Bitterness in Ukraine

There is ample reason for bitterness in Ukraine, and When the US interfered, we added to the Powder Keg.

Multi-ethnic societies are standard in that part of the world. Ukraine has people from a variety of languages and cultural backgrounds. For various reasons, borders move, and people from different cultures end up under other governments. If you know the history of Quebec and Canada, you’ll have a mild version of how the Russian speakers feel in the Ukraine, but it is much worse.

In his interview with Tucker Carlson, Vladimir Putin spoke of Nazis among the Ukrainians. That sounded odd to many Americans, but it is true. In the 1930s, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union and headed by Josef Stalin. His orders from Moscow resulted in a famine from 1931-1934 called the Holodomor. Approximately 5 million people died. When World War II started and Germany invaded Russia, those who did not speak Russian had good reason to hate Stalin. They joined the German forces to oppose him and willingly participated in any role offered.

That animosity continues. During and after World War II, Russia and Ukraine were both “Soviet Socialist Republics” (SSRs) ruled from Moscow: Crimea and the eastern oblasts (regions) known as the Donbas were part of the Russian SSR. Nikita Khrushchev assigned these predominantly Russian-speaking regions to Ukraine as part of some political maneuvering. At the time, it was symbolic and meaningless. It posed no threat to Russia’s access to the warm-water port of Sevastopol or the culturally Russian residents of the Ukrainian SSR.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, everything changed. Ukraine and Russia were now different countries, and the cultural Russians were not only in a different country, but they were also in a country with a majority extremely hostile to them.

I have previously written about NATO’s broken promises and expansion eastward. In another article, I discussed America’s role in the 2014 Maidan “color revolution” in Kyiv. This was particularly harmful. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was democratically elected and trying to ride a middle road. He was not hostile to the Russophones and was about to sign a 99-year lease with Russia for the naval base at Sevastopol.

That could not be permitted. A “spontaneous, grassroots” uprising started as a “color revolution.” Without spending the time here, we now know the funding details of these color revolutions. They include serious amounts of money from USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). It was clearly “Astroturf.” U. S. Senators John McCain and Chris Murphy went to Kyiv to openly support the revolution.

With the success of that revolution and the clear anti-Russian attitude of the Americans and NATO, both sides decided it was time to go all out. There was no room left for the moderates or compromise.

Putin moved immediately to make sure he had the base at Sevastopol. He moved into Crimea and claimed it as part of Russia. He also moved to support the Russophone regions bordering Russia.

Nicolai Petro has written a book about Ukraine with an intriguing title:
The Tragedy of Ukraine: What Classical Greek Tragedy Can Teach Us About Conflict Resolution.

Petro was part of a YouTube conversation discussing how the post-Maidan government was treating Russian speakers and the Russian culture. The government essentially gave the Russophobes a free hand. All students must attend a Ukrainian language school. Russian language schools are not permitted. Ukrainian is the required official language. Even in a restaurant, you may be forced to order in a language other than Russian.

Then, there is the persecution of the largest version of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. The Russianlife website describes it this way:

Vladimir embraced Byzantine Orthodoxy and introduced it to Kiev Rus in ca. 988. This date is also known as the Baptism of Russia.

The article also mentions a monastery.

The first monastery was Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, {The Monastery of the Caves} established in 1051 and operational to this day.

Initially, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) was affiliated with the church headed by the Moscow patriarch. In 2019, a new Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), aligned with Kyiv, was granted independence from the Moscow Patriarchate by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Now, your church choice is read as a loyalty flag. Monks of the UOC are banned from the Monastery of the Caves. In August 2024, Zelenskiy signed legislation banning religious organizations linked to the Russian Orthodox Church from operating in Ukraine.

Our leaders had ample resources to understand the risk of stirring up a hornet’s nest in this part of the world. They made an explicit promise to Gorbachev they would not move NATO eastward. But their egos are too big, and their concern for others too small. They don’t care how much bitterness they unleash. Only their goals matter.

Donald Trump’s instincts are to try to prevent World War III, but he reportedly went along with allowing missiles to go deeper into Russia and talk about ever more sanctions. Does he think that will move us further away from war?