By Eric Arthur Blair for the Saker blog
During this current relative reduction of hostilities in Ukraine, the calm before the storm so to speak, it may be useful to reflect upon the goals of the various geopolitical players, whether stated overtly or intended covertly. This may enable us to make educated guesses as to how events may ultimately unfold.
WHAT DOES RUSSIA WANT?
The party whose openly stated goals appear to align most closely with their defacto goals seems to be Russia, who at the start of the special military operation stated that they wanted the denazification and demilitarisation of Ukraine, the cessation of hostilities against and the autonomy of Donbass (respecting the rights of Russian speakers) and the long term neutrality of Ukraine with no possibility of it being part of NATO, whether defacto (as it currently is) or dejure. Implicit in the latter is the indivisibility of security, the guarantee that US/NATO intermediate range missiles or so-called anti-ballistic missiles (which in reality can be fitted with nuclear warheads and function as INF) will never be stationed in Ukrainian territory. The Russian status of Crimea was never negotiable.
Current situation: having attempted peace negotiations many times but being repeatedly rebuffed by the Oligarchic States of America / Ukraine / NATO (henceforth termed OUN) regarding all the concerns above, and facing ongoing genocidal aggression by the OUN against Donbass, Russia was forced to occupy and denazify much of Eastern/Southeastern Ukraine to protect Russian speaking civilians and Russia’s own security, discovering along the way more than 30 bio-pathogen labs near the border of Russia which had been funded by the USA (as admitted by droolin’ Nuland herself):
https://russiaun.ru/en/news/271022_nb
https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/china-rising-radio/wests-wmd-bioweapon-war-2-fXVCI5yUn/
Subsequent referenda conducted in the the four liberated oblasts (Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson) all overwhelmingly voted to join Russia. Hence ensuring the security of these territories in perpetuity is now a priority. It seems likely that the majority population in Russia will also demand the liberation of Odessa (which has a huge number of Russian speakers, constantly under violent threat by the UkroNazis. Please recall that 48 Russian speakers were killed by the firebombing of the trade union building in Odessa in 2014 by Ukronazis). Odessa was historically a Russian city. The return of Odessa to Russia will shrink the remaining territory of Ukraine to an impoverished land-bound “rump” state, if it continues to exist at all.
There was a time Ukraine had one of the greatest prospects of any European state, with large, fertile steppes producing massive quantities of grain for export, with the lucrative status as an energy hub to distribute Russian gas to Western Europe and a base for heavy industry in Donbass. All of this is now lost (as will likely be Ukraine’s remaining access to the Black Sea) because of a violent corrupt fascist puppet regime that was installed by the USA. The former bread basket of Europe is now the basket case of Europe.
Presently Russia is hammering the crap out of Ukraine, lobbing 3 times more missiles into Ukraine daily than Ukraine can muster (20,000 vs 7,000 according to Colonel Doug MacGregor). “Most missiles launched by Ukraine are ground to air anti-missile missiles” (many are outdated S-300s, one which supposedly went “astray” into Poland, killing two civilians). The OUN also continue to shell the Russian occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, even while insisting that the Russians are shelling themselves.
As far as the previous Russian “retreats” from Kharkov and Kherson were concerned, please see my footnote, to place these events in proper historical perspective.
Where to from here? The Russians only began to seriously target Ukrainian infrastructure (electricity, water etc) eight months into the SMO, after the OUN terrorist attacks against the Nordstream pipelines and Kerch bridge. When the OUN sent drones through the maritime corridor previously designated for peaceful grain export, in order to attack the Russian fleet in Sevastopol, the Russians then proceeded to demolish even more Ukrainian infrastructure. The big question is this: why has Russia not yet destroyed 100% of Ukrainian infrastructure, which it could easily have done months ago? To US analysts, this was a puzzle, because standard practice of the USA has always been to completely destroy vital civilian infrastructure from day one, as in the case of Yugoslavia or Iraq or Libya. Possible explanations for Russian reticence are:
- Russia has far greater concern and respect for civilian lives than the USA has ever had, certainly much more so than the terrorist Ukronazis – who were deliberately bombing civilian areas in Donbass for the eight years prior.
