As many of my followers might be aware, I was born in Ukraine and came to the US as a teen, following a similar path to Lt. Colonel Vindman’s family. As such, I follow the newsflow from my birth country closely and still have some friends and family there 1/

I have been following and engaging in Ukraine related events particularly closely during and since the Maidan revolution of dignity that was quickly followed by a hybrid war initiated by Russia and I’ve had plenty of strong thoughts/feelings in that regard: 2/

When Obama administration came to power, they have made “Russia Reset” their key foreign policy initiative, DESPITE the fact that Russia has just fought a war of aggression against Georgia in Aug 2008 and took a piece of its territory, AND 3/

DESPITE the fact that Putin was trying to collude with China to dump US agency bonds in the middle of the financial crisis to torpedo the US economy 4/

The “reset” wasn’t jsut some abstract policy of saying nice things and promoting economic links.. It involved active telegraphing of weakness on the part of the US vis a vis Russia by abolishing the sale of Patriot missiles to Poland as early as 2009, 5/

Looking the other way when Russia was blatantly breaking the nuclear treaty, promising “flexibility” after 2012 elections while ridiculing Romney’s framing of Russia as US’ chief geopolitical foe 6/

And finally by empowering Putin to become a power broker in the a Middle East for the first time since USSR lost that role in the 1970s 7/

All this telegraphing of weakness, acquiescence of bad behavior and condoning Russia’s 19th century style “zone or influence” outlook on geopolitics has sent an unequivocal message that Russia’s bad behavior and 19th century style imperial outlook won’t be challenged 8/

All this messaging has emboldened Putin to rightly assume that he can wage an unprovoked war on Ukraine and take a piece of its territory while breaking a number of treaties and international laws with impunity 9/

This was a well calculated and successful gamble on Putin’s part because the transparently weak and obsequious stance of Obama admin’s policy was so blatantly obvious. 10/

What was the Obama administration response aside from initially weak set of sanctions that only helped Putin consolidate power ?! Well, the response was to veto provision of lethal weapons to Ukraine so as to “not further provoke Russia” 11/

This only further confirmed Putin’s success in rightly reading the situation and has emboldened Putin to expand his warfare into Ukraine which to date has resulted in 20,000 dead and the largest internally displaced refugee population in Europe since WW2 12/

Mind you, one of the chief proponents of denying lethal aid to Ukraine was the same Fiona Hill who testified in Congress this week playing to the newly found Democratic slogan of “Ukraine is one of key areas of US national security 13/

The anti-tank javelin missiles which Trump administration has approved for sale to Ukraine in 2017 are one of the key deterrents against further military action by Russia on Ukraine’s territory. The intellectual dishonesty of democrats and state Dept officials on the issue ..14/

..is abhorrent.. javelins would have helped a ton during Russian tank offensives in Ilovaysk and Debaltsevo which resulted in 1000+ Ukrainian casualties and loss of strategic territory by Ukraine.. The decision to veto th we weapons cost lives and undermined world order 15/

So now all these democratic politicians bloviating about how dear Ukraine’s security is to them can fuck off.. They engaged in outright appeasement of Russia when Ukraine’s army was still weak and vulnerable and when lethal aid would have mattered 16/

The truth of the matter is that the Democrats in Congress don’t give a shit about Ukraine.. They are happy to use it only out of political expediency as a cudgel to beat up on Trump.. and in the meantime, this ridiculous prices would Int’l undermine US-Ukraine relations 17/

I am not a big fan of Trump’s style or vulgar undiplomatic language that he often defaults to. But actions speak louder than words. Within the first year of Trump’s administration, he lifted the veto ( put in place by his predecessor ) against both sale of javelins to Ukraine 18/

And sale of Patriot missiles to Poland.. He also withdrew US from, at this point unilaterally adhered to, nuclear treaty that Russia has been in breach of for at least 5 years. Yes, sure he says nice things about Putin that the latter doesn’t deserve but 19/

As Churchill said “speak softly but carry a big stick”.. and I am more interested in how this administration uses the stick when need be in absolute terms and relative to the use of stick by his predecessor 20/

And it’s unequivocally clear that Ukraine and Eastern Europe are a lot more secure and Russia faces far more deterrence than under previous administration. The main thing undermining Ukraine’s security today is Congressional Democrats 21/

Weaving a convoluted political narrative that uses Ukraine as a tool of political expediency to undermine the administration that they have been seeking to depose by any means necessary from day one 22/

The people who suddenly discovered that the “security of Ukraine is intertwined with our national security interests” are the same people who condoned Russia’s bad behavior by inaction and who implicitly instituted a policy of arms embargo to Ukraine when it was under attack 23/

I would leave the corrupt dealings that might or might know have gone on at high levels of Ukraine’s ( and perhaps US’ ) government out of this thread but as my last point I wanted to note the deep irony in the fact that 24/

When US government was engaging in advocating for anti-corruption policies in Ukraine,the son of US VP got a lucrative gig on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian company mere weeks after his dad got the Ukraine portfolio.. you could hear the loud collective eye roll among Ukrainians