Author Stephen Kinzer claims that the CIA began dropping armed commandos into Ukraine in 1947 to foment a guerrilla uprising against the Soviet government. However, documented evidence suggests that the first flights over Soviet Ukraine occurred in September 1949, with the CIA dropping around 85 agents, most of whom were captured or killed immediately.
Kinzer's statement about 1947 is not supported by the available evidence, which indicates that the CIA's program with Ukrainian exiles, known as AERODYNAMIC, ran from 1949 to 1970. Kinzer discussed his new book, Boiling Point, on Bannon's War Room, where he outlined a 75-year American effort to push Ukraine into conflict with Russia.
He stated that the CIA worked to change public opinion in Ukraine after the country gained independence in 1991 and wrote permanent neutrality into its constitution. Kinzer alleged that the CIA's efforts ultimately led to the uprising that overthrew the neutralist government in 2014, replacing it with a government that was essentially a proxy of the United States.
Kinzer also expressed his opinion that the US has been using Ukraine as a proxy in its conflict with Russia, citing US senators who referred to aid to Ukraine as "the best money we've ever spent" because it was being used to kill Russians. He acknowledged that Russia is the aggressor in the current conflict, but argued that this is the culmination of a long history of US involvement in the region.