- Complete interruption of electrical and water supplies in Ukraine will inevitably lead to the abandonment of all western Ukrainian cities and a massive exodus of at least 8 million Ukrainians to the countries West. This, along with the economic and energy hardships now afflicting Western Europe (as a result of their sanctions against Russia backfiring), will lead to massive social unrest, possibly even the collapse of some Western European countries. This horrific prospect is a massive bargaining chip that Russia holds over the West and is a huge incentive for the OUN to sue for peace now, before the worst effects of Winter set in.
- As shown above, it will be exceedingly easy for Russia to depopulate all of Ukraine all the way to Lviv, which will achieve the goal of the demilitarisation of Ukraine. This can be achieved right now, even without a single Russian soldier crossing West of the Dnieper river. However it appears that Russia’s preferred option is to achieve demilitarisation of Ukraine without depopulation, so as not to inflict excessive hardship on their cultural kin.
WHAT DO EUROPEANS WANT?
By “Europeans” we must distinguish between the so-called “leaders” of Europe and the ordinary people of Europe. The former are totally corrupt, bought-and-paid-for and in the pockets of the US neocons. The latter are largely clueless and brainwashed by their Mainstream media to adopt mindless anti-Russian hatred and bigotry. As far as can be seen right now, even if the European people could cobble together a vaguely coherent idea of what they may or may not want, their wishes are utterly irrelevant. They have no agency in how events are going to unfold, unless they can overthrow their US controlled puppet governments and install leaders who truly work in their interests. The solutions to the European problems are simple: reverse all sanctions against Russia, request that gas is delivered to them through Nordstream 2B and that the other 3 pipelines are repaired, and agree to total demilitarisation of Ukraine with removal of all Nazis and all NATO “advisers”. These are the best ways to prevent Russia from opening a floodgate of Ukro refugees into the West. Sanity is unlikely to prevail because the Germs in particular seem to be terminally stupid and spineless. So my advice to the Germs is this: get ready for a shitstorm of events: industrial and economic collapse and a massive influx of refugees who you will have to support with your dwindling tax base and rising inflation.
WHAT DO UKRAINIANS WANT?
This is no more relevant than the wishes of flotsam tossed about by a stormy sea .
WHAT DOES THE USA WANT?
There is a huge disconnect between the officially stated goals and covertly pursued goals of the USA, as befits a two faced “non agreement capable” imperialist oligarchy. The official line from the US is that they are engaging in a noble struggle to “free” Europe from being held to ransom by an “unreliable” energy provider, Russia, and that this is a global confrontation between Western “Democratic” and Eastern “Authoritarian” regimes for the future of the world. That is of course total bullshit. In reality, the exact opposites apply. All actions by the US with regard to Russia and Ukraine, dating back not just to 2014 but to 1991, were deceitfully ignoble, the US is utterly focused on the enslavement, not the liberation of Europe (to be permanently kept under the jackboot of US hegemony), Russia has always been a completely reliable provider of cheap energy to Europe and the Oligarchic States of America are completely undemocratic: they neglect the well being of their own citizens while donating hundreds of billions of tax payer dollars to the US MIC. “Authoritarian” Putin has always been careful to address the wishes of the Russian public (via the Duma) and the wishes of the majority populations of Crimea and Donbass (via referenda, which were much better conducted and more legitimate than the recent suspect and dodgy US mid-term elections https://podbay.fm/p/the-duran-podcast/e/1668956802 ).
Some short term goals of the US neocons, as far as sabotaging the sale of Russian energy to Europe and railroading the Europeans into buying very expensive fracked US LNG, seem to have been successful. However this will not work in the medium to long term because expensive fracked LNG can never generate industrial products economically competitive with products manufactured using much cheaper energy eg by China using piped Russian gas. Hence the medium and long term collapse of the German industrial economy is certain (hence they will eventually be unable to buy expensive US LNG) if the Germs continue down this foolish path. I previously devoted an article to the real motivations of the US neocons and oligarchs who have hijacked US policy.
https://10.16.86.131/cui-bono-the-big-picture/
The medium term US tactics and goals were these: to confiscate more than $300 billion of Russian foreign reserves and to impose economic sanctions (more than 10 thousand so far) which would turn the “Ruble to rubble” (as stated by sleepy Joe) and trigger Russian economic collapse. This would create public unrest in Russia which would enable a US sponsored colour revolution to depose Putin in favour of a US designated puppet (echoes of “Yats is our guy, fuck the EU” droolin’ Nuland). Astroturf revolutions are an old tactic taken directly from the CIA playbook, dating back to the antics of Kermit Roosevelt in Tehran. Embroiling Russia in a lengthy resource-sapping war in Ukraine, perpetrated by US terrorist proxies, was designed to weaken Russia as Lloyd “Raytheon” Austin so transparently admitted. Stinkin’ Blinken also admitted the Ukraine situation was a US/NATO proxy war with Russia, just as he had crowed about how the bombing of Nordstream represented a “tremendous opportunity” for the US to sell LNG to Europe.
