The effort to take Ukraine into the western fold began soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukraine becoming an independent state. Obama has always been about going with the flow, trying to find some middle ground that accomplished less than nothing. He went along with Nuland/State's efforts to oust Yanukovych, even though they made common cause with fascists, because he lacked a spine. He had enough sense to block the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, as the trajectory of doing so was obvious to anyone with a shred of a brain, which excludes most of Washington.