Official Russia vs Ukraine War Thread

Precious Roy wrote:

carmine9 wrote:

Already answered Birko.

Here is some more.

Fact #1: The US is expanding NATO
This excellent article describes the spirit of the 1990 negotiations in which Secretary of State James Baker promised Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not move “one inch eastward” after the fall of the Berlin Wall. There is simply no doubt that the United States made false promises to Russian leaders at the time. Those promises were broken in 2004 with the inclusion of seven former Soviet states. Most recently, Macedonia joined in 2020. This article discusses the severity of Western incursion into countries once within the Soviet sphere of influence, including weapons sales and military support.
My question is, why is NATO expansion so important? I am old enough to remember the fall of the Soviet Union. In the early 1990s, it seemed inevitable that a strong reduction in nuclear arms stockpiles should follow. With the destruction of the Warsaw Pact, there was no longer a need for NATO. It should have been disbanded decades ago. Had NATO been disbanded, none of this would be happening.
Fact #2: The US was involved in a coup that deposed the democratically elected leader of Ukraine
In 2014 the US government aided and abetted a revolution in Ukraine against the democratically elected president who had been contemplating strengthening economic ties to Russia. This article links to a recorded conversation between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Neuland and then Ukrainian ambassador Geoffery Pyatt. The conversation clearly indicates US involvement in the use of extra-Democratic mechanizations to determine the political leadership of Ukraine post-revolution. Can anyone believe this behavior to be ethical? This revolution caused the start of the civil war that has been raging in Ukraine for the last eight years.
Fact #3: There is a civil war happening in Ukraine
Perhaps most fascinating concerning the typical Western narrative about the current crisis is the complete lack of a historical context from which this narrative is formed. Many seem completely oblivious to the fact that Eastern Ukraine is populated by Russian speaking people who have historical and cultural ties with Russia. This portion of Ukraine seceded in 2014 as a result of the violent overthrow of the elected government during the Maiden Revolution. The People’s Republic of Donetsk and The People’s Republic of Luhansk were formed through a referendum. This civil war has resulted in the death’s of over 14,000 people over the last eight years.
Bear in mind, this civil war may not have happened without US support for the revolution in the first place. Given the circumstances, should not the citizens of Donetsk and Luhansk rights to self-determination at least get a mention in the general conversation about the situation in Ukraine?
Fact #4: There are Nazis in Western Ukraine
A cursory review of the history of Ukraine is enough to reveal a powerful anti-Russian National Socialist movement within the country including a long-standing hero worship of the WWII German collaborator Stephan Bandera. This movement has political parties as well as an entire military battalion representing political and military power within the Ukrainian establishment.
Russian-speaking Ukrainians have endured political oppression as a result of these far-right nationalist movements. On May 3, 2014, anti-Russian activists, including members of the National Socialist Right Sector party, forced hundreds of Russian sympathizers to seek shelter inside the Trade Union building in the city of Odessa. They subsequently set the building on fire killing at least 30 people. Also, the government of Ukraine has committed civil rights violations against Russian speaking citizens by discriminating against the Russian language.
Fact #5: The Ukrainian government never implemented the Minsk Accords
How many Americans have even heard of the Minsk Agreement that was negotiated to end the Ukrainian civil war? Rather than pulling back heavy weaponry, allowing humanitarian aid, and providing the separatist republics with a degree of autonomy as promised, the Ukrainian government continued to shell Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine, causing mounting civilian casualties. These attacks were facilitated with over a billion dollars of US military aid.

Fact #1: Former Soviet Block nations were scared sh#tless after Russian aggression in Chechnya and Georgia and scrambled to get protection from NATO. They were all proven right when Russia without any provocation invaded Crimea in 2014, intervened in Syria to prop up a murderous dictator by bombing civilians and destroying once thriving cities like Aleppo and then launched the current colonial war against all of Ukraine. NATO's only threat to Russia is its ability to stop a Russian first strike with anti-ballistic missile defense systems. And the only reason that would be a threat to Russia is that it would enable NATO to intervene against Russia outside of the NATO umbrella. NATO effectively let Russia do as it pleased in Syria and has only provided Ukraine with barely enough defensive weapon support to keep Russia at bay.

Fact #2: Millions of Ukrainians took to the streets during the Maidan revolution. The Ukraine parliament had overwhelmingly approved a trade deal with the EU that was widely popular with Ukrainians. Yanukovych refused to sign the deal and instead moved to do a deal with Russia. The EU deal was years in the making and reflected the will of the Ukrainian people who saw their future with the EU and not with a rapidly increasingly authoritarian Russian regime under Putin. Yanukovych implemented a violent crackdown on protestors in an effort to crush his opposition. It backfired and lead to Yanukovych having to flee the country.

Fact #3: The Donetsk separatist movement has direct roots in Russian neo-Nazi groups.
Pavel Gubarev was a member of the Russian National Unity party, a neo-Nazi paramilitary group that in large part started the separatist movement in Donetsk. The Donetsk referendum was a sham much like the Crimean referendum.

Fact #4: The Odessa fire was not the result of Right Sector paramilitaries forcing peaceful protestors into the Trade Union building, setting it on fire and then blocking people from escaping. This is a lie. The violence started when soccer fans were ambushed by pro-Russian activists. The pro-Russian activists wore helmets and had bats and guns. Local law enforcement initially stood by and allowed the attack on the soccer fans to proceed with impunity. Members of the Right Sector and regular Odessans came to the defense of the soccer fans and started having violent clashes with the pro-Russian activists. There is some debate whether both groups were armed and ready to fight each other on the date of the Odessa fire. The pro-Russian activists were losing in pitched street battles and retreated to the Trade Union building. Once inside the Trade Union building, the pro-Russian activists began shooting and throwing Molotov cocktails at the pro-Ukrainian forces outside the building. Fire started when someone tried to throw a Molotov cocktail through a closed window. Pro-Ukrainian activists did all they could to get people out of the building and saved dozens, but the pro-Russain forces had barricaded themselves inside the building, preventing many from being able to escape.

Fact #5: The Minsk agreements were a joke because the separatists had no control over their paramilitaries who would violate every cease fire almost as soon as it went into effect. And the separatists had no intention of becoming integrated into the Ukrainian state. At almost every turn, they made it clear that they would use the Minsk agreement to try to disrupt the Ukraine government on behalf of Russian interests. The Donbas war persisted only because Russia was arming separatists. And ironically, Russian now cries fowl when the West arms Ukraine.