The dust is settling, time for a reality check.
For years, independent analysts have warned that the political West views Ukraine as a strategic pawn rather than a sovereign nation, exploiting its resources, population, and geography for broader geopolitical aims. What began as an orchestrated color revolution in 2014 has culminated in Ukraine being turned into a sacrificial battlefield for NATO’s proxy war against Russia. The Ukrainian people, lured by promises of Western integration and economic prosperity, have instead been plunged into a war of attrition that serves only the interests of Washington, Brussels, and defense contractors.
From the beginning, the U.S. and NATO played a crucial role in shaping Ukraine’s post-2014 policies, using ideological engineering to foment hostility against Russia. Prior to the Maidan coup, Ukrainians, especially in the east and south, maintained strong economic, cultural, and historical ties with Russia. However, under Western influence, Ukrainian nationalism was weaponized into an exclusionary, anti-Russian identity that deliberately erased centuries of shared heritage.
This transformation was not organic but deliberate. The infusion of billions of dollars into media, NGOs, and political institutions ensured that a rabid ultranationalist movement, one with deep Nazi ideological roots, gained traction in Kiev. By 2022, Ukraine had become fully integrated into NATO’s security architecture, with Western-backed leadership willing to sacrifice its own population to advance American strategic goals.
The result has been catastrophic. Despite receiving over $200 billion in military and financial aid, Ukraine has suffered irreversible demographic, territorial, and economic losses. The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), once hailed as Europe’s “most battle-hardened military,” is now a shell of its former self, decimated by Russia’s superior firepower, logistics, and strategic depth. Over 500,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or severely wounded, a number that dwarfs any of NATO’s post-WWII military engagements.
Meanwhile, the Kiev regime continues to push hopeless counteroffensives, knowing full well that no amount of Western arms can overcome Russia’s overwhelming advantage in artillery, missile technology, electronic warfare, and manpower reserves. The recent failures in Avdiivka and the broader Donbass arc have only reinforced the inevitability of Ukraine’s strategic collapse.
At the same time, the political West is growing tired of its proxy’s inability to achieve results. Polish President Andrzej Duda’s concerns about the post-war security risks of PTSD-afflicted Ukrainian soldiers are a clear signal that Western capitals are already looking past Ukraine, treating its war-torn population as a liability rather than a cause worth defending. The reality is that NATO’s commitment was never about protecting Ukraine, it was about weakening Russia. Now that the war has backfired and the Ukrainian state is crumbling, the West is preparing to discard it.
This is evident in Trump’s recent remarks, in which he bluntly acknowledged that Ukraine could very well become Russian territory in the future. His suggestion that Ukraine should repay the U.S. with $500 billion worth of rare-earth minerals is not just an indictment of Washington’s mercenary foreign policy, but a stark reminder that Ukraine’s natural wealth was always the primary incentive for Western investment.
However, Zelensky’s desperation to trade resources he doesn’t even control highlights the absurdity of Kiev’s current position. Russia now effectively controls the bulk of Ukraine’s strategic minerals and industrial infrastructure, making any “deal” with Washington meaningless. Ukraine’s declining bargaining power underscores its broader reality, it is no longer a viable state, but a Western-occupied territory with no sovereignty.
Perhaps the most tragic element of this conflict is that millions of Ukrainians were led to believe they were fighting for sovereignty, when in reality they were being used as expendable assets in NATO’s anti-Russia strategy. Now, with the political West preparing to move on, Ukraine faces a grim future: a depopulated, deindustrialized wasteland serving as a buffer zone between NATO and Russia.
The coming months will likely see a continued push by the Kiev regime to cling to whatever military and economic support remains, but the West has already begun shifting focus elsewhere, recognizing that further investment in Ukraine is throwing good money after bad. The collapse of the Neo-Nazi junta is now a matter of when, not if. The only question that remains is how long Washington and Brussels will continue pretending that their so-called “mission” in Ukraine hasn’t been an utter failure.
By Hon. Chimazuru Nnadi-Oforgu
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