My Grandfather was born on a farm just outside of Kiev in the 1890’s.
He considered himself Ukrainian and Russian.
Why can’t we let the people of Crimea vote what country they want to belong to and end this crap?
I don’t know what to believe with this mess.
My heart goes out to the civilians on both sides.
Should we try that in New Mexico in a few years? Maybe for 20% of our Southwest?
In all truth this unfortunately goes far beyond what the people in Crimea or parts of Donbass might vote for.
The real motivation for Russia is, or at least was, strategic goals both military and economic. But, in typically Russian fashion they (this goes way beyond just Putin) overestimated their own greatness and underestimated both Ukraine and the West (as we still see so often here on FR)
The West made all sorts of mistakes, the worst being dependency on Russian energy, a belief a real war in Europe was impossible, thinking Russia had fundamentally changed, and weakness in general. For starters.