This is a true story of how the Unites States has broken implied promise after promise made to Ukraine. Our story begins long, long ago before Ukraine was born a country, when Russia was the Soviet Union and WWII had just ended and the tensions between the Soviet Union and Western nations were just ramping up.
As a result, seven western countries banded together in 1949, forming an alliance for mutual defense. Spearheaded by the United States, they formed a treaty to ensure friendly and peaceful international relations and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was born.
Today, there are 32 nations under this treaty who have promised, among other things, to abide by Article 4, “… consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.”
Promise Two
In 2022, just such a threat emerged when a country awaiting NATO membership, Ukraine, was attacked by Russia. The discussions that followed led to the formation of an agreement signed by all, stating “that the security of Ukraine is integral to the security of the Euro-Atlantic region. We consider Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine to be a threat to international peace and security, a flagrant violation of international law, including the UN Charter, and incompatible with our security interests. We will stand with Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression, for as long as it takes.” Promise number two.[i]
Promise One
To backtrack to the first assurances made to Ukraine by the United States, a little history is in order. As the Soviet Union was slowly unraveling, 1990-1991(thanks, in part, to the joined NATO force) Russia was gaining in territory and Ukraine was seeking independence. In 1990 Ukraine declared its independence and in doing so inherited the third largest stockpile of nuclear arsenals. Russia was not happy that Ukraine ended up with those weapons and began making threats, so the United States intervened.
In 1994, Russia, the United States, and Ukraine signed a peace agreement wherein Ukraine would give Russia the nuclear arsenal in exchange for security assurances that Ukraine’s sovereignty would be respected and unthreatened.
In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea which violated the agreement between the three countries. The United States did not uphold their part of the agreement doing nothing to assist Ukraine. Broken Promise One.
Promises Three, Four, and Five
In June of 2024, the United States signed a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine committing the US to ten years of support for improving Ukraine’s ability to defend its territorial integrity with a plan for Ukraine to gradually increase its independence and defense. This is the third of such agreements, one of which was implemented in 2024 by the United States Congress to provide $60 billion to support Ukraine and other countries affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Day the Promises Died
All four promises made by the US to assist Ukraine was undermined the second we tried to negotiate for future resource rights. The speculation is that the US was demanding back-pay, as it were, for the assistance we have freely promised to provide Ukraine, along with 31 other nations. This should technically be a moot point since, on paper, we were not asking for restitution. We were asking for payment to continue our assistance (which we have already promised repeatedly.)
In 2025, The US presented a contract to Ukraine. The provisions of the contract were that the US would continue to provide Ukraine support and assist in negotiating an end to their war with Russia in exchange for half of any future natural resource rights and revenue with the US controlling all the revenue from those resources. There were no guarantees made by the US or specific language as to how the US would assist, merely that the details would be discussed after the agreement is signed. Most troubling is that the rights to those resources would remain with the US no matter who is ended up with control of the country.
Ukraine’s President pointed out the flaws in the contract and the concern that there was no real security being offered to Ukraine. He tried to explain the many times that the US has broken previous promises has left him hesitant. Unfortunately, he was not allowed to express these concerns because he was abruptly cut off by verbal attacks and ridicule.
The meeting concluded with no resolution. The next day, the United States cut off all aid and communications to Ukraine.
Clearing Up Some Facts
The United States President has claimed on numerous occasions that the United States has aided Ukraine more than any other country with funds that range, depending on the day, between $300-500 billion dollars. While, the US has been the largest financial contributor of any single country at roughly $114-$118 billion. The US is also by far the largest country. When considering Europe as a whole, which is roughly the size of the US, and adding the contributions by each country within the EU, their contributions are considerably higher at $141-145 billion. (And no other country has asked for repayment or to be compensated for their continued help.)
Eight days later, the United States made an undisclosed deal with Ukraine for a ceasefire and resumed aid following those negotiations. It remains to be seen rather Russia will agree or adhere to the ceasefire and what the United States has and will ask for should the three countries find a resolution to the war between Russia and Ukraine. It is this author’s hope that Ukraine will remain firm in demanding equality in any agreements which may be made.
[i] The term promises is used loosely in this article to describe agreements and assurances as these are merely implied promises and not legally binding, an illusion of security.
