#ukraine is a vassal state

[jbfly46]

If you believe Ukraine is the victim, you might be mistaken. Ukraine is not a victim of Russian imperialism, which has been absent for a long time, but rather of U.S. imperialism, which has been a persistent influence.

Consider the following:

- Afghanistan: The Soviet Union (USSR) was involved

- Georgia: Georgia initiated the conflict.

- Chechnya: It was considered an internal matter for Russia.

- Syria: Russia fought ISIS, which it had previously supported by the US, and aimed to preserve the Syrian state.

USA:

1.Greek Civil War (1947-1949)

2.Korean War (1950-1953)

3.Lebanon Crisis (1958)

4.Vietnam War (1955-1975)

5.Dominican Republic (1965)

6.Cambodia (1969-1970)

7.Invasion of Grenada (1983)

8.Invasion of Panama (1989)

9.Gulf War (1990-1991)

10.Somalia (1992-1993)

11.Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995)

12.Kosovo (1999)

13.Afghanistan War (2001-present)

14.Iraq War (2003-2011)

15.Libya (2011)

16.Syria (2014-present)

17.Yemen (2015-present)

The scoreboard leader is always the same, and now they seek to destabilize Russia. However, Russia has had to take a tough stance because negotiations were blocked, leaving it with no option but to resort to military action in a provoked situation. This is how I see it. If you still believe that U.S. interventions are driven by human rights or democracy, show me a country that has thrived as a result of U.S. involvement. The U.S. aims to maintain its hegemony, while Russia has its own version of the Monroe Doctrine to safeguard its security interests. In between are merely vassals in Europe and sycophants who must follow Uncle Sam's orders. Russia is no longer concerned with this.

[immaculatasknight]

The path to buyer's remorse

[komsomolka]

The Ukrainian state is US/Western controlled and, in its alliance and arming, is effectively NATO-like. Washington, according to coup-happy Victoria Nuland in 2014, pumped some $5 billion into Ukraine since the Western-intelligence induced “Orange” revolution in 2004; an additional $15-$18 billion in arms, loans, and grants (from the US and EU) were poured into Ukraine since the 2013-2014 CIA-backed, far-right enforced regime change of the democratically elected Ukrainian government and until before the war began.

With on-the-ground CIA direction, power in Ukraine was consolidated among a small sociopolitical base of venal Russophobes, political pluralism representing genuinely alternative visions to the essentially nationalist, ultranationalist, pro-NATO parties disbanded. The Ukraine army, neo-fascist death squads, and small, Nazi-throwback extreme right-wing parties, celebrated by the new leaders and incorporated into the Ukrainian state, went on a repression spree, a terror campaign, to crush protests and dissent against those who were unhappy with what transpired and to erase all things Russian, including an eight-year shelling and sniping war on civilians designed to create terror and ethnic cleansing in eastern Donbass. This was not a democracy but a monopoly on power to consolidate a vociferously, fanatically anti-Russian state.

Ukraine is (or now, was) merely a platform for a Western proxy war against Russia, a forward operations base, a front line state, its “foreign policy” directed by the American proconsul, its institutions “advised” by American/Western intelligence functionaries and embassy officials, whose job since 2014 was to ensure continuing aggravation and antagonism in Donbass to elicit, in fact, a Russian response justifying long-prepared sanctions, escalation and pretext for “confronting” Russia. [...]

The Russian offensive, therefore, occurred for a much more ominous reason than the Ukrainian state terrorism visited upon eastern Donbass: the US/West’s wordless wish is no less than demoralizing, weakening, bankrupting, and territorially fragmenting the Russian Federation, controlling its markets and resources, indebting its people and rendering them dependent on US-dominated financial institutions, and bringing Russia under American dependency.

A pivotal principle of American hegemony is to obstruct and destroy friendly, normal ties, much less integration, between Russia and Europe, Germany being the fulcrum.

More simply, the strategic US/CIA goal is to ensnare Russia in a protracted war, deplete it, damage it, regime-change it, install a supine leader—all as a prelude to the big fantasy: bringing down China.

