This was five months AFTER Russia invaded Ukraine.
Nope. Here's a quick review --- In 2013, the US rapidly expanded and intensified its interference in Ukraine's politics, including its national election, key to the political chaos the US was fanning....
But McCain’s actions were a model of diplomatic restraint compared to the conduct of Victoria Nuland, the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs. As Ukraine’s political crisis deepened, Nuland and her subordinates became more brazen in favoring the anti-Yanukovych demonstrators. Nuland noted in a speech to the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation on December 13, 2013, that she had traveled to Ukraine three times in the weeks following the start of the demonstrations. Visiting the Maidan on December 5, she handed out cookies to demonstrators and expressed support for their cause.
The extent of the Obama administration’s meddling in Ukraine’s politics was breathtaking. Russian intelligence intercepted and leaked to the international media a Nuland telephone call in which she and U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Geoffey Pyatt discussed in detail their preferences for specific personnel in a post-Yanukovych government. The U.S‑favored candidates included Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the man who became prime minister once Yanukovych was ousted from power. During the telephone call, Nuland stated enthusiastically that “Yats is the guy” who would do the best job.
Nuland and Pyatt were engaged in such planning at a time when Yanukovych was still Ukraine’s lawful president. It was startling to have diplomatic representatives of a foreign country—and a country that routinely touts the need to respect democratic processes and the sovereignty of other nations—to be scheming about removing an elected government and replacing it with officials meriting U.S. approval.
The two diplomats also were prepared to escalate the already extensive U.S. involvement in Ukraine’s political turbulence. Pyatt stated bluntly that “we want to try to get somebody with an international personality to come out here and help to midwife this thing [the political transition].” Nuland clearly had Vice President Joe Biden in mind for that role. Noting that the vice president’s national security adviser was in direct contact with her, Nuland related that she told him “probably tomorrow for an atta-boy and to get the details to stick. So Biden’s willing.”
More: https://www.cato.org/commentary/americas-ukraine-hypocrisy
After the successful election interference and resulting chaos, the US turned its attention to fermenting an Eastern European civil war --- which was also none of our damn business, and still isn't --- into a Western proxy war with Russia. ICYMI:
The civil war began in 2014, after the election outcome, with Ukranians in Crimea and the Donbas voting for independence from Kiev and aligning themselves with Russia. The 2022 escalation of this conflict into a Russian invasion, three wasted years and a million dead happened only with the six year special nurturing of Western warmongers that was initially led by: Victoria Nuland, Geoffey Pyatt, John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Alexander Vindman.
