The invasion has begun. There were videos on social media showing Russian troops and heavy equipment moving into the Donbas region. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia would recognize these would-be breakaway republics as independent states. President Joe Biden reportedly saw this coming and issued sanctions, which should scare away the Russians. Nope. President Oatmeal for Brains’ declaration did nothing. The Russians took another step towards all-out war. They’ve essentially invaded eastern Ukraine under the pretext of a peacekeeping mission. This is Obama and the red lines in Syria. The other side keeps crossing them, and we do nothing. The invasion of Ukraine has begun, and Biden is nowhere to be seen. Where’s Blinken? Where’s anybody in this sorry excuse for an administration?
The US clamped sanctions on the Donetsk and Lugansk republics of Ukraine Tuesday night, Feb. 22 after Moscow recognized their independence. The US embassy relocated from Ukraine to Poland. President Vladimir Putin in a speech to the nation, declaring that Ukraine was not a real state but an integral part of Russian culture and history, denounced it as an “American colony” with a “puppet government.”
A Russian “peacekeeping force” was thereupon deployed to the two republics. Shortly after midnight, columns of Russian armored vehicles had already been seen by reporters in Donetsk, traveling north and west.
The deployment of what Russia called a peacekeeping operation in eastern Ukraine is “nonsense” and Moscow’s recognition of breakaway regions as independent is part of its pretext for war and a threat to every UN member state, the United States told a hastily convened UN Security Council early Tuesday.
After recently moving staff and diplomats from the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv to the Ukrainian city of Lviv, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced late Monday night personnel is evacuating to Poland. The statement comes just hours after Russia President Vladimir Putin invaded the country from the east.
Members of this Forum, what is your view of the piece-by-piece Russian takeover of Ukraine?
Or, say, the re-absorption of Ukraine into Russia?
Not our Business. Not completely convinced they are any sort of ‘Democracy’. And there IS a lot of History of them being in Russia’s control. However, they also have a long anti Communist History, which led them to be some of the worst commitors of Atrocities when they allied with the Nazis in WW2. The Ukraine has legit axes to grind w the Russian, but so do the Russian have with them. Which is why I don’t think this one is any of our business. Especially with Hiden Biden all wrapped up in money from the Ukraine. My basic take is I think Putin is right, there ARE many who prefer to be Russians. And he’s making no overtures to taking over the part that wants to remain Ukrainian. If he DOES, I’ll re-evaluate my thoughts about it. But all the mud thrown at Putin could stick just as easily to the Ukrainian Leaders, just the same. I think it is a regional issue, that is not in the least bit worth getting into a War over. I truly don’t think it’s any of our Business getting involved. I spent most of my life considering Russia a mortal enemy, but I just don’t see it, Here. I agree that Biden should just keep his mouth shut. And I am FAR more concerned about losing what is left of OUR Nation, to really care much about a sibling squabble on the other side of the world. I am also very cautious about Bidens clear connections to the Ukraine, as well as others who are supposed to be doing things for OUR Good. Getting Americans killed over this is NOT in our Best Interest.
And as much as I hate to say it, I actually trust Putin MORE than I trust ANY of the WEF beholden Western Leaders, OR the Ukraine’s. They have a LOT more Ulterior Motives than Putin. And I TRULY think if Putin wanted ALL of the Ukraine, he would just fucking take it. Time Will Tell. But trust for anyone involved is in such short supply as to be nonexistent, to me.
I’m a bit mixed on this, I think it’s sad that parts of Ukraine got absorbed into Russia, but at the same time it isn’t as if the Ukrainian are perfect either, these links will show why:
https://www.refworld.org/docid/507294fe2.html
I think Trump was the buffer between Russia and Ukraine and this definitely wouldn’t be happening if he was still in office.
Interesting. I actually can’t blame Putin for giving Zero Fucks what Biden says or thinks, given his clear compromising with all that dirty AF Ukrainian Money, and Hunter’s BS. I wouldn’t. Hard to take you serious calling me names when I can clearly see you are everything you are calling ME, lol. Clearly none of that has escaped Putin. And the West has been eggin this on at every chance, and to what actual end, I ask ? I think it’s pretty disingenuous to do everything we have done to egg this into a conflict, and then get ‘mad’ at Putin for not wanting to play ‘our’ game, so to speak. Putin actually has a LOT more on his plate than any of these Western puppet ‘leaders’. Putin has to ACTUALLY LEAD. And he has a Huge Country, with a lot of very divergent folks, who would be, and HAVE many times in the past, Warring with each other, if he wasn’t a Strong and usually Fair Leader. He’s not gonna make everyone happy, sure, but he’s the Best Russian leader I’ve seen in my Lifetime. Will he kill people in a second, if he feels it’s necessary ? Sure. When have the Russians, before OR after Communism, ever been ruled in any other way ? But he seems to be judicious, and fair, and doesn’t automatically go straight to the Bullet, even tho he could, easily, many times that I have seen. But he hasn’t. I’m not tryin to sound like I worship the guy, I don’t- but as an objective take on him, as best I can, he’s not nearly as bad as he’s made out to be, and he could EASILY do Orders of Magnitudes WORSE. He doesn’t strike me as a cruel man, by nature, but a HARD Man, who won’t back down from doing what he thinks he must do, for all of his peoples. And NOTHING like the majority of his predecessors, except Gorbachev. He’s done no pogroms that I know if. I’m just not at all sure that ‘The West’ is actually in any sort of ‘Right’, here.
As I noted on the other post, I recognize that we’re obligated to do something (at least technically) to defend them, because of that Agreement in 94.