The multifaceted war on Russia has been ongoing since at least the late 1990s, but really, it never stopped with the Soviet state’s disappearance. This veiled hostility and aggression certainly existed when Boris Yeltsin was in power (a good vassal according to Washington, this silly and funny man that made Bill Clinton laugh) but took off around 2005, after Washington understood that Vladimir Putin was putting Russia on an independent course, reversing the conditions overseen under the preceding, deplorable Yeltsin era, including steep economic, social, military, and developmental decline and the immiseration of the vast majority of the population, looting oligarchs, and economic “liberalization” designed in Washington. [...]

Russia has literally allowed itself to be cornered since 2014, though it needed time to achieve a conventional and nuclear deterrent. It’s not hard to see reality: Russia is given no quarter, no voice, its real concerns and grievances dismissed, its leader demonized, its marginalization doggedly pursued at every level of international and bilateral social and cultural interactions. No appeal to reason, to international law, to security, to evidence will do for the West, no amount of patient legal argument, explanation of Russian concerns, appeals, professional warnings, consummate diplomacy and transparency of Russian interests made an impression. Instead, the Western response was and is always to double down. [...]

Finance capitalism, the system of speculative bubbles, derivatives, debt, declining standards of living, and hyperinflation, is ruining Western economies, states and societies, destroying the middle classes. The US cannot tolerate Eurasian integration and China’s Belt and Road Initiative, determined to stop any alternative development model to hyper-capitalism enriching the few, cannibalizing the many; that reduces the US to one of a handful of important multipolar players.

Washington’s grave mismanagement of international relations, its self-defeating policies, has actually weakened genuine American interests and national security and the well-being and safety of the American people, a phenomenon that cannot be naively attributed to Democrats or Republicans, this or that president. Instead, the war-state is deeply embedded in the American political economy, in factions such as the “intelligence community,” the military-industrial complex, influential establishment neo-cons, and liberal interventionists, all living in a world of yesterday.

We are rushing headlong into extremely dangerous times in which facts are a threat to the state narrative and any dissent or differing opinion is treachery. Fascism does not come from below, always from the top.

[zvaigzdelasas]

[TIME is Private US Media]

[By Anatol Lieven]

The long-awaited counteroffensive last year failed. Russia has recaptured Avdiivka, its biggest war gain in nine months. President Volodymyr Zelensky has been forced to quietly acknowledge the new military reality. The Biden Administration’s strategy is now to sustain Ukrainian defense until after the U.S. presidential elections, in the hope of wearing down Russian forces in a long war of attrition.

This strategy seems sensible enough, but contains one crucially important implication and one potentially disastrous flaw, which are not yet being seriously addressed in public debates in the West or Ukraine. The implication of Ukraine standing indefinitely on the defensive—even if it does so successfully—is that the territories currently occupied by Russia are lost. Russia will never agree at the negotiating table to surrender land that it has managed to hold on the battlefield.

This does not mean that Ukraine should be asked to formally surrender these lands, for that would be impossible for any Ukrainian government. But it does mean that—as Zelensky proposed early in the war with regard to Crimea and the eastern Donbas—the territorial issue will have to be shelved for future talks.

As we know from Cyprus, which has been divided between the internationally recognized Greek Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus since 1974, such negotiations can continue for decades without a solution or renewed conflict. A situation in which Ukraine retains its independence, its freedom to develop as a Western democracy, and 82% of its legal territory (including all its core historic lands) would have been regarded by previous generations of Ukrainians as a real victory, though not a complete one.

As I found in Ukraine last year, many Ukrainians in private were prepared to accept the loss of some territories as the price of peace if Ukraine failed to win them back on the battlefield and if the alternative was years of bloody war with little prospect of success. The Biden Administration needs to get America on board too.[...]

Ukrainians have scored some notable successes against the Russian Black Sea Fleet, but to take back Crimea they would need to be able to launch a massive amphibious landing, an exceptionally difficult operation far beyond their capabilities in terms of ships and men. Attacks on Russian infrastructure are pinpricks given Russia’s size and resources.

