Response to Ukrainian Government Decision to Include Me on a List of 28 High-Profile Americans Accused of Promoting Russian Propaganda Narratives

The list includes a number of America First patriots, elected U.S. leaders, retired military officers, national security strategists and renowned foreign policy theorists

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    CONTACT

July 29, 2022                David T. Pyne              emptaskforce.ut@gmail.com     

FORMER US ARMY HQ STAFF OFFICER RESPONDS TO BEING INCLUDED ON UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT LIST OF HIGH-PROFILE AMERICAN FIGURES ACCUSED OF “PROMOTING NARRATIVES CONSONANT WITH RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA”

Earlier today, I was made aware that my name appeared on a black list of 28 high-profile, influential U.S. policy figures published by the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, an official part of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, on July 14th, whom they accuse of “promoting narratives consonant with Russian propaganda” and classify as “information terrorists”, subject to being tried as “war criminals.” Here is a link to their black list of Americans and opinion leaders from other countries along with their rationale as to why I was included on the list. It appears that they misspelled my name or else I likely would have been notified about this when the list was first reported by the U.S. media on July 25th. While Ukraine Today has corrected my name, my requests to the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, Newsweek and American Military News to correct their misspelling of my name have gone unanswered.

The stated reason for my inclusion on this list was that I published a fifteen point compromise “peace without victory” plan, which I believe remains the most serious and comprehensive peace proposal to end the war in Ukraine yet published in the Western world. In my proposal, I called for Ukrainian recognition of the Russian annexation of Crimea as well as popular referendums to be held in Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts to vote on the question of independence from Ukraine in exchange for a full Russian military withdrawal from the rest of Ukraine and an end to the war. I have since learned that military strategist Edward Luttwak, whom the Ukrainian government also included on their initial black list, had proposed doing so as well.

In accordance with the terms of my proposal, if a majority of their citizens voted to remain with Ukraine, then Russia would be forced to withdraw all of its troops from Ukrainian territory and Ukraine would achieve victory in the war without any further loss of life. It is difficult for me to understand how the Government of Ukraine could possibly consider that to be promoting Russia’s propaganda narrative. In response to my peace proposal, I was subjected to an unprecedented barrage of hate mail, which in retrospect appears to have been directed by the Ukrainian government.

It is very disappointing to me that the Ukrainian government has alleged, with insufficient supporting evidence, that a number of distinguished America First patriots, elected leaders, retired military officers, national security strategists, leading foreign policy theorists, scholars and statesmen including Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, COL. Douglas Macgregor (USA Ret.) and Dr. John Mearsheimer are in any way disseminating Russian disinformation. The truth is that the only offense committed by myself and my fellow statesmen has been our unfailing determination to loudly, publicly and courageously advocate for a realist foreign policy that not only serves to champion U.S. national security interests in the face of tremendous public opposition by the mainstream liberal media establishment and liberal political elites, but a visionary and enlightened policy of peace through strength which I believe to be very much in Ukraine’s national interest as well. Similarly, neoconservative Republicans, led by former Vice President Mike Pence, have been marching in lockstep with President Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in trying to demonize principled America First conservative voices of opposition to Biden's decision to provide a blank cheque of over $27 billion in U.S. military aid to Ukraine as "apologists for Putin" without any real evidence to support their claim. Biden’s undeclared proxy war against Russia in Ukraine is greatly increasing the chances of Russian nuclear escalation.

To be clear, I strongly support Ukraine’s right to defend itself from Russia’s continuing, illegal war of aggression. I also strongly support Ukraine’s right to maintain a robust conventional military in order to ensure its continued political and economic independence. At the same time, I refuse to turn a blind eye to the fact that, as Dr. Mearsheimer has ably articulated, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was largely provoked by the US and NATO’s unfortunate declaration in 2008, and since, that NATO will be expanded to include Ukraine as a full-member in the near future. Had the U.S. and NATO not crossed Russia’s redline to include Ukraine as a U.S. and NATO strategic partner, Ukraine would be whole and free today. Had the U.S. and NATO issued the written guarantee before the war that NATO would never be expanded to include any additional former Soviet republics, including Ukraine, Russia would not have invaded Ukraine and peace would prevail in Eastern Europe today.

