The Bottom Line
Why Russians Are fighting
The Bottom Line
Some say that the threat of Ukraine joining NATO was the main cause of the SMO -and it was undoubtedly a factor - but not the immediate concern of the Russians in February 2022. The Russians intervened to protect people who share their language, their religion and their culture after they were asked for help. They went to the rescue of the Breakaway Republics. Many in the DPR and LPR’s militias in the Donbass had been fighting the Ukrainian Nazis for years and 14,000 or so innocent civilians had succumbed to Ukrainian shelling. In that late winter period, the Russians obtained intelligence that an attack on the Breakaway Republics was imminent and strong. I don’t think that the Russians had a choice that would not have been disastrous for them, other than to ‘invade’. The reason they took this choice was to protect the Donbass Russians from an immediate threat, obviously, yet they also appreciated that if the Ukrainian army succeeded, then the culture, language, religion and rights of the Donbass Russians would be taken away. As fellow Russians, they could not allow that to happen.
A law passed by the RADA on July 1st of 2021 ensured that denazification of Ukraine would be a major aim of the SMO.
At the legal level, Russians are not indigenous people so will not be able to enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms defined by the norms of international law, as well as those provided by the Constitution and laws of Ukraine, unlike Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars, Karaites and Krymchaks.
In the rest of the world non-indigenous people enjoy the same rights as the majority with a few exceptions - including Israel-Palestine. So why should that not be the norm in Ukraine?
Just like the Nuremberg Laws Nazi Germany passed in 1935 against the Jews, this law is not based on what people do but who they are. Jacques Baud has been pointing this out for some time - as he does here. The law conflicts with international law and with liberal morality.
This is why denazification is still the main concern for the Russians currently. And this is why I believe that many more Oblasts will come under - not Russian control - but under the control of their people, facilitated by the Russian Army. The people will decide whether they want to remain part of whatever is left of Ukraine, become independent in some sense, or join the Russian Federation. I think most would chose the latter two options. But it is now essential that the people of Ukraine are given this choice after being denied choices for a long time.
Trump probably doesn’t understand that for this reason Putin will not abandon Russian speaking people in any of the Oblasts Ukraine still occupies.
Of course, the European irrelevants, whose liberal philosophy, ideology or morality would be supportive the people of the Donbass must pretend that none of this has happened. As I have said elsewhere, Europe uses morality as a tool not as a principle to be upheld.
The Busker
Very good Rob. The actions of the West with regard to Ukraine and Gaza have shown that Human Rights are just a stick to beat whomever the West dislike. They have turned a reasonable concept into a joke with their selective application of what should be universal principles. As if the West has ever allowed Human rights to stand in the way of profit.
This is crazy talk, Rob. Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) knows that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was UNPROVOKED.
/s
Absolutely crazy that the man/government who moved to put Russian lives on the line to save their brothers in Ukraine is accused of being a brutal dictator sacrificing Russian lives for his own personal gains. So much of western propaganda is silly and contrived. The truth is so easy to find, but we've been conditioned to not even consider that what we're being told is utter bullshit.