U.S. National Security and Ukraine: What’s the Connection?
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By Mike Scrafton
December 12, 2019
U.S. National Security and Ukraine: What’s the Connection?
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
Witnesses appearing before the U.S. House of Representatives’ impeachment hearings have regularly connected Russian aggression in Ukraine with U.S. national security. The overwhelming international consensus is that Russia’s annexation of Crimea and involvement in hostilities in Donbas are contrary to international law and norms. The U.S.’s military and diplomatic support of Ukraine against Russia is clearly crucial to the Ukrainians. But just how is Ukraine important to the national security of the United States?
Fiona Hill said that Ukraine ‘plays an important role in our national security’. David Holmes declared that ‘it is critical to our national security that we stand in strong support of our Ukrainian partners’. Those judgements are consistent with other witness testimony. It seems so obvious! However, Ukraine is mentioned only once in the 2017 U.S. national security strategy, as evidence of Russia’s ‘willingness to violate the sovereignty of states in the region’.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2019/12/12/us_national_security_and_ukraine_whats_the_connection_114914.html
