Ukraine's Journey to Disaster
A listing of historical facts
1991-As the Soviet Union collapses, the Bush Administration promises Soviet Premier Gorbachev that NATO will not expand “one inch east of Germany.”
1993-2000-NATO expands to the former Warsaw Pact countries of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. Russian President Boris Yeltsin opens Russia to exploitation by Western capitalists. Rise of Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs. The Clinton Administration openly interferes in the Russian election of 1996 to insure Yeltsin is re-elected. Time magazine brags about the interference on its cover.
2000-2013-Vladimir Putin takes office and effectively manages the Russian government this entire time. NATO expands to include Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Slovak Republic, Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, Romania and Bulgaria. Russia becomes an entrenched oligarchy with plenty of corruption but restoration of many Soviet welfare policies. Average Russian standard of living substantially improves. Ukraine dominated by governments amenable to Russia, achieves well-earned reputation for most corrupt country in Europe. American and European money flows into the country in thousands of profitable money-laundering operations, at least one of them linked to Joe and Hunter Biden.
2014-Maidan Coup orchestrated by Obama’s Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. Populist peaceful protests against corruption in Ukraine are replaced by openly Nazi Azov Battalion thugs. Russian language banned in Ukrainian schools. 48 Ukrainian protestors against Maidan regime burned alive by neo-Nazi Ukrainians in Odessa. Western world silent on massacre. Russia annexes Crimea after mostly Russian population votes to join Russian Federation(and to hold the naval base at Sevastopol). Civil war erupts in eastern Ukraine as Russian-speaking Ukrainians revolt against new, extreme nationalist and rightwing government in Kiev.
2014-2017-Ukrainian Civil War drags on. Thousands of civilians killed by neo-Nazi militias, ethnic Russian separatist states and militias emerge and inflict casualties on Ukrainian regime forces as well. Minsk Agreement for autonomy for Donbass region signed by Ukrainian, French, German, and Russian governments in 2015. Agreement not implemented by Ukrainian government. Lindsay Graham and John McCain speak to Azov Battalion in 2016, promising they will go on the offensive against Russia next year. Donald Trump elected President of the United States and mostly ignores Ukrainian civil war and Ukraine in general through 2020.
2017-2020-Volodomyr Zelensky elected President of Ukraine with 70% of popular vote, including huge majorities of Russian-speaking Ukrainians, on his promise to end the civil war in the east and to have peaceful relations with Russia. Zelensky actually tries to do this, Azov Battalion flat-out refuses to stop shelling separatists. Zelensky become puppet to Ukrainian Nazis and the US Empire, maybe just to survive. Joe Biden elected President of the United States in 2020.
2020-2022-Ukrainian Civil War intensifies. Probable arming of Ukrainian rebels by Russia. Ukrainian government militias continue to shell civilians and fight separatist militia. Thousand more Ukrainians killed. Ukrainian Army masses on Donbass border. Zelensky announces Ukrainian intent to join NATO, obtain nuclear weapons, restore central government authority over Donbass and Crimea. One week later, Russia invades Ukraine.
It is obvious that this war could have been easily avoided, by the Minsk Agreement itself if it had been implemented by Ukraine. Instead, the US Empire actively pushed for war in order to weaken Russia, which openly defied the right of the Empire to dictate Russian economic policy and to expand control over Eurasia as envisioned by the creators of the Project for a New American Century as a necessary step to permanent global domination by the Empire.
Now we are closer to nuclear war with Russia than we have been in 60 years-October 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis. And for what? Capitalist expansion and imperial hubris, that’s what. For the profits of the American Military Industrial Complex and the national security state. Certainly not for the well-being of the American, European, Ukrainian and Russian people.
What a criminal waste of human lives and resources.
Thank you for reading. Good day, good luck, and Happy Halloween.
I'll take the liberty of adding a few more, some I have seen in person.
In 2018, Poroshenko engineered an incident with Russia in the Kerch Strait, resulting in the capture of Ukrainian military ships and martial law in parts of Ukraine. I wondered if I would have an extended visit in Ukraine 😉
Poroshenko, just before leaving office, put into effect a law gradually banning the Russian language. Billboards gradually have gone more and to Ukrainian. Servers are now required to first address customers in Ukrainian.
In March of 2021, Ukraine started sending large amounts of troops and equipment to the contact line with Donbass. I saw trains filled with tanks heading east on Twitter to my surprise.
In February of this year, the shelling of Donbass by Ukraine increased by a huge amount, and was recorded by the UN Special Monitoring Mission.
In (I think) February of this year, Biden and Johnson started sending planeloads of offensive military weapons to Ukraine.
Towards the end of February, Russia recognized the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics as independent and responded to their requests for military assistance.
And an opinion: the arming of Ukraine and the increased shelling in February showed that a major attack on the Uk
DPR and LPR by Ukrainian forces was coming. I believe Russia and Putin chose to respond to prevent the invasion by Ukraine.
This started already in 2007, when Putin gave a speech at the security conference in
Munich warning the West of Russia's Red Line with regard to NATO expansion. He
warned not to include Georgia and Ukraine in that Alliance. 2008 Bush offered both
countries the membership. A corrupt western stooge, Sakashvili(?), attacked from
Georgia the autonomous Ossetia region, which asked for Russian help.Remember
McCain's "We are all Georgians now"? Russia defeated the attack and was promptly
labelled by the West as a war criminal country. After that event the West kept peace for
a bit, but the intent to subdue Russia never stopped. However, from that time forward
Russia prepared for a possible war. In a speech 2010 Putin - while addressing his country -
he warned of new hypersonic weapons in case the West would attack. After the US coup
in Maidan he looked for a peaceful solution, refusing annexation of the Donbass. From that
time on (if not earlier) the West trained Ukrainians for war (in Florida,Ramstein and the UK).
Thus the Minsk agreements were both a fake.
Now we have 2 atomic weapons superpowers claiming this war as an existential one for
each side, while the West is starting already to sanction China. Unless the West finds an
offramp in both cases and is willing to use it, we will have WWIII.Just my opinion.