US, Ukraine deal step toward possible conflict: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Bill Jones, a member of the Executive Intelligence Review, to discuss a deal between the US and Ukraine to cooperate on military technology and enhance Ukrainian military capabilities.

Here is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: How do you feel about this deal?

Jones: Well I agree with the statement made by the Russians, it is another step in the policy of encirclement. Ukraine was always considered kind of that middle ground when the Warsaw Pact was dissolved, Russia felt that they had a certain amount of security because it did not have NATO on its neck and there were assurances given that Ukraine would never become a part of NATO but on the ground of course with everything that has happened over the last couple of years, step by step we are seeing that Ukraine has been grown into a tighter noose for Russia which is being led by the NATO leaders in the borders and the troops of NATO are now on the very borders of Russia.

So if that is not containment I do not know what it is and it is a very dangerous step that is being taken towards possible conflict in the region. 

Press TV: But I wonder though, Ukraine has its own problems, doesn’t it, apart from just the conflict that is just taking place in its eastern areas, it has major economic issues for example and there is widespread unhappiness and disapproval of the government there right now. So I am wondering, is this sort of an unstable situation good for NATO? 

Jones: Well it is certainly not. I mean it is really … an attempt to shore up a regime which is generally considered even by the population as rather corrupt and not only by the population but also the IMF and the others who are going to lend them money are very concerned about the situation in Ukraine.

This does not bode well for the stability of the NATO alliance and it becomes really a further liability which is pushing us toward conflict.

Ukraine has problems within the region because the Russian population has never really been integrated by the new government that came into Ukraine and they felt themselves threatened so we have the divisions that we have between east and west but there is an attempt to get some kind of political solution, the Minsk group is still intact, can still discuss these issues but the unilateral moves that are being taken on the part of either the Ukrainian government or in collaboration with NATO as this latest agreement indicates, I think, and this really move against any kind of an agreement coming, it sends a signal to the Russians that there is no serious basis for negotiating at this point. 

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