One of the main narratives in the West is that Putin is a mad dictator, who just out of the blue attacked innocent Ukraine that was minding its own business. One must understand that Ukraine is a post-Soviet state with a diverse ethnic and linguistic makeup and borders drawn by the General Secretaries for convenience. Hence, Ukraine entered independence with a large Russian population and a Russian naval base on the Crimean peninsula.
And in this Ukraine, the West sponsored a violent anti-Russian coup by neonazi militias in 2014. This was literally an act of war. In modern times hot war is really a last resort when everything else fails. The most common ways are influence campaigns and pressure through financial and material embargoes. Western propaganda calls it hybrid warfare when Russia does it. And the so called Maidan was sponsored by the likes of US State Department, George Soros, Pierre Omidyar, the Czech embassy, the Dutch embassy, and many others. Basically all those entities gave money to violent Russophobes. Never forget that!
The Maidan was an illegal usurpation of government by anti-Russian forces, and Russia did not hesitate and annexed Crimea. The Maidan also triggered anti-Maidan protest in South-East of Ukraine that led to the collapse of government in many areas. The eastern Donbas in particular slipped from Ukraine’s control. How much this process was helped by Russia is debated. The Ukrainians and their supporters have a tendency to focus on Russian involvement and the Russians on the other hand stress the agency of the locals. Both sides are actually correct on many points.
Russia did intervene to save DNR and LNR from being overrun by Ukrainian forces both directly, and by supplying the Donbas Militia with weapons. Was Russia wrong when it supported a clearly pro-Russian movement in Ukraine? Should Russia have stayed idly and allow the Ukrainians to crush the rebellion? Well, Russia actually almost did Pashinyan. Mind you humanitarian intervention is a thing since the days of NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. In that NATO literally broke Serbia, gave Albanian separatists a state and put a big ass base on that territory. Real politik commanded that Russia as a great power should take action.
Little do people realize but the supporters of the Maidan in the West knew very well what this shit is going to lead to, that is civil war in Ukraine. If they didn’t, then we are ruled by some incredibly stupid people and I doubt this is the case. And this is precisely why they blew up Ukraine. They turned Ukraine into a weapon with which they will attack Putin. The West wanted regime change in Russia for a long time, and better yet they wanted a break up of Russia into many Russias. Little manageable Ukraines that will be too weak to pose a threat and have a mind of their own.
Russia is not very aggressive, this is not Putin’s style. Part of this is because Russia isn’t that strong but a great deal is due to Putin’s personality I believe. Putin treats brute force as means of last resort and always seeks a political solution to conflicts. He understands that for a lasting peace you need a political solution ultimately. Ukraine had ample chance to find a peaceful solution to the crisis.
One of these mechanisms was the Minsk accords. Both Poroshenko and Zelensky had a constitutional majority and could have implemented the political part of Minsk, and could have withdrawn troops from Donbas. This way they would leave Donbas rebels no choice but to implement their part of the deal. None of this was done. Ukraine also blocked water and electricity to Crimea, which is another casus belli.
It is now clear and confirmed by Western officials that the Minsk was never to be implemented and was only used to buy Ukraine time to rearm. Ukraine wanted to reintegrate the lost territories through force. To which Russia responded with invasion. Next, the Ukrainian government decided to defeat Putin’s invasion army. The Ukrainians and their Western supporters came up with various copes such as Ukraine is defending Europe, Ukraine is fighting dictatorship. In reality, Ukraine is fighting a cynical proxy war, and it is a proxy war as mentioned by Boris Johnson and Marco Rubio. A proxy war using Ukrainians as a cannon fodder for the interests of Western designs on Russia.
Insomniac Resurrected 