Putin just gave a history lesson about the Ukraine that means less than nothing.

 

The nation of the Ukraine fell under Russian control in the 17^th c, with only short and unstable periods of independence, or domination under someone other than Russia, until finally it’s seemingly permanent with Russia in 1991.

 

Between 1991 and 2004, Ukraine was torn: would it lean more towards Russia, or to the West? 2004’s “Orange Revolution” put Ukraine solidly with the West. This facilitated the emergence of a far-more stable Democracy in Ukraine, but also, triggered now almost two decades of subversion and military aggression against Ukraine by the Russia.

 

Ukraine’s experience under the hands of Stalin’s Russian, and then Hitler’s Germany, and the Stalin’s Russia again, from immediately pre-WWII, WWII itself, and immediately post-WWII, has become an issue in discussions of the current Ukraine/Russia crisis.

 

Before WWII, Stalin’s Russia committed one of the largest Genocides in history, larger even than Hitler’s Germany genocide committed against the Jews.

 

At the beginning of WWII, Stalin’s Russia was allied with Hitler’s Germany and specifically assisted in Germany in its savageries against Poland.

 

As the war dragged on, Hitler betrayed Stalin and Germany invaded Russia. That savagery resulted in Russia losing more people in WWII than any other involved nation, both in terms of head count and percentage of population.

Germany also invaded Ukraine. When it did, many Ukrainians sided with the newly arrived Germans against the more familiar Russian killers, but that didn’t last long. The Germans proved savage too and soon Ukrainian partisans were siding with the Western Allies. The West had also secured a new ally against Germany, Russia. Current Ukrainian President Zelenskiy’s grandfather was one of the partisans, seeking to avenge the murder of his family at the hands of the Germans because they were Jewish. 

 

In the end, Hitler was defeated and committed suicide while Stalin was victorious and saw his Empire grow tremendously. Among other things, Russia got Ukraine back. 

But that Empire would crumple decades later, and that crumbling led directly to Ukraine’s independence after centuries of Russian domination.

Russia’s current ruler, Putin, the architect of all recent aggressions by his nation against Ukraine. He hosted an Economic Forum in Russia this week. He accused Democratically elected Zelenskiy, Jewish like his warrior Grandfather, of covering up for “neo-Nazis.” Putin showed films of wartime massacres that took place both Ukraine and Belarus (Putin’s strongest ally in his on-going Invasion of Ukraine) full of images of mutilated corpses and murdered women and children. Putin claimed the executions were partly carried out by Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera.

This is likely historically accurate. Bandera did side Hitler and likely would’ve murdered Zelenskiy’s family if given the opportunity, but then Hitler betrayed Bandera just like he did Stalin. Bandera found refuge in West Germany over the objections of the USA who wanted him to face war crime charges. Bandera was assassinated by Russian agents in 1959, far, far, from home. 

In 1959, Putin was seven-years-old and Zelenski wasn't born yet.

Yes, there are still monuments to Bandera in Ukraine, but then, there are still monuments to Stalin in Russia as well.

 

Putin insists that annexing Crimea to Ukraine’s south, creating a Civil War in Ukraine’s north, and finally launching a full-on Invasion in 2022, is all part of the “denazification” of the independent, Democratic, regime, led by a Jew, and enjoying the benefit of a free press, all things Russians are denied by Putin. 

Putin ranted, “How can you not fight it? And if this is not neo-Nazism in its current manifestation, then what is it? We have every right to believe that the task of denazification of Ukraine set by us is one of the key ones.”

 

Putin's also announced that he was shipping more tactical Nukes to Belarus. Ukraine gave up its Nukes in 1994 in exchange for Russia’s promise to never Invade.