Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, a driving force in keeping Ukraine at war with Russia, announced her resignation because she was passed over for further promotion in favor of Kurt Campbell, ex-US diplomat and former State Department consultant on US-Russia relations James Carden told Sputnik.
"I was actually surprised she stayed this long," Carden said. "I figured her time was up once Campbell got the Number 2 job in the building. ... Why is she doing it [resigning]? Possibly because she was passed over for the Number 2 job by someone even more of a Swamp creature [a Washington insider] than she is, Kurt Campbell."
Nuland, who had served under Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott in President Bill Clinton's administration in the 1990s, was a favorite of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and ran European and Eurasian affairs as assistant secretary of state under Hillary Clinton's successor, John Kerry.
She then served as acting deputy secretary of state for seven months under Secretary of State Antony Blinken and was considered a leading candidate to take over the post, but the position then went to the highly experienced Campbell instead. Campbell was confirmed by the Senate on February 6.
Nuland was also feeling the heat for the disastrous failure of her long-term war-mongering policies in support of Ukraine, Carden suggested.
The latest massive $61 billion armaments and aid package for Kiev, though approved strongly in the US Senate, has so far failed to make its way in the face of minority but fierce opposition from some Republicans in the House of Representatives.
The "long shot reason [for Nuland's resignation is that] she is taking the fall for the disastrous US-Ukraine policies that steered them into an awful, avoidable war," Carden commented, though he added, "But I doubt it."
However, Nuland's departure will not result in any significant change in the Biden administration's continued determination to support Ukraine and confront Russia, Carden advised.
"Will it make any difference? None whatsoever. The uni-party rules. She did harm, but she was not alone," he said.
Only two weeks ago, at a public meeting at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Nuland expressed her continued support for more massive US military aid to Ukraine and predicted that Ukrainian forces would have major battlefield successes against Russia in new offensives later this year.
Russia has repeatedly warned against the continued arms deliveries to Ukraine, saying that they only prolong the conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that the US must stop supplying weapons to Ukraine if it wishes the conflict to be resolved.