More realistic is the suggestion that by standing on the defensive this year, Ukrainians can inflict such losses on the Russians that—if supplied with more Western weaponry—they can counterattack successfully in 2025. However, this depends on the Russians playing the game the way Kyiv and Washington want to play it.

The Russian strategy at present appears to be different. They have drawn Ukrainians into prolonged battles for small amounts of territory like Avdiivka, where they have relied on Russian superiority in artillery and munitions to wear them down through constant bombardment. They are firing three shells to every one Ukrainian; and thanks in part to help from Iran, Russia has now been able to deploy very large numbers of drones.

For Ukrainians to stand a chance, military history suggests that they would need a 3-to-2 advantage in manpower and considerably more firepower. Ukraine enjoyed these advantages in the first year of the war, but they now lie with Russia, and it is very difficult to see how Ukraine can recover them.[...]

A successful peace process would undoubtedly involve some painful concessions by Ukraine and the West. Yet the pain would be more emotional than practical, and a peace settlement would have to involve Putin giving up the plan with which he began the war, to turn the whole of Ukraine into a Russian vassal state, and recognizing the territorial integrity of Ukraine within its de facto present borders.

For the lost Ukrainian territories are lost, and NATO membership is pointless if the alliance is not prepared to send its own troops to fight for Ukraine against Russia. Above all, however painful a peace agreement would be today, it will be infinitely more so if the war continues and Ukraine is defeated.

24 Feb 24

[yuri-alexseygaybitch]

The egotism and bitching from Ukraine's dumbfuck leadership truly is astounding lol. "Wah pay attention to us we're the only country in the world right now experiencing armed conflict!! If you care about anything else you're playing into Russian Propaganda!! The billions of dollars of NATO money and Vogue coverspreads and constant 24/7 news coverage from the largest and most powerful news organizations on earth isn't enough!! If you don't immediately break off all diplomatic and trade ties with Russia and give us cluster bombs and depleted uranium rounds you're literally working for Putin!! Territorial sovereignty or stfu!!! We love Azerbaijan and Israel!!" then wonder why no country on earth outside of two dozens US vassal states want anything to do with them.

[thelostdreamsthings]

Donald Trump won.

So, Trump will not only big but will be the first Republican President to win the popular vote in 20 years.

Plus, the Senate will have Reublican majority as well.

Don’t get too excited.

Wars will continue: on China, Iran, and Russia.

The U.S. is run by banks, military contractors, and corporate elites who select the politicians.

{Genocide Joe, Holocaust Harris, and Butcher Blinken

Their legacy?

A pointless proxy war in Ukraine that failed to defeat Russia🇷🇺, hundreds of thousands dead in a completely avoidable war that could have been ended with the deal at Istanbul

A genocide in Gaza perpetrated by Israel using US weaponry, the mass infanticide of children, and modern-day lebensraum-style ethnic cleansing. All under the banner of Blinken’s ‘rules-based order’

A Middle East and global south revolted, disgusted, and furious at the genocide in Gaza, which has shown the world the consequences for daring to resist the oppression of the US and its allies

The rise and strengthening of BRICS, as developing global south countries flock to BRICS+ to escape Washington’s dictatorship under the current global financial system

The coming together of the US’🇺🇸 official enemies; Russia🇷🇺, China🇨🇳, Iran🇮🇷, and North Korea🇰🇵 deepen their ties as the threat from Washington and its vassal states in Europe grows

4 years of genocidal, warmongering tyranny.}

5 things that sunk the Democratic boat:

🔹COVID tyranny

🔹Inflation

🔹Wars in Ukraine and Gaza

🔹Illegal immigration

🔹Kamala Harris, an empty shell ⬇️

RESPECT TO JILL STEIN could have had a comfortable career as a Harvard-trained doctor. Instead she's devoted her life to facing down the powerful, corrupt forces of the system, at immense personal risk.