But, it hardly seems worth it to send in troops and get into a war over regions that - as far as I can tell - are mostly populated with people who basically identify as Russian (?) and would rather be part of Russia anyway.
It looks like Putin is going to invade them in spite of whatever Biden does, and if any U.S. troops die in the conflict, I blame Biden.
Yes, Putin is violating the agreement, but how many “agreements”, as in oaths of office, to act honestly and uncorruptedly has Biden violated in his long career? No wonder Putin disrespects him.
Putin doesn’t strike you as a cruel man? You must have a weird definition of cruelty.
Not cruel, though he has people opposed to him - including journalists - murdered in cold blood?
Not cruel, though he is doing this to a decent honorable man? -
While the world focuses on the tensions between Russia and Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin is in the midst of a massive crackdown on what remains of the opposition to his rule.
in Putin’s most recent crackdown, anti-corruption activist and opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Putin’s fiercest critic – already serving a sentence of 3½ years in a penal colony on trumped up charges of fraud – is facing a new trial.
Last year, Navalny’s foundation, and all associated organizations, were labeled “extremist” by a Moscow court and thereby effectively outlawed. The new charges could lead to up to 15 additional years in prison for Navalny, who has fought corruption in Russia since 2011, and has repeatedly facing trumped up charges of fraud and embezzlement.
Last month, Russian authorities labeled Navalny himself a “terrorist and extremist”, along with 11 of his associates. People on the terrorist list are effectively banned from Russian society, as their bank accounts are frozen and they cannot take loans or jobs.
Putin is taking advantage of the fact that everyone’s attention is directed at Ukraine and that Navalny’s trial, in comparison, creates little interest.
“Putin tried to kill Navalny, and now he wants to put him away for 15 years,” said Ivan Zhdanov, the longtime director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation who was also added to list of “terrorists and extremists” in January. Zhdanov was referring to Russian state agents who attempted to murder Navalny by poisoning him with a military-grade nerve agent, Novichok, in 2020. Navalny needed five months in hospital in Germany to recover from the assassination attempt. According to Zhdanov:
“[T]hey’re not even trying to create the semblance of a genuine trial… This was the Kremlin’s plan. So that in a moment when everyone is following the tensions in international politics, which Putin himself created, he can quietly jail Navalny for another 15 years.”
This is terrible - but what you would expect out of a Russian KGB agent and dictator.
What’s really scary is to see the governments of U.S. and Canada (among others) beginning to use the same tactics against dissenters as Putin is.
Labeling us as “terrorists and extremists”, freezing bank accounts, throwing us into prison…
You are so right, Yazmin! Ukraine is far from perfect. It has a long history of bloody pogroms, and of endless and deep corruption. And it supplied some of the cruelest concentration guards to the Nazis in World War II.
The new president Zelenskyy is trying to stop the corruption but it’s doubtful that he can succeed. He himself seems to be a decent man. He was a professional comedian before becoming a very serious politician. And - amazingly, considering the history of Ukraine - he is Jewish.
I see the sense on both sides of the argument about US involvement in the Russia-Ukraine issue. I agree that US interests are not very obviously affected. But I also see the danger of allowing Russia to reconstitute its empire. It is a dangerous power armed with a very large nuclear arsenal.
Yes, Trudeau and Biden are emulating Putin now.
Your comments are right on the nail, Liz!
No. Not Cruel. He could do much much worse. As regarding having opposition ‘killed’, I don’t think any Americans should be pointing fingers about THAT little point. I don’t. We have had many politicians in RECENT Memory who have had their oppositions killed out right- they were, with the complicity of the MSM and others in the Govt, just allowed to get away with it. Given the Region’s History, I stand by my Statement. If he was CRUEL, there wouldn’t be ANY opposition TO Jail.
Stalin, and many others before him, were Cruel. Putin is not. Russians do not like Weak Leaders.
But even so, WHY is Russia any more dangerous NOW, when they are far less of a threat than they were at their height ? I don’t think they are. We have FAR more Serious Dangers right here. And if we don’t get that sorted out, it won’t matter one whit whether Russia, or anyone else, is ‘dangerous’. The fact that we clearly ARE NOT, in any meaningful way, is of far greater concern. Maybe Biden and Obama shouldn’t have gotten into Bed with the Ukraine to start with ? I do not blame Putin for not wanting an often unstable, corrupt Ukraine, sitting on all those Nukes, either. America would be having literal shit fits over such a thing, if the situation was reversed. NOR would we allow Russia to have bases with nuclear abilities in Canada or Mexico, either, now would we? The Hue and Cry would be Epic. I can see past the rhetoric. It was foolish of these criminals we were stuck with as ‘Presidents’ to do most of the stupid shit they did, that has put us in such positions. But I can’t with a straight face call Putin the ‘Devil’ on this. Anyone with half a brain would protect their interests, just the same. WE would, and HAVE, more than once,and more than once when we really weren’t anywhere NEAR being on the ‘Right’ side. morally.
Speaking of, do you know the details of Serbia-Kosovo and parts of Cyprus occupied by Turkey? I’m not informed on the history there.
Yes, I know the outlines of both histories, but (sorry!) I would hate to have to write them now, even in summary.
Both concern Christian-Muslim conflict.
They are easy to look up. And I do admire you for wanting to know what happened in these two cases and what the situation with them is at present.
Where can I look it up?
The fact that others do the same cruel things does not lessen or negate the cruelty.
For Kosovo -
Read from “Communist Yugoslavia” down.
For Cyprus -
It’s an adequate summary of the history of the Cyprus conflict.
Thank you Jillian.
I agree that the U.S. has done things just as bad, using the CIA and FBI, etc, but I also agree with Jillian that that doesn’t make Putin any less cruel himself.