Military Times, in a report on the development of the Ukrainian “resistance” against Russia, exposes, perhaps unintentionally, that NATO chose war for Ukraine as far back as 2018 rather than pressuring the Kiev regime to implement the Minsk Agreements. Since 2018, the Military Times reports, U.S. and European officials have quietly helped Ukraine implement key portions of a total defense framework that military officials call the “Resistance Operating Concept,” according to a U.S. special operations official who requested anonymity to discuss the project.
The ROC centers around building up the capacity of NATO members and friendly countries to mount an effective civil and military resistance if they were to face Russian invasion. Nations supported under the ROC are encouraged to develop the legal and organizational framework for a resistance and bring it under the official control of their armed forces. That makes it easier for resistance forces to receive external training, funding, and weapons. Ukraine’s total defense project, which is part of a U.S.- and NATO-supported defense reform collaboration that has been ongoing since war began in 2014, resulted in such a framework last year.
