"This is not an attack by Putin on Ukraine in the way that we are told every day," said Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University, as he responded to a question regarding U.S. involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict during a longer discussion held by the Cambridge Union.
Sachs traces the conflict to broken U.S. promises, starting with NATO's eastward expansion despite 1990 assurances to Gorbachev. He highlights key escalations: the 1999 bombing of Serbia, the 2002 withdrawal from the ABM treaty, and U.S. interference in Ukraine's 2014 coup.
Russia, he argues, viewed NATO's growth and missile deployments as direct threats, leading to Putin's rejection of the 2021 security proposal. Sachs condemns reckless U.S. policies that sabotaged peace talks, prolonging a military conflict he describes as avoidable.
Reporter: Guo Zedong
Video cover & editor: Guo Hongda
Editor: Yuan Zixiang, James, Shen He
