I have watched the above interview on New Atlas, and the the two are puzzled about Ukraine’s drone attacks on random targets within Russia. They are saying that such attacks only make Ukraine look bad even in the eyes of Russians that might have been previously supportive of Ukraine. This in my opinion shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how the Ukrainian nationalism operates.

The fundamental essence of the Ukrainian nationalism is Russophobia. Without it, the Ukrainian nationalism loses the major reason for being. It comes down to the peculiar history of the Ukrainian nationalism, Ukrainians were once Russians and their existence is based on conflict with Russia, this is their mission. To the Ukrainian nationalist, no Russian is a good Russian. The only good Russian is that Russian who declares himself a Ukrainian and renounces his Russianhood. Some early Ukrainian nationalists were like this, for instance Dmytro Dontsov. And contemporary Ukraine is crawling with such types.

The Ukrainian nationalist have an interest in waging war against the Russians, they do not have the interest in changing the regime in Russia. The latter is wanted by liberal interest groups in the West, who erroneously think the Ukrainian nationalists are their allies. In 2014, they were all claiming Ukraine will become a liberal mirror to totalitarian Russia, and the Russians will rise up against Putin in response. Same kind of thinking as displayed in the video. Soon enough, it became clear the Ukrainian nationalists have no interest in this…