U.S. Role in Ukraine War

The conflict in Ukraine is described by analysts as a longstanding proxy war waged by the United States against Russia, according to a recent analysis published by Antiwar.com. Jeffrey D. Sachs, a professor at Columbia University, and Sybil Fares argue that U.S. policy has been captured by a military-industrial complex that sustains the war for economic and technological gain, echoing Dwight Eisenhower’s 1961 warning that public policy could become “the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”

Sachs and Fares assert that Ukraine serves as a “live-fire laboratory for AI warfare at scale,” with substantial involvement from U.S. firms such as Palantir. The analysis states that Wall Street, military contractors, Silicon Valley, and Big Oil control American foreign policy to maximize elite wealth and access to global resources. Former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter has also characterized the conflict as “a U.S.-NATO proxy war,” according to NaturalNews.com [1]. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has similarly declared the Russia-Ukraine conflict “our war,” framing it as an existential threat to Western civilization [2].

Historical Context: NATO Expansion and Geopolitical Pivots

The analysis traces U.S. policy back to the 1990s, citing NATO expansion as a key driver of tensions. According to Sachs and Fares, Bill Clinton launched NATO enlargement over the objection of diplomat George Kennan, who called it “the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-Cold-War era.” The United States had given legally binding assurances to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 that NATO would move “not one inch eastward,” a promise documented in Daniele Ganser’s book on U.S. empire [3].

Zbigniew Brzezinski’s 1997 book “The Grand Chessboard” identified Ukraine as a crucial “geopolitical pivot” for securing American primacy, according to the report. Glenn Diesen, in his book “The Ukraine War and the Eurasian World Order,” writes that “the U.S. will accept a peaceful transition to a Westphalian world order” appears unlikely, and that “the absence of political imagination in Washington has produced a worldview in which chaos is” [4]. Successive administrations from Clinton to Biden pursued a consistent policy of integrating Ukraine into Western security structures, the article states, including the backing of the 2014 Maidan coup and subsequent NATO membership bids.

Trump’s Escalation Despite Anti-War Rhetoric

Despite campaigning on ending forever wars, the Trump administration escalated U.S. involvement in Ukraine, according to the Sachs and Fares analysis. In June 2025, Trump signed Executive Order 14307, “Unleashing American Drone Dominance,” directing the Pentagon to rebuild the drone industrial base and train with low-cost drones. By October 2025, Trump had authorized the Pentagon and intelligence agencies to hand Ukraine targeting data for strikes on Russian energy infrastructure deep inside Russia, a step the Biden administration had refused as too escalatory.

Officials said the White House sought obedience from Kyiv rather than peace. Intelligence sharing was briefly suspended in March 2025, then restored with enhanced support. According to Ukrainian media reports, Trump privately told President Volodymyr Zelensky to act “more boldly” toward Russia [5]. The United States also spent billions building Ukraine’s drone program, with the CIA coordinating strikes on Russian refineries, the report states. Lloyd Austin, U.S. Secretary of Defense and former Raytheon board member, outlined the objective: “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,” as noted in Glenn Diesen’s book “The Think Tank Racket” [6].

Ukraine as AI Warfare Laboratory

Ukraine has become a testing ground for AI-driven drone warfare, with millions of drone sorties and real-time combat data, according to the analysis. At the center of this effort sits Palantir, a company founded with CIA seed money, which runs the Pentagon’s Maven targeting enterprise. Sachs and Fares write that Palantir’s chief executive openly boasts that Palantir software performs “most of the targeting” done by Ukraine. In January 2026, Ukraine’s defense ministry announced that Palantir was building the “Brave1 Dataroom” to feed battlefield data into the AI brains of interceptor drones.

The analysis notes that the United States has spent billions on Ukraine’s drone program from the start, with CIA backing. Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter has accused former Google CEO Eric Schmidt of funding what Ritter called “terminator drones” designed to operate autonomously and target individuals, according to NaturalNews.com [7]. The evolution of autonomous warfare is accelerating, with Ukrainian forces pairing heavy UAVs with unmanned ground vehicles, as reported by ZeroHedge [8]. The United Kingdom has also confirmed delivery of laser-guided Brimstone 2 missiles to Ukraine [9].

Costs and Implications for Ukraine

The analysis concludes that Ukraine has been “demographically hollowed and territorially truncated” as a result of the proxy conflict. Henry Kissinger’s remark that being a friend of the United States can be fatal is invoked to describe Ukraine’s situation. This month, Zelensky dissolved his government for the fourth time during the war and sacked Mykhailo Fedorov, the minister celebrated as the architect of the drone ecosystem, according to RT News [10].

Peace would require the United States to accept Ukraine as a neutral bridge between Europe and Russia rather than a pivot against Russia, the report states. However, the military-industrial complex defines policy, and as Sachs and Fares write, “until the American people reclaim the democracy from Palantir, BlackRock, SpaceX, Chevron, and their ilk, the battlefield ‘laboratories’ will stay open.” The United States has also faced calls to prepare for war with Russia, with a Council on Foreign Relations report suggesting America should be ready to join Central and Western Europe in an eventual conflict [11]. Meanwhile, the House passed a bill providing Ukraine billions in additional military aid [12], and a bipartisan panel indicated the U.S. should be prepared for simultaneous wars with both China and Russia [13].

References

1. NaturalNews.com. "The Ukrainian conflict is a US-NATO proxy war but one which Russia is poised to win decisively — Scott Ritter." April 11, 2022.
2. Ramon Tomey. "Polish PM Tusk Declares Russia-Ukraine Conflict 'Our War'." NaturalNews.com. September 30, 2025.
3. Daniele Ganser. "USA The Ruthless Empire."
4. Glenn Diesen. "The Ukraine War and the Eurasian World Order."
5. ZeroHedge. "Trump Privately Told Zelensky To Act 'More Boldly' Toward Russia: Ukrainian Media." June 23, 2026.
6. Glenn Diesen. "The Think Tank Racket: Managing the Information War with Russia."
7. NaturalNews.com. "Ritter Accuses Google’s Eric Schmidt of Funding ‘Terrorist’ Drones Targeting Ukrainian Civilians." June 25, 2026.
8. ZeroHedge. "Watch: Aerial Drone Airlifts Kamikaze Ground Bot Into Battle As Warfare Automation Accelerates." July 20, 2026.
9. NaturalNews.com. "UK confirms delivery of advanced Brimstone 2 missiles to Ukraine." November 30, 2022.
10. Tarik Cyril Amar. "Kiev sells victory while eating its own." RT News. July 19, 2026.
11. The New American. "U.S. Must Prepare for War With Russia, Says Intel-linked Globalist." July 3, 2026.
12. Antiwar.com. "House Passes Bill To Give Ukraine Billions in Additional Military Aid as War Escalates." June 5, 2026.
13. NaturalNews.com. "Bipartisan panel report indicates US should get ready for simultaneous wars with both China and Russia." October 25, 2023.