Don't you think this should be in the News forum, since there are no Scriptures related to this issue?
I agree- this should be in the News Forum..
So let's look at the historical "facts"
1. Ukraine was always a part of the Russian empire, sad later became a part of the Soviet Union.
No! Rus was its own empire for many centuries, 9th -12th, when the Mongols invaded. Moscow and Russia did not exist. The retreating Mongols built Moscow in the 14th century.
Next to rule Ukraine was Lithuania, then Poland. Then Austria. That was who ruled western Ukraine before & during WWI. Because Austria was on the losing side, it no longer ruled any states. From 1918-21, Ukraine had its first independent state. Then Russia attacked western Ukraine, and lost, and Poland took it over from 1922 -1939. Obviously WWII broke out in 1939, and that was the first time the communists ruled western Ukraine, although they had ruled Eastern Ukrainian and starved 6 million farmers & peasants with his ill fated attempt to bring in collectivization to Ukraine. (The Holomodor!) That was 1932-33. Stalin killed the elite of eastern Ukraine in 1937-38. Stalin was a megalomaniac, who Putin admires! He killed over 100K of Ukraine's finest in 1937-38.
After 2 decades of oppressive Russian (communist rule) Ukrainians thought they would be better off with anyone than Stalin, who was conscripting young Ukrainian men to fight Hitler. Except the Ukrainian men that joined the German army did not know Stalin had taught Hitler all his most maniacal tricks. Once the Holocaust started, most of them realized they had jumped out of Stalin's frypan into Hitler's fire! They could not go back and join the Soviet army, because they would have been killed as traitors.
2. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1999, Ukraine and many other satellite countries broke away. But Ukraine always had a Russian presence within it, and their cultures are very similar. They all are
Slavic.
Ukraine established its independence in 1991. Feel free to look it up on the internet. Your dates are wrong!
There was a Russia presence in eastern Ukraine, which started by oppression from Ivan the terrible in 1533, followed by Peter the Great & Catherine the Great. They all banned Ukrainian language and culture. Schools & universities had to teach in Russian. They destroyed the Ukrainian language in Eastern Ukraine, although
Since Putin invading, they are all learning Ukrainian, which is a completely different language, despite both languages using Cyrillic script. Saying they are the same language would be like someone saying English and Spanish are the same language, cause they both use Latin letters! In fact, some letter differ in Ukrainian & Russian Cyrillic.
3. Vladimir Putin established himself as virtual king.
Actually, he would be a Tsar in Russia, not a king. But no one wanted the Tsars back, and the communist leaders were always dictators of the worst sort. Putin was no different! Putin kills his political opposition.
4. He targeted Crimea because of its location, and because he knew that Barack Obama was gutless, he went ahead and annexed Crimea. The West just sat back.
Stalin targeted the Crimea because it was the traditional vacation place for the Tsars and then the rich communist leaders. It was also a deep sea port that was open all year. Crimea was formerly the Kingdom of the Tartars, and Russia exiled them all to Siberia. Putin used that as his excuse in 2014 to attack the Crimea. He should have been stopped right then. I agree with you, it was not part of the Democratic Party's plan- to go to war with Russia.
Ukraine has paid too high a price for too long! Slava Ukraine! .
