Posted on 03/05/2022 10:53:25 PM PST by RandFan
In the long-ago summer of 2010, I found myself in the beautiful harbour of Sevastopol, surveying the rival fleets of Russia and Ukraine as they rode at anchor in the lovely Crimean sunshine.
One great fortress was adorned with banners proclaiming 'Glory to the Ukrainian Navy!' Another frowning bastion across the water bore the words 'Glory to the Russian Navy!'
In the streets of that elegant city, with its porticoes and statues and monuments to repeated wars, sailors from the two fleets mingled on the pavements.
The Russians looked like Russians, with their huge hats and Edwardian uniforms. The Ukrainians looked more like the US Navy on shore leave in San Diego.
It was almost funny to see. I hoped at that time that it would work out well. For the Ukrainians had begun to be silly.
In a country crammed with Russians, they were trying to make Russian a second-class language.
Russians who had lived there happily for decades were pressured to take Ukrainian citizenship and adopt Ukrainian versions of their Christian names.
The schools were promoting a national hero, Stepan Bandera, who Russians strongly disliked and regarded as a terrorist.
And they were teaching history which often had an anti-Russian tinge. Quite a few people told me they felt put upon by these policies. Why couldn't they just be left alone?
Until that point, Ukraine had been a reasonably harmonious country in its 20-odd years of existence. After that visit I saw big trouble coming, both in the Crimea and in the Don Basin, where I also travelled that year.
....
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
That frigate in the background behind Hitchens in the first photo in the article has now been scuttled in port by the Ukrainian navy.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-navy-frigate-sunk-mykolaiv-b2029108.html
Oh… and, by the way, excellent article by Hitchens. Thanks for posting.
Read the entire article. The jingoism and Russophobia is like 1914. If there is a major war the white race will be the loser.
give thanks for Peter Hitchens.
What was the last war we truly won? Some tiny island in the Caribbean holding med school hostages?
Bears do not need to be poked to be dangerous. A bear is innately dangerous, as eager to eat a hiker as someone who simply annoys it.
Great article. Thanks.
My wife said so much in the news seems to be the old game of "let's you and he fight, and I'll hold your coats."
One should also recall the Obama "color revolutions" in which Victoria Nuland AND Biden played, one of them being the Maidan of 2014. One observes that Nuland AND Biden are still in this game in 2022, in which Russia and Ukraine fight while NATO holds their coats....
“I know that Ukraine’s current government, now treated as if it was almost holy, was brought into being by a mob putsch openly backed by the USA in 2014.”
obama and his globalist thugs participated in a coup in the Ukraine. They’re the reason for so many of the problems we have now.
The Russian navy is a paper kitty cat. Nothing of value.
p
That's the whole idea.
.
I followed and researched that entire story from start to finish......Hitchens is right.
That is also why i won’t take sides in this war. Once you know the entire history of why this has come to this you’d likely m neutral as well.
Great article....finally people are speaking up.
I’ve known much of what he wrote and very glad he spoke up.
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