your Freedom/ Fighting for NATO” will be held on May 25-26, 2023, with the participation of well-known international figures. In particular, at the Forum, the KSF Security Council will be formed and a policy document will be adopted with recommendations for the NATO summit in Vilnius to be held this July.