The US long term goal would eventually be to fragment Russia into smaller states (just as the USSR had previously been broken up, following its embroilment in a lengthy resource-sapping war in Afghanistan, perpetrated by US terrorist proxies). Those smaller post Russian banana republics would each have puppet leaders appointed by the USA, who would then foil the “belt and road” initiative of China, the next target of the US neocons. All of this devious skulduggery has been outlined in many a Beltway think-tank document, especially that from the Rand corporation.
Not only have every single one of those US goals failed, they have backfired spectacularly. Especially laughable is smellin’ Yellin’s “oil price cap” policy, which is being ignored by everybody. The only sane strategy is to negotiate peace with Russia. Nevertheless the position of the US at present remains unchanged: any peaceful economic links between Germany and Russia must be sabotaged at all costs, because it would create an economic-industrial behemoth that, along with China, would sideline the USA into irrelevance on the world stage. The only excuse Germany has for “sanctioning” Russian gas today is the so-called “aggression” of Russia in Ukraine. If a peaceful outcome in Ukraine is achieved, there will no longer be any excuse for Germany to deny itself Russian gas. Hence, from the POV of the USA, peace in Ukraine must be avoided at all costs. The consequence of refusing to achieve a peaceful settlement, of obstinately continuing to lob missiles against the Russians, will be this: the complete and utter destruction of Ukraine by Russia, with massive out-flux of refugees into Western Europe. Does the US care if there are economic and humanitarian catastrophes in the making (and of their making) in Western Europe? Absolutely not. Not only is the USA happy to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian, the USA is happy to fight Russia to the last European.
THE SPECIAL CASE OF TURKEY:
Turkey has been a long standing NATO member. Readers will remember from history that the stationing of US nuclear capable missiles in Turkey was the catalyst for the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. Today, Turkey and the OUN are best described as “frenemies”, now leaning towards being enemies. The USA sees Turkey as an unreliable ally and was particularly miffed by the Turkish insistence on buying Russian energy in Rubles, of continuing to honour Mir transactions and its intention to become a Russian natural gas hub, supplying south eastern Europe via the Turkstream pipeline. Erdogan firmly believes that the attempted coup against him in 2016 was perpetrated by Gulenists sponsored by the USA. The recent terrorist bombing in Istanbul which killed 6 and injured 81 was traced to an individual that the Turks claimed was a Kurd from northern Syria who was a proxy of the AngloZionists. We do not know if this is true, but what matters is that the Turks believe this to be true and it is certainly consistent with the history of the US using terrorist proxies. Accordingly, when the US ambassador to Turkey offered his condolences for the bombing, the Turkish interior minister flatly rejected it, saying that Turkey knew who did it, expressing disgust for such US hypocrisy. All US interactions with Turkey in recent years have counter productively served to push it closer towards Russia and the BRICS+ countries.
CONCLUSION: The USA is the worst terrorist state in the world, they represent the greatest threat of global nuclear war to every one of us (USAnians included) – which could cause human extinction. Being an enemy of the USA is dangerous, but being an ally (especially if you are a Germ or a Ukie) is fatal. The Turks are discovering this to their chagrin and are wising up.
Footnote: The AngloEuroZionist mainstream media and their stooge pundits always crow loudly over every transient Pyrrhic victory “won” by the Ukie proxies, while demonstrating a profound ignorance of history and strategy and reality. General Surovikin is nothing if not rational. Given a choice between precariously holding on to Kherson city located on the “wrong” side of the river (which can and will later be recaptured) and preserving the lives of Russian soldiers, he chose his soldiers. All civilians who appreciated the protection of Russia were evacuated. Die hard Ukie ideologues who prefer to freeze and starve this winter in an eviscerated city were allowed to stay.
