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Nuland's Exit May Reflect US Need to Cut Back on ‘Unwinnable Ukraine War’, Analysts Believe

© AP Photo / Eranga JayawardenaUS Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland leaves after a press conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023.
US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland leaves after a press conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023.  - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 06.03.2024
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) -Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland's announcement of her retirement could signal a US desire to scale down the conflict in Ukraine since it is increasingly clear that the war is unwinnable, former US diplomats and military analysts told Sputnik.
Nuland announced her resignation on Tuesday, only a few weeks after visiting Kiev and confidently predicting a renewed Ukrainian military offensive and victories against Russia this summer on her return to Washington.

Catastrophe for Ukraine

For more than a decade, in both the Obama and Biden administrations, Nuland has been the driving force to propel Ukraine into confrontation with Russia. Now, her sudden announcement of resignation from a post she long coveted and hoped to be the springboard for further advancement could herald a coming U-turn in US policies towards Kiev, Covert Action magazine managing editor and military/intelligence analyst Jeremy Kuzmarov said.

"Nuland was a supreme Ukraine hawk, so her retirement could signal a US desire to scale down the conflict in Ukraine, since it is increasingly clear that this war is unwinnable and a Vietnam-type disaster that has been a catastrophe for Ukraine. Ukraine is now facing a demographic problem as so many young men have been killed in a senseless conflict provoked by Nuland and her friends," he said.

Despite the relentless optimism Nuland continues to express in public about Ukraine's future military prospects against Russia, she may have finally been forced to confront the bloody consequences of her failed policies, Kuzmarov suggested.
"The [Ukrainian] counteroffensive failed and even if the United States provides billions more in weapons, Ukraine is unlikely to be able to push the Russian army back and reclaim territory that the Russians have taken," he said.
The Biden administration was now finally forced to confront the hard truth that the policies it had followed had failed utterly in Ukraine, Kuzmarov pointed out.
In addition, he said Nuland had also been frustrated by her wider ambition to bleed Russia dry in Ukraine and use the Russian suffering in the conflict to discredit and topple President Vladimir Putin.
However, Russia and its leaders had defied Nuland and her allies and turned the tables on them, Kuzmarov explained.
 - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 05.03.2024
Nuland’s Resignation Related to Failure of US’ Anti-Russian Policy, Foreign Ministry Says

Rats Deserting Biden

Nuland's resignation demonstrated that many of the people who had personally benefited the most from President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken's favor were now abandoning them and trying to escape their own responsibility for so many catastrophic policies, retired veteran Pentagon analyst Chuck Spinney observed.
Nuland's announced departure appeared to be "a sign that the rats are leaving the sinking ship of state," he said.
Former CIA analyst Phil Giraldi, founder and chair of Council for the National Interest and founding member of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) agreed that Nuland's announced departure was a sign that more moderate policies might be emerging, at least temporarily from the Biden administration in order to boost the president's debatable re-election prospects in November's coming national vote.

Designs for War

Independent commentator and journalist Sam Husseini agreed that Nuland's announced resignation revealed the failure of the aggressive war policies she had supported and sought to implement for so long in Ukraine, against Russia, across the Middle East, and around the world.
The wider implications of US aggressive policies manipulating Ukraine against Russia were part of a far wider agenda, Husseini explained.
"The Ukraine war has been bad enough, but part of it geopolitically is for the United States to have leverage over all other powers, enabling Israel to have more leverage," he said.
Nuland previously served as deputy foreign policy adviser (2003 – 2005) to Vice President Dick Cheney. Between 2005 and 2008, she served as US ambassador to NATO in Brussels.
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