History will be kind to her. ⬇️

America rejected:

Beyonce

Lady Gaga

Katy Perry

Megan Thee Stallion

John Legend

Oprah Winfrey

Barack Obama

Michelle Obama

Bill Clinton

Hillary Clinton

Usher

Taylor Swift

George Clooney

Ariana Grande

Jamie Lee Curtis

Bono

Mick Jagger

Bruce Springsteen

Robert De Niro

....

The era of the celebrity endorsement is DEAD.

[ohsalome]

Sorry to dump this in your inbox but I am so sick of people falling over themselves to excuse the Russian people. Never mind videos of them running after the Wagner group’s tanks cheering. Their blatant support of a group murderers and rapists. No these poor Russians you see just waiting for a chance to rise up and overthrow the government.

Except for when there was an opportunity to take advantage of Putin’s government going through a crisis no one moved an inch. Because of course they didn’t. They were lining up to give the Wagner group food.

It never gets easier seeing people do apologetics for Russia. It just gets more and more infuriating.

Saw some poor soul saying that they hope that after this failed coup "some third, good group will rise up against putin" and I was like ... girl who? Literally point me a popular movement/group/anything in russia that is both anti-putin and anti-russian imperialism

Even the so-called "liberal opposition" who criticises invading Ukraine wants to keep us as a vassal state, only using soft power instead of military. But they also quite decicively don't do shit and just monetize their "correct opinions" with the gullible western grant givers.

[unhonestlymirror]

Stamp series "Glorious women of Ukraine"

1. Duchess Olha (Olga)

The first, among the dukes of Kyivan Rus, accepted Christianity, although she was unable to make it the state religion. She was canonized by the Orthodox Church. Having a tough temper and a sharp mind, she harshly took revenge on the Drevlians for the murder of her husband, first killing the ambassadors, and then burning the city of Iskorosteń. At the same time, she managed to very delicately refuse the courtship of Emperor Constantine, making him her godfather. She organized the collection of tribute and is considered the founder of the city of Pskov.

2. Roksolana (Nastya Lysovśka)

A woman who needs no introduction. An example of a personal feat, when, despite difficult circumstances, a person was still able to find the strength to overcome them.

By the way, contrary to popular opinion, Roksolana in no way facilitated the fate of the the Ukraine, and in no way prevented further robberies. But it would be extremely unfair to condemn her for this.

3. Anna Yaroslavna

The middle daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, who later became the queen of France, is the author of the oldest examples of Ukrainian writing. Her signatures, which are on many state documents, are surrounded by countless crosses - marks of the highest vassals of France. The first of the queens of France who had regent power. She founded the St. Vincent Abbey, which still operates today and was purchased by the Ukrainian Catholic University in 2013.

4. Halshka Hulevychivna

With her donations, this woman started the Kyiv Brotherhood School, which later became part of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, sponsored the opening of a school and a hospital for the poor population.

5. Marusia Churai

A semi-legendary singer with an unfortunate fate. She inspired her contemporaries with her songs and has been inspiring poets and writers for many centuries who sing her tragic love story. He is considered the author of the songs "Winds are blowing", "Oh don't go, Hrytsya", "Hrytsya, Hrytsya, go to work", "The dove is sitting on the shore", "Zasvit vstaly kozacheńky"

[workersolidarity]

🇺🇸 🚨

UNITED STATES CONGRESS PASSES SERIES OF ANTI-DEMOCRATIC AND PRO-WAR BILLS DESPITE PUBLIC OPPOSITION

The United States Congress and Senate passed a series of bills, including three controversial anti-democratic and pro-war bills, two of which were tied together, on Saturday, bypassing public opinion and popular opposition to the profligate, pro-war, globalist, Neolib/Neocon agenda currently driving United States domestic and foreign policy.

Included in the bills passed was a bill to force TikTok to divest from its connections with China at risk of being banned immediately, which naturally was tied to a Foreign aid bill.

However, as even Republican Senator Rand Paul mentioned in an opinion piece in Reason Magazine, the Bill is almost certain to lead to more power for American political elites and their administrations to pressure companies like Apple and Google to further ban apps and sites that offer contradictory opinions to that of the invented narratives of the American Political class.

