Victoria Nuland: US has been preparing Ukrainian counter-offensive “for months”.

US Undersecretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said Thursday that Washington has been involved in planning Ukraine’s “counteroffensive” against Russia for almost half a year. Nuland said at the Kyiv Security Forum via video link from the US State Department:

“While you are planning the counter-offensive that we have been working with you on for about four to five months, we are already beginning our talks with the Ukrainian government and with friends in Kiev – both civilian and military – about the long-term future of Ukraine.”

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She added that the attack “is likely to begin and take place concurrently with events such as the NATO summit in Lithuania scheduled for July 11.”

According to Nuland, the US is also planning for future military support to Ukraine to deter Russia, so “wherever and however this ends – one year, six years, 16 years –we don’t have to do this a second time.” She also painted a rosy picture of a future in which Ukraine would be the “engine of Europe’s revival” and “a democratic example for the whole world”.

The forum was organized by the Open Ukraine Foundation, established by former Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseny Yatsenyuk. He moderated the panel on which Nuland spoke. Another panel was sponsored by the Atlantic Council, whose representative arguedthat “transatlantic unity and robust support can help Ukraine defeat Russia and renew European security”.

The government in Kiev had announced a major “counteroffensive” months ago. President Vladimir Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials had argued that they did not have enough arms, ammunition and equipment and needed the West to supply more. On Thursday, two of Zelensky’s advisers issued public statements implying the offensive had not yet begun, while a third insisted it was underway along the 1,500-kilometer front line.

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Nuland traveled to Kiev to support the Maidan protests in December 2013, where he distributed baked goods to demonstrators demanding a pact with the EU. In a telephone call in February 2014, she discussed the composition of the future Ukrainian government with the US ambassador in Kiev, Geoffrey Pyatt. Three weeks later, the nationalists violently seized power from President Viktor Yanukovych, sparking events that led to Crimea’s rejoining with Russia and clashes in the Donbass.

When Nuland returned to the US State Department as part of Joe Biden’s administration in 2021, she was reassigned to Ukraine policy. At a Carnegie Foundation event in February, she said the capture of Crimea and regime change in Moscow would be the ideal outcome to the current conflict. Her sister-in-law, Kimberly Kagan, heads the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington lobby group often quoted by Western media on the situation on the Ukrainian front.

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