Thursday 12 May 2022
UKRAINE
Been some time since I wrote a “The World This Week From Mennies” blog and there are various reasons for this . Mainly because I have been very busy at work but also because I have been totally dismayed and disappointed in what is going on in Scottish politics, and indeed world politics.
As for world politics, the main issue at present is Ukraine and dipping one’s tow into that toxic pond is to say the least a risk. However, because of the flood of misinformation emanating from media outlets like the BBC, ITV, and Skye, I decided to look at the big picture and offer a few suggestions as to the roots and causes of this conflict , without making any pretense as to being an expert on the situation, but offering a reasonably informed and researched common sense point of view.
So, let’s start with basics . This war ( or as Russia calls it, “special operation”) was avoidable. On Russia’s side it could have been avoided by acquiescing to America’s will and simply allowing NATO led by the US to continually move east ( despite previous agreements ) by recruiting new members of NATO, and thereby positioning nuclear weapons ever nearer Russia’s border. If Ukraine had become a member there could have been nuclear weapons based there that would have been within 7.5 minutes delivery to Moscow. Russia could also have stopped supporting the two, mainly Russian speaking countries in the Donbas area who had declared independence in 2014, Donetsk and Luhansk.
As for NATO, or let’s not beat about the bush,the US, they could have prevented this conflict by making it plain that Ukraine would not be admitted to NATO and they would support a special consideration in connection with the two breakaway regions in Donbas, again, as per previous agreements.
These agreements were made as far back as when the breakup of the Soviet Union was in progress and initially, they were made during discussions between Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton. These discussions were never transmitted into a formal treaty but were probably made at a time when world leaders could reach agreements that were expected to be upheld.
In 1993 there was an agreement termed the Budapest protocol in which Russia the US, Belarus ,Kazakhstan and Ukraine received assurances regarding security, but these assurances were tied to removal of nuclear weapons from each countries soil and also depended for implementation of an attack on each of these countries by nuclear weapons.
In 2014 there were various protests in Kiev and various other Ukrainian cities including Odessa. There were strong suspicions that the US, CIA had a hand in them, It is a well-known CIA tactic when manipulating regime change. This was called the Maidan protests or Euromaidan after the square in which most of the protests took place. In Odessa the protests turned to civil unrest and resulted in a counter Maidan group being trapped in the trade union building which was set on fire by protesters who had been infiltrated by ultra-nationalists.
As a result of these CIA sponsored protests the government stood down and was replaced by a pro-western ultra nationalist government, as a result of this the two states, Donetsk and Lugansk declared their independence.
As a result of the two states declaration of independence, Ukraine attempted to subdue both states by force, using ,in the main the Azov battalion who were originally a territorial regiment but were subsumed into the regular Ukrainian Army.
Azov follow ultra-Nazi ideology and were responsible for many war crimes, including the shelling of civilian areas in their attempts to retake the two breakaway provinces. Russia supported the two breakaway states.
In late 2014 a series of talks took place in Minsk, the outcome of which agreed on border security for Ukraine and also complete autonomy for the Donbas area. Ukraine never really stood by these agreements and in 2018 formally withdrew from them and sought membership of NATO.
This put Russia in the position of having no other option but to move to remove the threat that Ukraine and the west, were in the process of bringing to their border.
Make no mistake about this, this is a proxy war between the US and Russia fought in Ukraine. It is a war that the US will fight to the last Ukrainian. It is yet another war of the US to facilitate regime change, just as they did in Vietnam, Libya, Syria, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, bay of pigs( Cuba) Grenada, Panama, Iraq, etc, etc, etc. In doing so they have killed over 6 million innocent civilians and used chemical weapons with gay abandon ,in for example Vietnam ( agent orange). They are the only country to have used nuclear weapons, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Russia is not the cause of this human tragedy, no it is NATO, backed and led by the US. Putin is no doubt no Angel, but he is in my estimation doing what a leader should do, he is protecting the borders of his country against an aggressor, NATO.
Make your own mind up who is the aggressor from this map showing American bases surrounding Russia
Bob Costello 
Bob
Don’t disagree at all. The fact that the UK in particular, and the EU, have just fallen into line with the USA is very sad and alarming at the same time. What people tend to forget as well is that any wars fought and supported by the USA are never fought in the USA, they are always in other parts of the world. Many of the wars fought are often to protect American interests such as oil and gas, resources, money, or simply their version of democracy which more often than not either supports the military industrial complex and/or their industrial complex and it’s expansion throughout the world. This is old British Empire writ large and done a little differently but the Americans learned well from the British.
I don’t pretend to know all that much about the history of this conflict but you can be rest assured that there are always two sides to every story and it won’t be the propaganda being put out by the absolute shit bias news we get in Scotland that is for sure. At the end of the day it will children and the poor and vulnerable who will lose their lives for the failures and the games that politicians/nut jobs play as always.