Before long, Americans, many of whom are already poorly informed, and heavily misinformed by their mainstream media, could lose access to critical information that contradicts the narratives of the United States government and corporate elites.

Horrifically, this only the start. The US Congress also extended the newly revised FISA spy laws, which gives the United States government the power to spy on the electronic communications of foreigners, while also conveniently sweeping up the conversations of millions of Americans, as we learned years ago thanks to the sacrifices of whistle blowers and journalists like Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange.

The new FISA Law goes further than this, however, granting US Intelligence agencies the power to spy on the wireless communications of Americans in completely new ways.

A recent Jacobin article describes these new powers as a, "radical expansion of government surveillance that would be ripe for abuse by a future authoritarian leader", or it could just be used by the authoritarian leadership we have right now, and have had for decades.

In fact, when one commentator described the new powers as "Stasi-like," Edward Snowden himself replied with a long post in which he remarked, "invocation of "Stasi-like" is not only a fair characterization of Himes' amendment, it's probably generous. The Stasi dared not even dream of what the Himes amendment provides."

The amendment in question just "tweaks" the current law's definition of an "electronic communication provider," which is being changed to "any service provider," something extremely likely to be abused by the government to force anyone with a business, a modem and people using their broadband to collect the electronic communications of those people, while also forcing their victims into silence.

The government could essentially force Americans to spy on other people and remain silent about it. Cafe's, restaurants, hotels, business landlords, shared workspaces all could get swept up into the investigations of the Intelligence agencies.

Worse still, because picking out the communications of a single user would be next to impossible, all of their victim's data would end up being surrendered to the authorities.

Sadly, the assault on Americans by their own political elites didn't end there, to top this historic day in Congress, at time when the United States public debt is growing at an astounding rate of $1 trillion every 100 days, US lawmakers also passed a series of pro-war aid packages to American allies (vassals) totalling some $95 billion.

Included in the foreign aid bill are aid packages totalling $61 billion for the Ukraine scam, $26 billion for Israel's special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, and $8 billion to the Indo-Pacific to provoke WWIII with China, at the same time we're also provoking a nuclear holocaust with the Russian Federation.

Also buried in these aid packages is the authorization for the United States government to outright steal the oversees investments of the Russian Federation, and thereby the Russian taxpayers.

Astonishingly, and in direct opposition to the wishes of their own voters, Republican support was won without the possibility of conditioning the aid to any kind of border security, this despite the issue being among the top biggest concerns of Republican voters.

Although much of the money is to be used replenishing the heavily depleted stocks of America's weapons and munitions, it remains unclear where the munitions are expected to come from, as US defense production has remained sluggish and slow to expand despite heavy investments and demand in recent years, despite the rapid urgency with which the policy elite describe the situation.

It bodes poorly for working Americans that only a relatively small handful of lawmakers opposed the bills, producing unlikely bedfellows like Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Mike Lee in the Senate, opposing the FISA bill.

While in the House, the loudest opposition to the foreign aid bill mostly came from populist Republicans such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie and Paul Goser. Only 58 Congresmembers voted against the Foreign Aid Bill in which the TikTok ban was tucked.

Not one word from American politicians about the need to raise the minimum wage, which hasn't been increased since 2009 despite considerable inflation, nor a word about America's endlessly growing homelessness crises, property crime increases, or the 40-year stagnation of American wages, the deterioration of infrastructure, and precious little was said besides complaints about border security over the immigration crises sparked by American Imperialist adventures and US sanctions.

What we've learned today is that we are highly unlikely to see any changes to the insane behavior of the US and its allies any time soon, neither with regards to the absolutely bonkers Neocon foreign policy leading us to the edge of abyss, nor the spending-for-the-rich/austerity-for-the-poor Neoliberal domestic policy of the last 45 years.

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

Blue: titles are opinion pieces or analysis, and may or may not contain sources.

