But then the question is: why violate this verbal pledge to not expand NATO.

 

The two US officials settled on technocrat Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Yats is the guy, Nuland decreed. The only outstanding matter was securing the blessing of the then-Vice President, Joe Biden and his then-senior advisor, Jake Sullivan, “for an atta-boy and to get the deets [details] to stick.”

https://www.aaronmate.net/p/by-using-ukraine-to-fight-russia