In June 2021, EIR warned that the accelerating British takeover of Ukrainian defense policy, begun after the 2014 neo-Nazi Maidan coup, “evokes historical parallels to the Anglo-Japanese alliance of 1902-1922,” also aimed against Russia. Penetration of the Ukrainian military and security institutions is such that retired British four-star Gen. Sir Gordon Messenger, former Deputy Chief of the British Defense Staff and Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, one of the highest elite orders of Britain, sits on Ukraine’s Defense Reform Advisory Board as “Special Defense Advisor” on the reshaping of Ukraine’s military rebuilding and defense posture. [https://larouchepub.com/pr/2021/20210625_brit_empire.html]
On Dec. 8, U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met in London to upgrade that already-close relationship, holding the first “U.K.-Ukraine Strategic Dialogue,” a format established as part of an agreement signed by President Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2020. Enabling Ukraine to combat Russia was the lead item of that meeting, subsuming even trade relations, identified as “the key to unlocking the potential in our relationship and challenging malign actors together.”
The British Foreign Office press release on the meeting specifically cited Operation ORBITAL, a U.K. training mission in Ukraine begun in 2015, which it reports had “trained over 20,000 members of the Ukrainian armed forces” as of Dec. 8.