[phaeton-flier]

Gonna be honest I find the usage of the term American (or Western) "Vassal State" or "Satellite State" to be grating, because for the most part it's playing with connotations more than shedding any light.

Is Ukraine a "Vassal State"? Well, it's certainly a net beneficiary of any money being poured in, unlike the Vassal states of old. Is that aide being used for the US's geopolitical ends? Sure, but that's a) fairly clear example of mutual interests and b) has a debatable net benefit for the US; there're benefits and costs to the US giving dozens of billions of dollars here, but most analyses stop at "The US gets a benefit of any kind" and calls that a clear act of imperialism.

Would Ukraine joining the EU be it "becoming a western Satellite State"? I guess if you define "not the center of economic or geopolitical attention in a group", but that's fairly different from "ruled by a puppet government chosen by the outside", which is the general implication.

I'm not ignoring the times the US has played with the governments of foreign countries, but if someone is describing any form of alliance or interaction as creating a satellite state of one or the other I generally discount their opinion; it's clear they either have a very simplified view of international relations or they're too afraid to drop common shibboleths to avoid it.

[loving-n0t-heyting]

@saamdaamdandaurbhed

I mean, that seems too strong to me! I am urging my friends and fellow westerners to "decide the balance of forces halfway across the world" one way over another, its just that the decision im endorsing is for the continued control of hamas over the gaza strip (among realistic near term outcomes). I think cultivating a credulous attitude towards overseas "resistance" and "national liberation" efforts is generally pretty dangerous; smth like it is, for instance, half the reason left-of-centre americans were gotten almost universally on board with us support for the maidan coup in 2014 and the disastrous ongoing war in ukraine, and american state propaganda organs both official and informal are putting considerable effort into hoodwinking many americans into believing the plo somehow better aligns with the palestinian national will than hamas

I also do not specifically think outsiders have an obligation to defer uncritically to palestinians on all aspects of the current conflict. Surveys indicate extremely high disbelief among palestinians, for example, in hamas war crimes in the course of the conflict. I think automatically deferring to that popular consensus would be outright intellectually dishonest

But you do not need that kind of deference to see that the plo is a treacherous, dangerous, and illegitimate authority in palestine; the evidence for this is abundant and public. They are to palestine what the bantustan dictatorships were to south africa. And no disagreement, even correct and justified disagreement, with palestinian consensus present past or future on tactics, strategy, or goals entitles outsiders to override palestinian democracy and dictate the leadership of gaza and the west bank like vassal states, which is what the propaganda i was complaining about from the grey lady is promoting

[mariacallous]

Historian Hiroaki Kuromiya is one of the world’s leading specialists on the history of Ukraine’s Donbas. His 1998 book, Freedom and Terror in the Donbas: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s-1990s, is still considered a benchmark study of the region. Kuromiya first became interested in Donbas in the 1980s, and even then he pointed out that the region could become a flashpoint between Moscow and Kyiv. Now a professor emeritus, Kuromiya continues to do research and monitor the situation in Ukraine’s east. Ten years after the outbreak of the war in Donbas, journalist and researcher Konstantin Skorkin interviewed Kuromiya about the region’s history and what awaits it in the future. The following is an abridged summary of their conversation.

Hiroaki Kuromiya first realized that Donbas was a “perennial trouble spot for Moscow” in the 1980s, when he was researching his PhD dissertation on Joseph Stalin’s industrialization drive. Seeking to develop his own understanding of this complex region, he went on to research and write Freedom and Terror in the Donbas: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s-1990s, which remains a foundational historical text. 

But although he saw Donbas as a potential flashpoint even then, Kuromiya pushes back against the notion that the region’s history predetermined its fate. “I see no evidence suggesting the inevitability of Russia’s invasion of Donbas,” he said. 

If anything, Moscow was uncertain of the political reliability of the Donbas elite and hesitant about what they considered to be an “industrial wasteland.” Moscow’s calculation was that if Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Odesa were taken, the rest of Ukraine’s south-eastern territory, including Donbas, would automatically fall into Russia’s hands. This failed to happen.

