Congratulations on this informative post! And thank you for recommending my video/ blogposts. It's such an important topic you cover and such good parallel questions you end with.
Thanks Wayne for this overview of the situation. I agree with much of it but I believe that you overemphasized your point that "Surveying this history does not absolve Russia’s aggression." This is a proxy war between Russia and the US/NATO. Much of what follows your reiterated comments to that effect at the outset of the article--NATO's expansion including stationing ballistic missiles in Romania and Poland, the US collaboration with the Ukrainian Far Right to oust the democratically elected Yanukovich Government (a coup d'etat) followed by the annexation of Crimea and the revolt of Donbas people from Ukraine, the AUF's continued encirclement and attacks on the Donbas, killing more than 14,000 people, etc.--the Russian invasion in retrospect does appear to have been provoked. While you mention the Donbas rebellion, you ignored the signing of the Minsk II Accord by Putin, Poroshenko, Merkel and Holland. Then Ukraine refused to implement it precisely because first Poroshenko, then Zelensky (despite being elected on a peace platform) were threatened with death by the Far Right including the Azov Battalion. Instead President accepted the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion into the Ukrainian National Guard. He later outlawed all parties except the Far Right after declaring Martial Law when Russia invaded. While you quite rightly criticized the propaganda of both sides, you didn't mention that the mainstream corporate media in the West has continually said that Ukraine is winning when it's now increasingly obvious that the opposite is true. Now that Russia's Phase I (attacking the whole of Ukraine) and phase II ("liberating the Donbas") are 95% complete. What will Phase III bring? A peace settlement with relaxing sanctions on Russia and the free flow of Ukrainian grain and other exports/imports or the removal of the Zelensky Government by Russia?
Congratulations on this informative post! And thank you for recommending my video/ blogposts. It's such an important topic you cover and such good parallel questions you end with.
Thanks Wayne for this overview of the situation. I agree with much of it but I believe that you overemphasized your point that "Surveying this history does not absolve Russia’s aggression." This is a proxy war between Russia and the US/NATO. Much of what follows your reiterated comments to that effect at the outset of the article--NATO's expansion including stationing ballistic missiles in Romania and Poland, the US collaboration with the Ukrainian Far Right to oust the democratically elected Yanukovich Government (a coup d'etat) followed by the annexation of Crimea and the revolt of Donbas people from Ukraine, the AUF's continued encirclement and attacks on the Donbas, killing more than 14,000 people, etc.--the Russian invasion in retrospect does appear to have been provoked. While you mention the Donbas rebellion, you ignored the signing of the Minsk II Accord by Putin, Poroshenko, Merkel and Holland. Then Ukraine refused to implement it precisely because first Poroshenko, then Zelensky (despite being elected on a peace platform) were threatened with death by the Far Right including the Azov Battalion. Instead President accepted the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion into the Ukrainian National Guard. He later outlawed all parties except the Far Right after declaring Martial Law when Russia invaded. While you quite rightly criticized the propaganda of both sides, you didn't mention that the mainstream corporate media in the West has continually said that Ukraine is winning when it's now increasingly obvious that the opposite is true. Now that Russia's Phase I (attacking the whole of Ukraine) and phase II ("liberating the Donbas") are 95% complete. What will Phase III bring? A peace settlement with relaxing sanctions on Russia and the free flow of Ukrainian grain and other exports/imports or the removal of the Zelensky Government by Russia?
War is not the answer. Only love can conquer hate.