This echoes the much higher stakes situation of 1812 when General Kutuzov had to choose between Moscow and his army and he chose his army. He allowed Napoleon to march into Moscow which had been stripped of any and all resources that could support the French, who eventually had to withdraw, enabling Russian forces to recapture Moscow. The Russians slaughtered the French as they withdrew. Today’s Ukie/NATO forces are tactically and strategically far more stupid than Napoleon.
Remember the “massive victory” of Ukies advancing into Kharkov oblast empty cow paddocks not long ago? The Russians had staged a tactical withdrawal* and suffered almost no casualties, but enticed the Ukies into open territory where the Ukies were sitting ducks to Russian artillery and rockets. The Ukies lost around 8000 dead. With such a great “success”, it is just a matter of time before the Ukies suicide their way to moribund victory.
(*this was a classic Mongol tactical “withdrawal” which the Kievan Rus had learned from history to their great cost, and now inflicted upon the stupid Ukies to their great cost.)
BTW, Kiev was founded by the primordial Rus, it was the first capital city of the Russian people who were then known as the Kievan Rus. That is historical fact.
EAB is not Russian, knows no Russians and has never been to Russia. Inspired by Tolstoy, he is learning more about Russian history day by day.
An excellent strategic analysis! I am an utter novice in matters concerning Eastern Europe, the Ukraine, Russia and Russia’s near abroad; yet, I do have some insight or apprehension, although certainly not comprehension, of what is and what has been going on. I was privileged to study Russian history at the University of Vienna in 1969/1970 under a professor who urged us to look beyond the “Cold War.” Under his influence, I have been doing that. Although my spoken Russian is totally unpracticed, the result of my neglect for over forty years, I began listening or reading President Putin’s speeches starting about 2007, not all of them, but almost all of them. Knowing what he has actually said as opposed the claims of what the Goebbels’s propaganda of the Collective West has alleged has assisted me in sifting truth from lies. Coming to The Saker in early 2014 was a God-send. About the same time, I got access to the work of Graham Phillips operating in the Donbass and through him gained access to heroes such as Motorola and Givi.
I want to express my gratitude to Andrei and Mr. Blair for this most helpful, full-bodied sketch of the positions of the belligerents in this conflict which, from the American perspective, goes back, not to 1991, but to the era of Woodrow Wilson prior to the U.S. entry into WWI.
I could not agree with you more Mr. Peters. Growing up in Arkansas during the Cold War I feared (not hated) the Russians. I now realize that the USSR was not nearly the threat that I and most US citizens thought back then.
Russia under Mr. Putin’s leadership has reached its hand out in friendship many times only to be rejected by the Anglo-Zionists. These people are not interested in friendship only domination and power. It is rare that the stark binary options are good or evil but this is one of them.
@RobertMPeters
You are of course correct. Woodrow Wilson was the first totally bought-and-paid-for US president, completely in the pockets of the robber baron corporatists. It is no accident it was during his term that the US Federal Reserve (controlled by Wall St, not the US government) was created, following a secret meeting of private banksters in Jeykell Island in 1913.
https://mises.org/library/origins-federal-reserve-1
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/12/21/the-federal-reserve-was-created-100-years-ago-this-is-how-it-happened/
The esteemed economist Michael Hudson traces many of our current ills to the Fed, which is not only unnecessary for a successful economy, it is downright toxic. China never gave the rights of money creation to any private consortium, its publicly owned banks put the savings of depositors and the welfare of ordinary customers first, unlike the US Fed and private wunch of bankers who put themselves and their profits first. They were bailed out by Obama in the GFC of 2008/9, even as countless mortgage holders were thrown out of their homes, the victims of predatory loans.
Of course the US private banksters have financed countless bloody historical conflicts in their unholy alliance with the MIC.
Sie haben völlig Recht, wenn Sie sagen, dass Woodrow Wilson der erste völlig gekaufte US-Präsident war.
Ergänzend möchte ich bemerken, dass dieser Präsident dem Deutschen Kaiserreich 1918 Zusagen gemacht hatte. Soweit ich weiß, betraf dies die Schuldfrage für den 1. Weltkrieg. Er hat seine Zusage nicht eingehalten, so dass Deutschland im Versailler Vertrag die Alleinschuld für den Ausbruch des 1. Weltkrieges gegeben wurde.
Die Folgen kennen Alle.
Ein Großteil der darauf folgenden US- Präsidenten haben den Wortbruch gegenüber anderen Ländern praktiziert (siehe 1990 gegenüber Gorbatschow).