According to Kuromiya, there were few “outright separatists” in Donbas before 2014. “It’s worth remembering that in 1991, a vast majority of the Donbas population voted for the independence of Ukraine, and by 2014, in spite of all kinds of complaints about the Kyiv government, they thought of Donbas as part and parcel of independent Ukraine,” the historian explained.

That said, regional politicians — like Viktor Yanukovych, who served as the governor of the Donetsk region from 1997 to 2002 — had a history of using the “threat of autonomy and separatism” as leverage against the central government in Kyiv. When Yanukovych was elected president in 2010, Kuromiya said, Donbas effectively “took over” the country, “signaling in a sense that Donbas had finally been integrated into Ukraine.” 

“I am certain that before Russia’s invasion, the vast majority of the Donbas population thought of their future in independent Ukraine, not in an annexed region of Russia,” he added. 

Nevertheless, the Donbas region remained vulnerable to outside influence — and attack. As Kuromiya explained: 

Radical Russian nationalist schemers and intriguers found Donbas easy to penetrate. They were not numerous, but they had been working in Donbas since well before 2014. So when Russia annexed Crimea and spread the conflict to “New Russia,” Moscow could count on dependable elements already well established in Donbas. 

These networks, along with what Kuromiya described as a “lack of resoluteness among the Donbas political elite,” allowed Moscow to capture large swaths of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions. “The prejudice some Ukrainian politicians and intellectuals held for Donbas, considering it as a bastion of separatism, [also] facilitated Russia’s capture of Donbas,” he added. 

The Revolution of Dignity, meanwhile, prevented the entire country from becoming a “vassal state.” In this context, “Russia’s capture of Donbas was more accidental than inevitable or predetermined,” Kuromiya said. And a decade later, with Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine now in its third year, the historian still believes that “different possibilities existed and exist for Donbas.”

I am firmly convinced that the Donbas people ultimately understand that their future lies in Ukraine and not in Russia. Kyiv’s task may be difficult, but it must convince the people of the Donbas that their allegiance belongs to Ukraine and Europe.

At the same time, Kuromiya urged Kyiv to try and preserve the unique culture of the Donbas region, to avoid the risk of mimicking some of Moscow’s policies in occupied areas of Ukraine. 

There is no doubt that if Russia retains the Donbas, it will […] destroy any vestige of its Ukrainian past. If Ukraine recovers the Donbas, […] it will have to tread carefully. Moscow will surely use the Russian language, Russophone culture, and anything related to Russia in Donbas to subvert Kyiv’s influence there. Nevertheless, Kyiv would do well not to follow Russia’s lead and attempt to obliterate Donbas’ past. 

“Diversity can be a source of conflict, but it is also a great source of creativity and prosperity,” he continued. “Forgetting the past is a sure way to invite disaster in the future.”

The way Kuromiya sees it, Russia’s continued occupation could lead to the “obliteration” of Donbas as such, since Moscow is unlikely to invest in rebuilding the war-torn region. “Donbas matters to Moscow only as a lever against independent Ukraine and the West,” he said. And although the West has shown “little actual interest” in the region’s fate, Kuromiya believes that if Ukraine can recover occupied territories, Western countries will make “considerable efforts” to support reconstruction. 

The population of Donbas will also have a decisive role to play in shaping post-war Ukraine, the historian said. 

The only way to preserve Donbas and its past and future will be for Donbas residents to choose unequivocally Ukraine over Russia, and for the [rest of the] Ukrainian population to treat the people in Donbas as fellow Ukrainian citizens, even if they [are] Russophone. Ukraine may have to go through a painful process of forgiveness and reconciliation after the war, but this will be a far better outcome than war and destruction.

“Without bringing peace and prosperity to the Donbas, Ukraine will remain vulnerable to Moscow’s subversion,” Kuromiya concluded. “Given peace and prosperity, the Donbas population will manage their own history and culture appropriately.”

