Ukraine Claims Made At Debate Refuted

Oct. 9, 2024 Editor, The News-Gazette: I attended the recent debate at VMI between Ambassador John Bolton and Vivek Ramaswamy and feel compelled to correct some of the latter’s counter-factual claims regarding Russia, NATO, and Ukraine.

Ramaswamy completely misunderstands Russia’s hostility toward NATO expansion which he says drove Moscow into an “unlimited partnership” with Beijing. In reality, this partnership is driven by their determination to replace what they call a “unipolar” world dominated by the U.S. with a “multipolar” world where their power is unconstrained. Forcing a peace deal on Ukraine will not change this dynamic.

Putin rages over NATO expansion because these nations are permanently removed from Moscow’s suzerainty. When Putin characterized the fall of the USSR as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th Century, he was not referring to the end of Soviet communism but to the end of empire.

Ramaswamy mischaracterized the Russia-China partnership as a “military alliance”; there is no such agreement. He cites joint exercises as proof but these are for show only. Unlike NATO, there are no regular staff talks between Russia and China, no mutual defense plans, no combined military headquarters and no coordinating political body.

Ramaswamy’s claim that in April 2022 Ukraine could have negotiated a better territorial deal with Putin than now is obscene. That month the mass murder of civilians was discovered in Bucha along with many additional Russian war crimes. No Ukrainian government could have negotiated with Moscow at that point. Ramaswamy also overlooked Ukraine’s subsequent liberation of vast territories in the Kharkiv and Kherson Oblasts —would Putin would have unilaterally given this territory back in April 2022?

Ramaswamy ridiculed the notion that Ukraine can liberate more occupied territory. Russia’s military is being pulverized in Ukraine, losing more than 1,000 troops a day. Given sufficient western support, Ukraine can indeed recapture occupied territory. EDWARD GRIMES Lexington