Posted on 03/06/2022 3:25:53 AM PST by Nextrush
...the long-ago summer of 2010, I found myself in the beautiful harbor of Sevastapol, 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 the 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 stongly 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....
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.
I know that the much-admired President Zelensky in February 2021 closed down three opposition TV stations on the grounds of 'national security'. They went dark that night. I know that the opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk was put under house arrest last year on a charge of treason. Isn't this the sort of thing that Putin does?...
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Peter Hitchens tries to calmly present his real on the ground observations as a journalist about Ukraine a nation with a large Russian population that was getting the short end of the stick from the Ukrainian authorities.
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.
nuff sed
Russia does not have the right to take over an independent country, no matter how many Russians live there.
Complete Russian BS. Where are the pro-Russian Ukrainians, welcoming Russian invaders? Massive pro-Ukrainian protest in Russian occupied Kherson. Half of Ukrainian army is composed of ethnic Russians. Don't see them abandoning the fight against Putin's invasion.
Wow.great article...oprned my eyes
Hitchens makes some good points, the most important being that the NATO countries must not get sucked into this war.
That said, there is no reasonable justification for what Putin and his henchmen have done, including the high-handed and at times brutal treatment of ethnic Russians in Ukraine. They’ve created a crisis, for which innocent Ukrainians and the international community are paying the price.
The incompetance of the Obama years still popping up.
Same rationale and justification Hitler used to take Sudetenland and Poland. Smells strongly of Russian agitprop.
... especially one whose borders they promised to respect by treaty.
Bttt
If I understand Peter Hitchens this week, it is fine for Putin to invade Ukraine, because Putin does not like Zelensky and the schools are not teaching Russian history in the Russian approved way. Oh yeah, the Ukrainian government is corrupt.
Boy Howdy, that could mean The US is next.
So in Miami, for example, the US should allow Spanish to be the official language, not require any citizenship from latinos, and generally cede their authority to a foreign state?
Very reasoned, realistic take on it.
We are completely ignorant of the history of this conflict, and furthermore, we don’t care. This reflects our centuries-old national policy of ignoring the past and refusing to learn from it. Our relations with other countries are governed entirely by what seems to our leaders to be of immediate short-term political gain.
And then there’s corruption. The Biden and Clinton families made lots of money off of Ukraine, an interest Hitchens does not even mention, and a lot of the US’ short-sighted Eastern European policy was governed by the need to protect the interests of US politicians rather than anything genuinely strategic.
The other thing I have always thought is that the US left loved Russia when it was Communist, but when it ceased to be Communist, suddenly it wasn’t much fun anymore.
Bkmk Ukraine & Russia
A point missed on some. Even Russians are not joining with Putin. As none of the former Soviet states.
I couldn’t agree more.
The two azzholes, Biden and Putin are trying hard to drag us into war.
“ If I understand Peter Hitchens this week, it is fine for Putin to invade Ukraine,”
Perhaps you should read the article. He actually said the opposite
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