When Russian forces launched an unprovoked, full-scale attack on Ukraine, it seemed inconceivable that the war would be grinding on three years later, or that hundreds of thousands of people would have been killed and wounded.

The U.S. has assisted Ukraine's self-defense with $66 billion in military aid since 2022.

But it is worth asking how American foreign policy since the Cold War contributed to the conditions that made Ukraine vulnerable to invasion.

From KERA in Dallas, this is Think. I'm Chris Boyd.

Alexander Vindman is a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and former director for

European Affairs on the White House's National Security Council, a position that led to his

testimony in President Trump's

2019 impeachment trial for alleged abuse of power and obstruction of Congress related to that

call he made to Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky. Minman also served as a political

military affairs officer and a diplomat at the American embassies in Moscow and Kiev.

Today, he is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute and leads the Here Right Matters Foundation, which focuses

on helping Ukraine win the war against Russia. Those experiences have given him insight on why

Vladimir Putin is so obsessed with controlling Ukraine and led Vindman to the conclusion that the United

States has moved in the direction of transactional foreign policy focused on crisis management

where what is needed is moral leadership and idealism. He explains all this in his new book,

The Folly of Realism, how the West deceived itself about Russia and betrayed Ukraine.

Colonel Vindman, welcome to think.

Lovely to be here. Looking forward to the conversation.

You make the case in this book that the U.S. and its allies have enabled the ongoing tragedy

in Ukraine. And when you say this, you are not referring just to the Biden administration

or to the Trump

administration.

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