[LowTaxesEqualsProsperity]

The Western part of the country worked with the Nazis and has a history of pogroms against Poles, Belorussians and other minorities. The Eastern part of the country is more wealthy and less prone to violence.

[Captain Compassion]

There is little difference between the “ethnic” Russians in he east and “ethnic” Ukrainians in the west save some linguistic differences. It's sort of like saying there are “ethnic” Southerners and “ethnic” Northerners in the US. These are the same people with different allegiances.

CC

[kabar]

The Western part of the country worked with the Nazis and has a history of pogroms against Poles, Belorussians and other minorities. The Eastern part of the country is more wealthy and less prone to violence.

The Western part of the country is anti-communist and more nationalistic. They don't want to be part of Russia or before that, the Soviet Union. Why the cooperation with the Nazis? The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

The issue is whether Ukraine moves closer to the West and more independence or remains tethered in the Russian orbit under the former KGB agent Putin who wants to return to the days of Soviet imperialism.

[dfwgator]

The Western part WAS part of Poland...Lwow is Polish!

[docbnj]

“The Western part of the country worked with the Nazis and has a history of pogroms against Poles, Belorussians and other minorities. The Eastern part of the country is more wealthy and less prone to violence.”

This is not strictly true. For one thing, the much of the western part of what is now Ukraine was before WWII part of Poland. At the end of the war, the Poles were expelled by the Soviets.

If you lived in that part of the world during WWII, you had no choice, because you had Nazis and Communists. There was no good side on the scene. That is why some Ukrainians (along with many Russians) initially welcomed the Germans, but soon found that the invaders were no better than Stalin’s henchmen. Remember that Stalin had conducted a mass starvation campaign against the Ukrainian peasants. In a land which in soil and climate is a close match for Iowa, people starved by the millions.

As for the Russians in Ukraine, if they are not happy there, they should leave. They are free to go. If I were such a Russian, however, I would get along with my neighbors, and not try to encourage an invasion by a country led by a KGB man. That is carrying nationalism too far.

Speaking of oppressed minorities, the Tatars of Crimea, persecuted by Stalin beyond any pogroms, are in favor of a free Ukraine and against Russian rule. I don’t know of any minority at this time who would welcome the Russians, except other Russians themselves.