Jul 25, 2015
The Obama administration wants to “strengthen the puppet government” in Ukraine against mass opposition, said James Petras. A plan by the US military to begin training regular Ukrainian military forces later this year points to Washington’s strategy to reinforce the “puppet government” in Kiev, an American writer and retired professor says.
The Obama administration wants to “strengthen the puppet government against mass opposition from the hungry people in Ukraine,” said James Petras, a professor emeritus of sociology at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York, and adjunct professor at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada.
Another reason for the expansion of the Pentagon’s current mission in Ukraine is to put pressure on pro-Russia forces, who are fighting in the eastern part of the country against the Western-backed government in Kiev, Petras told Press TV on Saturday.
Ukraine has been fighting pro-Russian forces in eastern regions for the last 15 months. The conflict has claimed more than 6,500 lives.
The United States supports Ukraine and accuses Moscow of providing heavy weaponry and training to pro-Russia fighters and of deploying air defense systems in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian conflict broke out in March 2014 following a referendum in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, in which people voted overwhelmingly for reunification with Russia.
The situation degenerated into a major armed conflict after Kiev dispatched troops to the eastern regions of Lugansk and Donetsk in April 2014 in an attempt to suppress pro-Russia forces there.
The US State Department said on Friday the US military will begin training regular Ukrainian military troops later this year in an expansion of their current mission, which until now has been limited to instructing National Guard units from the Interior Ministry.
“This training is part of our long-running defense cooperation with Ukraine and is taking place at the invitation of the Ukraine government. This additional program brings our total security assistance committed to Ukraine since 2014 to over $244 million,” said Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman.
Source: PressTv