While I continue to strongly support providing largescale humanitarian aid including food supplies and medical assistance along with non-lethal U.S. military aid to Ukraine, I have persistently opposed the provision of lethal military aid to Kyiv. My rationale for opposing it is that it has given Ukrainian leaders false hope that they can defeat Russia which has a population nearly four times larger, an economy 7.5 times larger and the largest nuclear arsenal in the world by far. In any case, according to a new CBS News report, only about 30 percent of the weapons the US and NATO have sent to Ukraine are actually reaching the front lines. More importantly, I have opposed continued U.S. lethal military assistance as I believe it is in opposition to US national security interests to provide it as it has caused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to refuse to negotiate a compromise peace agreement with Moscow, which both sides were close to finalizing in late March and early April before Zelenskyy decided to break off all peace talks with Moscow, at the cost of tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and military personnel, whose lives might have otherwise been spared.

The primary purpose of my published articles on The National Interest and my numerous interviews on the subject of the war in Ukraine has been and will continue to be to articulate the best course of action from the perspective of advancing America’s paramount national security interest of ending this terrible war as swiftly as possible in order to avert an unnecessary world war with Russia that could very possibly escalate to the nuclear level without warning and lead to the destruction of the U.S., NATO and very possibly of Ukraine as well. However, I have also strived to serve as an advocate for the over forty million citizens of Ukraine and what I believe to be their best interests, not to multiply their civilian and military death toll and increase the destruction of their cities by prolonging the war unnecessarily as the Biden Administration and its neoconservative Republican supporters in Congress have done, all the while claiming to ‘support’ Ukraine.

Rather, I have sought to encourage the Biden administration to put America’s very substantial diplomatic leverage to good use by helping to mediate the best peace deal possible for Ukraine with the realization that no nation has offered or likely will offer to send troops to help defend it against Russian aggression. This daunting realization means that, no matter how much military assistance we send them, Ukraine does not have a realistic chance of liberating its territory from Russian occupation, by military means alone, but can only do so by negotiating a compromise peace agreement along the lines I have advocated in my recently published peace proposal.

It is my sincere hope that both the Ukrainian government (and the Biden administration) will join me in my continuing efforts to save as many Ukrainian lives as possible, expel Russian troops from its occupied territories and allow fourteen million Ukrainian refugees to go home so they can build the long and arduous process of rebuilding their country by returning to the negotiating table as soon as possible. Ukraine’s window for a compromise peace settlement is fast running out as the Russian government has announced its plans to conduct popular referendums, likely on September 11th, to vote on the question of re-unification with the Russian Federation with the plan being to annexing all Russian-occupied territories. Once these territories in eastern and southern Ukraine, which include approximately seventy percent of Ukraine’s Black Sea coastline, have been annexed, Russia will never agree to return them. Therefore, it is imperative that Ukraine resume negotiations without delay to finalize a peace deal ending the war with Russia by the end of August in order to help ensure its territorial integrity.

UPDATE: I was interviewed on the Scott Horton Show on August 5th regarding the Ukrainian government’s decision to place me on their July 14th black list. Here is a link to my recorded response. There is one misstatement I made during the interview that I need to correct. I do not favor abolishing NATO unless Russia left its Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) military alliance with China. Then, we could replace NATO with an empowered Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) which included both the US and Russia.

What I meant to say is that I support President Donald J. Trump’s call for a US departure from NATO which his former National Security Advisor John Bolton has confirmed in his new book. I would support the transformation of NATO into a European-led alliance, strengthened by Germany being armed with nuclear weapons while keeping Western Europe under America’s nuclear umbrella. Meanwhile, the truth about Ukraine’s corrupt, autocratic leader is finally coming out in the mainstream media. In light of this new report, President Biden should make all future U.S. aid to Ukraine conditional upon Zelenskyy being replaced as President by a Ukrainian leader who is far less corrupt and dictatorial.

LATEST UPDATE: On August 11th, the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation removed its disgraceful black list of American citizens and citizens of other Western countries, which have been providing it with military aid to help it fight Russia, from its website, following a barrage of negative media reports in the countries it targeted.

David T. Pyne, Esq. is a former U.S. Army combat arms and Headquarters staff officer, who was in charge of armaments cooperation with the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas from 2000-2003, with an M.A. in National Security Studies from Georgetown University. He currently serves as Deputy Director of National Operations for the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and is a contributor to Dr. Peter Pry’s book “Blackout Warfare” as well as the upcoming book “Will America Be Protected?” which is due to be released later this year. He also serves as the host of the Defend America Radio Show on KTALK AM 1640 and as Editor of “The Real War” newsletter at dpyne.substack.com. He may be reached at emptaskforce.ut@gmail.com.