I made a comment about the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine and got this reply from one person:

“Colin Fraser Half of all Ukranians speak Russian as a first language. The Donbas region was already a (legally) semi-autonomous region. After the fall of the USSR in 1990, the UN randomly drew the boundry with little regard for ethnicity or the will of the people. The US overthrew the pro-Russian democratically elected Ukranian government in 2014 and installed Zelenskyy. He banned use of the Russian language and launched a program of terror against those who identified ethnically with Russia, including constant attacks on the people of the Donbass region killing 14,000 civilians. Zelenskyy declared on the day previous to Russia’s invasion that they intended to park nukes right on Russia’s border. The 250,000 troops, mostly the Azov (nazi) brigade who had amassed on the Donbass border planned a massive attack on the civilian population the following day. Those civilians SOSed to Putin for help from his brigade of under 150,000 on the Russian border. Putin begged Europe and 17-nation NATO to honor the Minsk agreement in which they agreed “NOT to move 1 inch closer to Russia.” By December 2019, the number of NATO countries had grown to 29. A very reasonable agreement was put forth by Putin in Dec. 2019 that would protect the security of all parties and eliminate tensions. The EU refused to entertain the idea. The US would not tolerate Russia parking nukes on the Mexico or Canadian border for one second. The Ukranian government is HIGHLY corrupt. How does a 2-bit comedian become a billionaire with mansions in 4 countries in a few short years. With that said, Putin is no angel. There are NO good guys in this war. US-led NATO started the war at least 20 years ago. Putin fired the opening “pre-emptive” shot. Sound familiar? The vast majority of Ukranians are good people, just like every country. It’s always the people who want to be left in peace to live their lives that become the cannon fodder for these psychopaths battling for ever greater control and power over what never belonged to them. That VERY much includes the US. iow There is MUCH MUCH more to the story than you will ever be shown on MSM. And 130 nations across the globe (84%, the majority) have refused to sanction Russia. They know well who the aggressor actually was. These evil globalists are insisting on keeping this conflict going to use it to literally take down the EU. When that domino falls, the US isn’t far behind. The banking systems are inter-connected. These globalists have forced Xi and Putin into an unholy alliance. I’m not thrilled about that. I’m a sitting duck on Taiwan. Putin has vowed to support Russia if Pelosi and gang manage to goad the CCP into attacking Taiwan and the US intervenes. The globalists WANT WW3 anywhere they can start it. I’ll be the next cannon fodder.”

First, the whole thing smells of “Troll”. The essential message is the “justifications” for this war to begin with. The general theme of this troll is victim blaming, blame everyone else, Ukrainians, the EU, evil Globalists, and the CCP is being goaded, oh please. How about decisions made in Moscow to mobilize an army to cross a recognized international border? Traffic went one way that day, not the other.

“Half of all Ukrainians speak Russian” as a first language. Well, how many Americans speak English as a first language? That gives the UK the right to invade the US? I knew a woman from Sudan who could speak five languages, including English, French, Arabic, which was not uncommon where she came from, so what? Past Russian immigration to the region, especially after the Holodomore and WW2, didn’t change the boundaries of the area traditionally known as “The Ukraine”, in Soviet eyes anyway.

“After the fall of the USSR in 1990, the UN randomly drew the boundry with little regard for ethnicity or the will of the people.” Erm… what? My understanding was that autonomous regions were clearly defined by the USSR and they formed the nations that grew out of the demise of the Soviet Union. If Moscow thought they were “regions” in their own right, then why are they objecting thirty years later?

“The US overthrew the pro-Russian democratically elected Ukranian government in 2014 and installed Zelenskyy.” Hahhahaaaa! Right, of course, any step away from a pro-Russian leader had to be orchestrated by the US. Given that Putin’s great buddy Donald Trump was in the White House when Zelenskyy was elected, I doubt that, very much.

“He banned use of the Russian language and launched a program of terror against those who identified ethnically with Russia, including constant attacks on the people of the Donbass region killing 14,000 civilians.” First, the move to install Ukrainian as the official state language was well under way before Zelenskyy became President, but any multi-ethnic society has a language problem if the State doesn’t have a common language. Given the historical antipathy of Russians to anything non-Russian, could we expect anything less? Also, the trouble in Donbass blew up in 2014, as Russian separatists began to feel stronger, but like all such conflicts, it had been brewing quite a while. I suspect Putin’s successful theft of Crimea was all the encouragement they needed to create a violent revolution. Fueled from Moscow, undoubtedly. This is just like “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland, but less amenable to a political solution. A justification based in Tomato logic.

(Tomato logic: “Anyone whoever ate a tomato and born before 1882 is now dead. 98% of all recidivists in the US have eaten tomatoes while in prison. Therefore tomatoes are really poisoned apples and the US Governments are promoting criminal behavior.” The “given facts” are accurate, so the conclusions are “obvious”.)

Like the rest of this argument, it’s nonsense. I can’t confirm the numbers given, nor can I find evidence to support the other contentions here. Note how Putin is portrayed as “reasonable”, but Russian “reasonable” is essentially “my way or the highway” reasonable.

There was a clearly recognized international border which Putin ordered crossed. That’s invasion. That he wants a “resurgent” Russia, not a USSR, but more imperial Russia, is clear, and the only way he can do that is to take over more territory.

I have to accept that the fall of the Soviet Union was always fraught and that no matter what the outcome internally was, there was always going to be a lot of trouble. Instead of little brush wars though, we have a conflict that is escalating, due to the essential incompetence of the invader and the unexpected resistance of the defenders. So, Slava Ukraini!

As for the rest of this argument, I do not buy for one moment the Taiwan equivalence. A study of Chinese history clearly demonstrates the essential fallacies behind China’s “reunification” rhetoric, and the failure of US foreign policy in the aftermath of WW2. Taiwan should have been recognized as an independent nation in 1945 or -46, but it had been a conquered territory long before the outbreak of war so a “do nothing, wait and see” policy was seen as the best option. Events overtook the Americans and it became more expedient to recognize the Nationalists than to face reality. Now, Xi Xing Ping has essentially guaranteed an invasion of Taiwan by staking his political future on “reunification”. War won’t be too far away, I’m afraid.

As for the author, Terri Pebsworth, there is no identifying footprint for him/her, so maybe they are real, maybe not, but whatever. Clearly this is a Russian troll or a defeatist. Their message is one of appeasement and destruction, appease the tyrant by destroying the object of resistance. What people like this miss is that tyrants are never happy, they cannot ever be appeased. After Ukraine will come Moldova, then Georgia again and so on. The only thing that stops a tyrant is death. In the case of the invasion of Ukraine, death probably can’t came quickly enough to Putin.