House of Memes (gmotd.tumblr.com)
2020-10-04

I have been running this blog since 2015. It is about the beauty of nature, elves and magic. For me, it’s a peaceful place to take my mind off reality. There has never been politics here. But now I feel the need to speak. It hurts to see posts where foreigners talk about the situation in Ukraine, knowing nothing about the real state of affairs. You’re not right.

I will ask those who have just remembered about pacifism: “Where were you all the time when the war was going on in Donbass?”

I was born and raised in Donbass. Of course you don’t know what it is. This is a region of the former Russian Empire, settled at the end of the 18th century, under Peter the Great, when coal deposits were discovered. After the collapse of the USSR, the region became part of Ukraine. Its economy is based on heavy industry. Its population came from different parts of the Russian Empire, different nationalities. Among my ancestors there were several Don Cossacks (who have nothing to do with the Zaporizhian Cossacks). We speak Russian. By nature, the people of Donbass are harsh, strong, hardworking and proud. We are different from the population of central Ukraine. We are not close to the Ukrainian “national idea”, which was actively propagated, it has always been something alien.

The split between east and west of Ukraine became especially sharp in 2005, when one part of the country supported the pro-Russian presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych, and the other part supported the pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko. Yanukovych, who was prime minister at the time, won the election with a 3% advantage. Yushchenko organized mass protests (“Orange Revolution”), after which, bypassing the law, another election was held, which gave him victory. In the Western regions of Ukraine, 80-90% of the population voted for Yushchenko, in the East and South, 80-90% supported Yanukovych.

Yushchenko’s rule was not successful. In 2010, Yanukovych was elected president. I personally voted for him and fully supported him. In 2014 a new protest action was organized in Kyiv, like “Orange Revolution”, but this time more aggressive. Confrontations with the military began, there were casualties. The “Maidan” participants demanded the president’s resignation and new elections. Yanukovych acted softly and hesitantly, he did not want to show aggression towards the protesters. When the situation finally got out of hand, he fled. Power in Ukraine was seized.

The population of those areas that generally supported the president was dissatisfied and frightened. We were not close to nationalist slogans; we did not want to obey a government that we did not elect, which voices goals that are unacceptable to us. Crimea and Donbass refused to recognize the new government. Crimea as part of Ukraine had the status of an autonomous republic, its authorities acted within the law when they held a referendum and the inhabitants unanimously voted in favor of joining Russia. I was there, believe me, it was not coercion. People were happy. Donbass (Donetsk and Lugansk regions) also declared its independence. Ukraine reacted with military aggression; people were declared separatists and terrorists. A military conflict began, which lasted almost 8 years and ended only thanks to Putin (actually, didn`t fully ended, but will soon I hope).

The whole world was silent when the Ukrainian troops bombed the houses of civilians, when we hid in basements and every day we were afraid not to wake up in the morning. Over time, you get used to everything, and already the explosions do not seem to be something unusual. Many residents of Donbass left, abandoned their homes. They were accepted in Russia. Many stayed. After the Minsk Agreements, the offensive of the Ukrainian army on the DPR/LPR stopped, but they did not stop shelling cities and villages. They often placed their equipment among residential buildings, using people as human shields. Zelensky said that Ukrainians do not hate the people of Donbass and want peace, but we have seen hatred and aggression, pleasure in killing and looting. Ukrainian punishers brutally destroyed civilians. You may watch Ukraine on Fire by Oliver Stone, or some documentaries by BBC from 2014 (about Azov etc.), or maybe this series of documentaries, the most bloody and detailed. There is a lot of information, and it has always been available on the Internet. You just didn’t want to see it.

This conflict was not initiated by Russia. Not Russia destroyed our civilians. But it was Russia that helped us with humanitarian aid all this time. Now that Russia has finally stood up for us, this is real happiness. The people of Donetsk were crying and hugging. We only want peace for our land. We couldn’t just give up, we would be destroyed, Ukraine doesn’t need people of Donbass with our position. Yes, what Russia is doing now is an invasion. And I understand that many Ukrainians are afraid for their lives. But this is not what we endured for these 8 years. Russian troops do not touch civilians and act as carefully and precisely as possible in order to destroy military equipment. It’s true, there are a lot of videos on the net from Ukrainians who calmly film and comment while tanks drive by. The less resistance, the less victims. It is a crime to call on your citizens to fight and give their lives, knowing that there is no chance. The Ukrainian authorities should not have placed weapons among residential buildings if they did not want victims. What do they want to achieve by distributing weapons to the civilian population? Why not evacuate them outside of the fighting? It seems that pro-American power in Ukraine specifically want to create the appearance of Russian aggression and get as much victims, destruction as possible.

Unfortunately, sometimes it takes war to achieve peace. Now I understand it. We really want peace now and in the future. It is impossible as long as people with militaristic position are at the head of Ukraine. And the US supports them. Putin for a long time was asking to stop the war in the Donbass, there were many negotiations. But the position of Zelenskiy was to continue the conflict.

I understand that this story will be unpleasant for many of you. I don’t mind if you unfollow. So it goes.

Listen to Ian Lucas On LBC with James O'Brien | 14 Nov 2019 | 10-10:30am by No More Unicorns on #SoundCloud

https://soundcloud.com/user-648562818/ian-lucas-on-lbc-with-james-obrien-14-nov-2019-10-1030am

“Russian Interference” LBC with James O'Brien 14 Nov 2019 | 10-10:30am Full segment with Ian Lucas (minus ad break) from @mrjamesob’s @LBC programme earlier today

Putin now claims self defence.

The Germans: We did not start it.

Basil Fawlty: Yes, you did. You invaded Poland.

Happy Star Wars Day to the Ukrainian army!

30 April 1945: Hitler commits suicide with his gun. His body is doused with petrol and burned in a hole in the garden of the Führerbunker.

Why Ukraine War Has No Winners

Why Ukraine War Has No Winners

The war in Ukraine is quintessentially Clausewitzean. And to understand it, we need to return to Carl von Clausewitz, the doyen of modern war, who recognised that war is practically limitless in variety, “complex and changeable,” and noting that every age has its particular kind of war with “its own limiting conditions and its own particular preconceptions.”
Clausewitz’s contemporaneous…

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A hypothesis

I haven’t posted in a long time (too many fish, not enough barrels etc) but I thought I’d put this out there:

Putin is getting frustrated because, while Trump has delivered a lot of what Putin asked (weakening NATO, free hand in Syria, etc) he still hasn’t done enough to loosen sanctions on Russian oligarchs. But rather than throwing in the towel and releasing his abundant compromising material on Trump, he’s giving it one last shot by going directly to the Senate.

When seven senators and a rep suddenly visited Russia last week - on July 4 no less - I’m guessing Putin (or his people) outlined what the FSB knows in some detail. And they made it clear that it will all come out - permanently crippling a Republican president and the Republican Party with him - if they don’t move to lift sanctions. Fast. The “pee tape” is no doubt just a funny detail - the really damning stuff probably includes money laundering, election hacking, data theft, bribery, extortion, and more. Everything the FSB, via Manafort/Stone/Sater/Cohen er al, have been doing to advance the Trump family’s business and political interests going back 20+ years.

Sen Johnson’s recent comments isuggest that the warming made quite an impression. They’re scared. And they may only have four months left to do anything about it.

The next few weeks should be very interesting.

“UKRAINE” - political cartoon (from Swiss satirical “Nebelspalter” magazine) made during the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, December 2004, artist: Oliver Schopf