Snips...

The sudden disintegration of the Union in 1991 led to unruly phases in the newly created republics. Ethnic Russian people suddenly found themselves in territory that was no longer ruled by Moscow.

Before 1991 the Ukraine had never existed as a state or independent entity.
The country had strong economic relations with Russia. Its industry depended on Russian gas while nearly all its machine and steel exports went to Russia.

The U.S. did not like that. It wanted to control rule the Ukraine to be able to put pressure on Russia. It twice, in 2004 and in 2014, organized 'color revolutions' to overthrow elected Ukrainian governments which, for mostly economic reasons, tended to favor relations with Russia.

The 2014 color revolution was exceptionally brutal. The U.S. had organized extreme right wing groups to take the lead in violent protests. (The same groups were in the early 1940s allied with German Nazis and, between 1948 and 1952, were waging a CIA led guerrilla war against the Soviet Union.)

The first law that the new coup government implemented was a rejection of Russian as one of Ukraine's state languages. For some 50% of Ukrainians Russian is their daily language.

People in other former Russian parts of Ukraine protested and a some in the east took up arms. They twice defeated the Ukrainian army and volunteer formations sent against them. The Minsk I and II agreements that followed required Ukraine to give those Donbas oblasts significant autonomy. The United Nations Security Council acknowledged and supported the agreements. But any attempts to implement them were sabotaged by the U.S. via the armed right wing movements that had control over the government in Kiev.

For eight long years the people in the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics defended their borders against constant Ukrainian attempts to solve the conflict by violence. While the people in those republics had voted for the independence of their republics, and to become a part of Russia, the Kremlin did not want to accept that. It wanted that those republics stay within Ukraine and insisted on the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

In 2015 the U.S. and NATO started to build a new Ukrainian army. They succeeded. By 2021 it was larger than most armies of NATO countries. Plans were made to invade the Donbas republics. In 2021 Russia became aware that a first attempt was soon to be made.

When the Kremlin learned of new plans to attack the Donbas republics in 2022 it took a stand. It send quasi ultimatums to the U.S. and NATO and requested security agreements that would deny NATO membership to Ukraine. The ultimatums were rejected. The U.S. wanted war in Ukraine to a. 'weaken' Russia and to b. get stronger control over its European 'allies' and economic competitors.

On February 17 the Ukrainian army were prepared for an all-out attack on the Donbas. Over the next days the shelling increased from some 40 artillery explosions per day to over 2000 per day. Russia had to act. On February 22 it recognized the independence of the Donbas republics and signed defense agreements with them. But Russia also learned that the very limited forces it had sent were unable to fulfill its aim of disarming Ukraine. To call up and use reservist required a legal change. Hence the Referendum.

This little history lesson will not change anyone's firm opinion here on these happenings but that is how we got here. Like it or not.

Moon over Alabama