You can’t really compare this situation to Hitler’s walking into countries since the locals aren’t going to give the Russians a warm welcome: unless you mean gunfire when you say warm welcome.
The problem with people in the West, particularly the US, is that they are ignorant of the history and what is going on. Me: I’m not sure where to begin, but it seems that Euromaidan might be a good place (and raises my question: was Fiona Hill involved in this???).
Anyone who knows me would know that I would be sympathetic to Euromaidan if it was indeed a popular rising. That is especially true since one of the goals of this uprising would be that Ukraine joined the European Union, even if I didn’t manage to get EU citizenship out of this deal. But, one of the upshots was that the Ukrainian majority became more militant and the Russian minority became scared. And most of the Russians are in the East, or Donbass region.
Did I say something about people killing each other over which language they speak, Дякую/dziękuję/Спасибо?
Anyway, one of the upshots was that the Russians in the Eastern part
wanted to protect themselves, and thought maybe rejoining Russia was a
brilliant idea. The people in the West weren’t so keen: especially since
Crimea had been reannexed by Russia. That means there has been a low
level armed struggle in Eastern Ukraine. A recap from a post I made earlier:
But we need to get a little history of the situation.
The US want to control Ukraine in order to establish US managed pipeline routes relating to the geopolitical competition over oil and natural gas. The US also wants to advance the US controlled NATO alliance to surround all of Russia’s European borders. The Obama administration and the State Department (which Hillary Clinton had built up from 2009 to 2013) assisted in the undemocratic coup in Ukraine which was led by neo-Nazi white supremacists in 2014. This Nationalist group violently took over Ukraine. The Nationalists attempted to make it illegal in Ukraine to speak Russian, a minority who are still a major force in running the Ukraine government.
In Crimea, where the vast majority of residents are Russian, the Crimeans, fearing the Nationalist regime that had just taken over Kiev, quickly voted to rejoin Russia and by agreement with no military action at all, Crimea legally rejoined Russia. There was no supposed ‘invasion’ of Crimea. It did not happen.
Likewise, the people in the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine were also concerned with the Nationalist ethnic cleansing. An election was held, but because a similar annexation of Donbas into Russia would spoil western plans to dominate pipeline routes and control Russia’s border, the fascist government in Kiev immediately moved with its military, to by force squash the vote and stop Donbas from leaving. This resulted in a 2014-2015 civil war in Donbas, in which Russia lent military support to Donbas (but no formal troops) and the US lent mirroring military support to Kiev.
Putin, if anything, is there preventing a possible genocide. Additionally, the Aid being given to the Ukrainian forces is questionable given that it could result in a genocide.
Ukrainian soldiers are making pilgrimages to Stepan Bandera’s house before heading east.
Which would have any sane person of the Russian type thinking hard about the sanity of invading Ukraine. There are a lot better ways to make sure that ethnic Russians are safe than military help. In fact, given what I know about Banderists, that is probably the dumbest thing one could do.
It’s like starting an uprising in a Jewish Ghetto during WWII. We know how those turned out.
The problem is that Putin has put his prestige points into this gambit and he’s about to see any captial go to shit posthaste should war break out.
Seriously, Dude! Maybe you know my qualifications to be giving you advice. I know you are familiar with my family. Maybe the Banderas aren’t going to be leaders, but assassinating Stepan Bandera created a martyr. No matter how much your crowd try and discredit him: he has become a rallying point for the Ukrainians. And these people are the right wing, ultranationalists.
Sure you would have preferred Ukraine went with the Customs Union, but I would like to think you are clever and that Ukraine as part of the EU would benefit Russia as well. Maybe Ukraine in NATO is a stretch, but you can’t sabre rattle and not expect them to want some form of protection.
The Ukrainians have not forgotten the Holomodor and are going to fight you with all they can.
Remember that before you go any further down this path.
See also:
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/
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