[warsofasoiaf]

Hello! On the China-Ukraine ask, isn t Xi winning whatever happens? Sure, if Ukraine wins, attacking Taiwan becomes much more difficult. But he can steamroll Russia and reclaim territories lost by the Qing, get a huge and easy popularity gain among chinese people, and who knows how much more in Siberia. He already presented a map annexing a russian island, and Putin did not dare to say anything.

Why deal with the trouble of annexation if your vassal state is willing to extract the resources for you and sell them at a bargain?

-SLAL

[tomorrowusa]

It's not exactly news that Republicans are regurgitating Russian propaganda. The leader of the GOP is himself a Russian asset.

The new twist is that at least a few Republicans are starting to bring this up in public.

GOP Rep. Mike Turner said Sunday that Russian propaganda has taken hold among some of his House Republican colleagues and is even "being uttered on the House floor." "We see directly coming from Russia ... communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor," Turner, chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union." "There are members of Congress today who still incorrectly say that this conflict between Russia and Ukraine is over NATO, which of course it is not," he added.

Yes, Republicans are spreading Russian propaganda on the floor of the House. And Rep. Turner is not the only one who has called this out.

His comments come on the heels of remarks House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul made this week about how Russian propaganda has taken root among the GOP. McCaul, a Texas Republican, told Puck News that he thinks "Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base." Turner and McCaul each tied Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, to other authoritarian leaders, including President Xi Jinping of China and Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea. "[The propaganda] makes it more difficult for us to really see this as an authoritarian versus democracy battle, which is what it is," Turner told CNN, adding, "President Xi of China, Vladimir Putin himself have identified as such." McCaul described explaining to colleagues that the threat of Russian propaganda is similar to threats made by other U.S. adversaries. "I have to explain to them what’s at stake, why Ukraine is in our national security interest," he said. "By the way, you don’t like Communist China? Well, guess what? They’re aligned [with Russia], along with the ayatollah [of Iran]. So when you explain it that way, they kind of start understanding it."

It's all good of Michael McCaul and Mike Turner to call this out. But what are they doing to get badly needed aid to Ukraine? They need to show that they are more than just do-nothing passive observers.

Last week, Rep. Don Bacon said on NBC News' "Meet the Press" that he had commitments from Johnson and McCaul that they would allow a bipartisan Ukraine military aid package to advance to a vote. Rep. French Hill echoed this point on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday morning, saying he believes Johnson will bring Ukraine aid to the floor "immediately after completing the work on [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] and FISA's extension — that deadline of April 19 makes it a priority for the first few days we're back." "I believe he's fully committed to bringing it up to the floor immediately thereafter," Hill added. But Bacon, R-Neb., also warned that Johnson could face a vote to oust him from the speakership if he moves forward with Ukraine aid.

With a tiny majority and Marjorie Taylor Greene nipping at his heels, Speaker "MAGA Mike" Johnson is in a weak position. House members not wanting to make the US a vassal state of Vladimir Putin need to take advantage of this weakness.

If you live in the districts of these representatives, contact them and urge them to back uo their words with some action on aid for Ukraine.

Mike Turner (OH-10) Michael McCaul (TX-10) French Hill (AR-02) Don Bacon (NE-02)

[because--palestine]

Germany is a US-Vassal State’: German MP Blasts Europe’s Complicity in Gaza Genocide

In Germany, 10 MPs have quit the Left Party (Die Linke) due to its increasingly pro-war stance and established a new party called the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW). Defined by a pro-peace policy, BSW emerged in response to the collapse of anti-war positions within the Left with respect to the US-proxy war in Ukraine and the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Sevim Dagdelen, a Bundestag member and one of the founders of BSW, discusses the formation of the Party and the pressing need for a peace-focused political force in Germany.

[his-heart-hymns]

America's defense industrial complex has been on the decline since the end of the Cold War. The United States was already facing shortages when supplying weapons to Ukraine. Now they require more weapons to protect their vassal state -Israel and other military assets in the Middle East. Meanwhile China with its massive production capacity is stockpiling missiles and other military equipment for an upcoming invasion of Taiwan. Chinese are going to turn uncle Sam's aircraft carriers and warships into submarines.😉😂