Translation. Mod:
You are absolutely right when you say that Woodrow Wilson was the first completely bought US president. In addition, I would like to note that this President had made promises to the German Empire in 1918. As far as I know, this concerned the question of guilt for the 1st World War. He did not keep his promise, so that Germany was given the sole blame for the outbreak of World War 1 in the Treaty of Versailles. Everyone knows the consequences. A large proportion of subsequent US presidents have broken their promises to other countries (see 1990 to Gorbachev).
I would add that even before Wilson, President McKinley and the U.S. media, unnecessarily from the perspective of the real interests of every-day America, overthrew the legitimate government of the Kingdom of Hawaii, predicated a war with Spain on a lie “Remember the Maine,” and projected the United States into the Pacific realm, fighting a brutal war against the people of the Philippines and put the U.S. on a collision course with the emerging Empire of Japan, each pursuing the ultimate goal of subjecting China.
“By “Europeans” we must distinguish between the so-called “leaders” of Europe and the ordinary people of Europe. The former are totally corrupt, bought-and-paid-for and in the pockets of the US neocons. The latter are largely clueless and brainwashed by their Mainstream media to adopt mindless anti-Russian hatred and bigotry.”
By “Americans” we must distinguish between the so-called “leaders” of America and the ordinary people of America. The former are totally corrupt, bought-and-paid-for and in the pockets of the US CIA-USAID acting as Control — by carrot and stick — of the US MICIMATT. The latter are largely clueless and brainwashed by their Mainstream media to adopt mindless anti-Russian hatred and bigotry.
Both Europeans and Americans are ruled by their state security agencies. This, to say the least, is upside-down. Put down to inducements from their state security agencies that just about everything Europeans and Americans believe about themselves and Russians is false. So now what? What are you prepared to do about that?
@DavidRGraham
This document describes the solution
full pdf https://www.dropbox.com/s/nio185d72vkqkpc/ChannellingTrout_full_compressed.pdf?dl=0
reading of excerpts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwwY2c16I4w
It’s true, the US is the worst terrorist state in the world, and many Americans are becoming aware as the veil is lifted.
If the US government stays on this course, the day will soon come when the whole world, even the Europeans, will turn against it.
@Eric Arthur Blair
Sir, thank you for this brief and accurate analysis which begs of nothing else but to be acknowledged and accepted as a true facts that anyone even lightly literate can certainly look up and verify easily themselves.
Fun factoids:
Just aswe know that Austin Powers’ middle name is “Danger”, we know that Lloyd Austin’s middle name is “Raytheon”.
It is not however true that Austin named his firstborn “Beelzebub”.
That is the middle name belonging to Hunter Biden, conferred upon him during a blood ceremony at the Burisma Church of Satan and Money Laundering
We’ve only just begun
We’ll start out walking then learn to run . . .
Unfortunately, America came out shooting from Day One and hasn’t stopped since.
A thousand years or two, too late to the party. No longer will the natives accept trinkets for their precious metals and energy.
I believe the goal of the USA is a unipolar world order and Russia stands in the way desiring a multipolar world order. I believe this should be made clear in writings if this nature, however thank you for your insight.
This was quite a good article & well set out. BUT – -what does OUN stand for ? The author subsituted it for NATO but no explanation for substitute word.
@james1
Please see second paragraph of “what does russia want” :
“Current situation: having attempted peace negotiations many times but being repeatedly rebuffed by the Oligarchic States of America / Ukraine / NATO (henceforth termed OUN)…”
See, you all got so many names for them it gets rinsed in the wash, just as I call the Terror State Occupying Palestine, or for short, The Apartheid State….one must find words, or make up new ones so there is no uncertainty in ones contempt. Oligarchs and their stench are in every country….that’s why trains ran for eight months in the Ukraine, taking goods, commerce, west and returned to the east, full of death. And Russia just watched. And watched. Military Summary reported for weeks of the huge train loads of men and gear that set up in Krakow. Distant memory, I know. Same thing happening in Kherson, handy thing those trains. Too bad Russian Oligarchs were crippled with economic navel gazing for eight months……now look at the mess.
I feel for the General that inherited that mess. Politicians playing soldier, lots of people always die.
Anyway, an American living in the Ukraine coined the perfect name for those that rule by unelected diktat over the average person at that person’s expense.
System Pigs……on size fits all.
