What’s Going On In Ukraine?

The answer to the question of “what is going on in Ukraine” is both obvious, and obviously unanswerable. War is going on in Ukraine! It’s that simple. And in wartime, information is as much a military resource as bullets or men, and used correctly it can do the job of a million of those. And used incorrectly, it can cost one of the sides millions of lives. Which is precisely why misinformation is such an important aspect of war (as Sun Tzu said, all warfare is based on deception), and why no one should trust anything coming from either sides.

That being said, I can try to explain WHY there is a war in Ukraine. Our mainstream media sources tell us that the reason is Putin/Russia’s imperial ambition.

This is without a doubt, true. The collapse of the Soviet Union was devastating for Russia. As territories separated and formed their own governments, often going over to join the military and economic alliances of former USSR’s enemies, Russia saw itself losing key industries, resources, and millions of people who are ethnically and culturally Russian, living in those territories. Regaining those territories, the people and the resources, is very important to Russia’s geopolitical strategy. And Putin can easily gain approval of the Russian people by harkening back to the glory of both Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union.

There is a Russian geopolitical analyst, by the name of Alexander Dugin. He wrote a book called “The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia“. This book describes why Russia should aim to form a kind of massive military/economic alliance across Europe and Asia, with it as a major player. It’s speculated that he has the ear of Putin. Or perhaps that he knows things others don’t. Either way, if you haven’t read the book, the short of the long is that Russia’s actions for the past 20 years follow the Eurasian plan outlined in the book very closely, so it makes sense to think that would continue. Russia’s neighbours are right to be concerned about “being next” after Ukraine!

That being said, there is more to the current situation in Ukraine. The official pretext of the Russian intervention (as they call it – or you can call it an invasion) is to guarantee that the (pro-Russian) breakaway republics can continue living in peace. But the civil war in Ukraine has been going on for the past 8 years since the Ukrainian revolution in 2014, so why didn’t Russia do anything before? Put simply, Putin’s hand was forced. You see, all of a sudden, Ukraine and NATO started talking about Ukraine joining NATO. NATO likes to put their military bases in member states, and in those military bases, they like to put long range missile systems, as well as missile defense systems. For anyone who doesn’t remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, USA and USSR almost went to hot war over USSR trying to place missiles in Cuba (AFTER a failed USA invasion of Cuba). Cuba is close enough to USA that people can cross the ocean in rafts! USA would not tolerate a rival superpower placing its missiles so close to it’s borders – and neither should Russia. Among other things, USA has been developing shorter range missile defense interceptors – and putting them in NATO bases.

NATO has been playing an encircling game for a very long time. The ultimate strategic objective is to render Russia unable to use their nuclear missiles. Of course, it sounds really good, right? Countries shouldn’t be able to use nukes! Especially not people like that tootin’ Putin! But, it only affects Russia. USA would still be able to use nukes, or threaten their use. Russia suddenly losing its nuclear superpower status would leave it at the mercy of it’s long time rival. We know how USA treats it’s rivals. Just ask Iraq or Iran how they’re doing. Russia, and ordinary Russian people, rightfully don’t want to be at America’s mercy. And so, when Ukraine and NATO talk about Ukraine joining NATO, and the possibility of NATO bases and missiles so close to Moscow, naturally it makes Putin jumpy. With the Nordstream2 pipeline being put on hold, Russia no longer has anything to gain from not being aggressive – and it has everything to lose from being too passive.

In the end, it’s ordinary Ukrainian citizens who are caught up between Putin’s imperial ambitions, and US world police meddling. They will have to pay the price in terms of lives, and damage to the economy of their country. But it’s worth pointing out, that 8 years have passed since the pro-EU, pro-NATO Ukrainian revolution. Why did things start to happen now?

Well, have you noticed something? What was going on in the news last week, and before that, and what is gone from the news now? The Freedom Convoy! No one is talking about it anymore. And everyone has forgotten about the other large scale protests happening world wide in solidarity with Canadian truckers. Have you ever watched the movie, Wag the Dog? The one that tells a story about Hollywood making up a war in order to distract people from a sex scandal (a movie that came out shortly before Bill Clinton got caught with Monica, and the Kosovo war)? It’s a very good movie, and I heartily recommend it! And it’s exactly what is happening right now. When watching, I want you to remember, that it came before Bill Clinton and Kosovo, it’s NOT a reference to the events that happened.

What’s happening is that the western powers have provoked the war in Ukraine in order to distract people from their own domestic problems. Canada itself has a sizeable Ukranian population, majority of whom live in a very Conservative Alberta. Conservatives are more likely to oppose the vaccine mandates, and also support the freedom convoy. Truckers are very likely to be conservative (and I would bet, Ukrainian). By having its allies provoke the conflict, and publicly denouncing Russia and sending aid to Ukraine (majority of this aid will never reach the people, instead it will line the pockets of politicians and oligarchs), Justin Trudeau not only distracts people from the conflict, but he gets to see his popularity bounce back! And with Ukrainian refugees coming to Canada, he is literally creating votes for himself. I don’t like Justin Trudeau, but I can’t say that he is not intellegent or not a good politician. I personally know people, who were very politically active supporting the Freedom Convoy, who are now being very politically active about the situation in Ukraine. The gambit has worked, and sacrificing the Ukrainian people as a pawn in their game, our leaders get to hold on to their political power and even gain from it. It works for Biden and Putin too, as well as Zelinsky, who are also very good politicians. Too bad that being a good politician means throwing people’s lives and freedoms away.