Posted on 02/05/2014 5:11:40 AM PST by cunning_fish
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — The mayor of a western city warned that his police would fight any troops sent in by the president. The governor of an eastern region posted an image of an opposition lawmaker beaten bloody, saying he couldn't contain his laughter.
Two months into Ukraine's anti-government protests, the two sides are only moving further apart.
To be sure, Ukraine has never been monolithic. Russia and Europe have vied for dominance for centuries, fostering deep cultural differences between the mostly Ukrainian-speaking western and central regions that yearn for ties with the West, and the Russian-speaking east and south that looks to Russia for support.
As the crisis has deepened, each side has grown stronger in its convictions — and those who stood in the middle have been forced to choose sides.
The demonstrations began with an old question: Should Ukraine follow a European path or move closer into Russia's sphere? In November, President Viktor Yanukovych — after years of touting a political and economic treaty with the European Union — had abruptly walked out on it in favor of a bailout loan from Russia. But the crisis changed significantly a week later when riot police violently broke up a small, peaceful rally in the middle of the night on Kiev's central square.
Suddenly, the calls for EU integration were replaced with demands for Yanukovych's ouster and a new government that would guarantee human rights and democratic freedoms. Slogans such as "Ukraine is Europe" were replaced by "Down with the gang!"
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
4 centuries of Russian slavery and they still don’t get it in the East?
Duh. Two cultures can’t exist together in the same country. Everybody knows that, but idiots keep insisting that the “melting pot” works.
To be sure, a unitary nation-state within the present borders of Ukraine has never existed.
Stalin's Polish lands stolen after WW II should be returned immediately.
Yanukovich has to go. He is at the core of corruption in Ukraine. Since partition, Ukraine has made a lot of progress although they have a way to go. If they realign with Russia everything they have done will be lost. The old commies don’t care but the young do and very much.
>>>Stalin’s Polish lands stolen after WW II should be returned immediately.<<<
It seems like the lands this revolt originates from. In your case the rest will go to Russia.
>>Yanukovich has to go. He is at the core of corruption in Ukraine.<<
I won’t argue but we are yet to see the replacement. Hope and Change are a nice dope, but I don’t think you have to push it down Ukrainian’s throat this way.
Eh? The Poles and Germans were all killed off or driven out during the 2nd World War. The former Polish, German, and Romanian lands are now the lands occupied by the ethnic Ukrainians. The lands that used to be Ukrainian before Stalin are now mostly Russian - the Ukrainians having been killed off during Stalin's famine.
In fact, "ukraine" is a Russian word. It means borderland. The Ukrainians get offended if you say "The Ukraine" instead of just "Ukraine" because they think it makes them sound like part of Russia. The historical name by which the Ukrainians used to be known when part of them were subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is "Ruthenian".
The rest WANTS to go to Russia.
My ex-in laws came to America from the Kiev environs around 1910.
To their dying days, the only nationality they ever endorsed was "Russian". They referred to the language they spoke at home and in church as "Russian". They did realize they came from a PLACE referred to as "Ukraine", but to them the idea that they belonged to a nationality called "Ukrainian" would have been ridiculous.
The other word for "Ruthenian" is "Rusyn", but I agree that the lands of Lodomaria and Galicia are not, and have never been, Russian.
However, to transfer the sentiments of the descendants of subjects of the Old Empire to all persons who live within the borders of what is now called "Ukraine" is unfair.
The Eastern Ukranians were never ruled from Vienna, they never identified with what is sometimes called "the West", and if forced to choose because the Ukranian state is to be preserved even at the price of blood, they will choose Russia, and apparently will kill over it.
No surprise here. Ukraine emerged as a nation shortly after WWI and hasn’t existed for more than a few years. Ukrainian SSR as an autonomous territory of Soviet Union is a purely communist invention. It was evicted from the Soviet Union in 1991 after it’s dissolution to become a nation again in 1991.
All the so-called Ukrainian history is totally made-up by Western Ukrainians the way Black Studies in America was.
>>”Ruthenian”.<<
Ruthenians are modern day Belarus, north of Ukraine.
Then the Germans will want Stettin, Breslau and Danzig back.
Russian chauvinism at its best. Ate Ukrainian bread, breathe Ukrainian air, never mind that Russians didn’t show up in Kiev till the 17th and 18th century - it’s all Russia. One and undivided, from Poland to Alaska
West to Poland, East to Russia, Ukrainians have no say, send them to the Moon
How can that be? Obama is not even running it.
lol. I’ve seen this one
Good.
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