Cheers M
As said previously, excellent analysis!
If I might make a suggestion, though, the employment of the acronym OUN as a special case induces a bit of cognitive dissonance, since the OUN, of course, was an integral fascist organization in Ukrainian history.
Perhaps “OAUN” instead?
Just a minor quibble, and certainly not meant to detract from your fine synopsis.
@JMF
conflating “organisation of ukranian nationalists” with
“Oligarchic States of America / Ukraine / NATO”
ie. the new OUN, was intentional
I think the complexity of the current situation described in my last two essays requires a summary of those summaries. This can be printed out on a single A4 sheet. The facts, based on overwhelming historical documentation sourced from the Western Mainstream Media itself * (including leaked US thinktank documents eg from the RAND corporation) are these:
1. The USA provoked Russia into invading Ukraine on 24 Feb 2022 as a consequence of intolerable aggravations by the USA since 1991 (eastward NATO missile encroachment) and especially since 2014 when the US-backed Maidan coup handed the levers of power in Kiev to Nazi fascists who took delight in terrorising and murdering Ukrainian Russophones (as spewed out by Poroshenko with spittle flecked hatred in his famous rant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpZusD92rrg ).
2. Reasons the USA have sabotaged and will continue to sabotage any peace initiatives (they ignored the Minsk 1 and 2 agreements, Bojo went to Kiev to sabotage the signing of an agreement in March/April 2022 etc) are these:
Short term:
– massive financial windfall for the US MIC (dump obsolete US ordnance into Ukraine, to force US taxpayers to fund new, more expensive replacements which generate many new MIC contracts)
– massive financial windfall for US fossil fuel fraudsters by manipulating the Germs into abandoning Russian gas and agree to buy US LNG at ~ 10 times the cost (US fff share prices skyrocketed, but in reality the LNG will never be delivered in any significant quantity because of the realities of Physics and Economics)
– turn Germany away from any peaceful economic cooperation with Russia to prevent the eventual formation of an economic-industrial behemoth, which would sideline the USA into irrelevancy on the world stage.
– use the “Russian aggression” as excuse to massively economically sanction Russia and confiscate their foreign reserves which the US hoped would:
Medium term:
– cause chaos and collapse of Russian economy which would
– generate social turmoil and facilitate a CIA sponsored colour revolution to depose Putin and the current Russian leadership, which would
– enable USA to install their puppet leader (a la Yeltsin) who would rubber stamp all US directives such as
– force Russia to leave the BRICS+ group and abandon the creation of an alternative International Reserve Currency to the US dollar (most important goal of all)
Long term:
– a prolonged resource-sapping war in Ukraine, perpetrated by proxy US terrorists, would weaken Russia and cause it to break up into banana republics, each controlled by a US puppet leader (echoing how a previous prolonged resource-sapping war in Afghanistan, perpetrated by proxy US terrorists, weakened the USSR and caused it to break up into smaller republics)
– those US controlled puppet banana republics would foil China’s Belt and Road Initiative (ultimate long term goal)
The story as of November 2022: The US anti-Russia sanctions backfired spectacularly, ensuring that the medium and long term goals of the US will never be achieved. They have driven Russia, China and the “Global South” ever closer. Europe is now facing industrial and economic collapse, facing painful energy poverty and will soon experience the influx of at least 8 million (possibly twice as many) Ukrainian refugees when the Ukrainian electrical, water and sewage utilities are 100% disrupted, unless they quickly sign a peace agreement with Russia. This crisis may cause the collapse of one or several European countries, the so-called allies of the US, not that the USA gives a shit about any humanitarian catastrophe that they have ever or will ever cause by their psychopathic neoconartist ideologies.
*(but much of which has this year been erased, censored, deplatformed and search deprioritised in an Orwellian attempt to rewrite history)
Excellent recap of the situation as it really is. I am either bemused or enraged at the idiot story offered by so many on FB and Twitter, the social media I use. It is obvious that Russia was initially reluctant to harm civilians, and this fact should be repeated constantly to show how events have escalated to the present Ukraine-wide destruction of infrastructure.
My only criticism of the essay is the use of ‘OUN’ which is also the initials of the first Nazi group in western Ukraine:
“The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists was a Ukrainian ultranationalist political organization established in 1929 in Vienna. It was the largest and one of the most important far-right Ukrainian organizations operating in the Kresy region of the Second Polish Republic. “