There is a simple answer for every difficult question, and it is usually wrong. After deciphering the bloody mess in Ukraine, I’m even more convinced that is true.
Most people think contentious, controversial, and complex issues can be decided by identifying the good and the bad; however, the worse conflicts happen when both sides are equally right and wrong or, in this case, some right and much wrong on both sides. The war in Ukraine is not a choice between good and evil but between evil and more evil.
Whatever the level of blame in the mess, the horrific bombing of innocent people is enough to make a stone cry.
It must be remembered that NATO was formed in 1949 after WW II to protect Europe from the aggressive Soviet Union consisting of Russia and 15 “republics.” Ukraine was one of the republics. Russia has been a source of trouble, even evil, since 1917. So, a rule of thumb is if Russia is part of an equation, it includes duplicity, danger, and destruction.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine quickly became an independent state, with over 92% of its citizens voting for independence. The international community recognized their independence. Since breaking from the Soviet Union, Ukraine has wavered between Moscow and the West, surviving compromises, conflicts, and corruption yet maintaining its “democracy” intact. Ukraine has long been known as the most corrupt nation in Europe and remains the third-most-corrupt country in Europe, after Russia and Azerbaijan.
After you think of the oligarchs, think Joe and Hunter Biden, the Ukrainian gas company, and the laptop caper.
Ukrainians moved closer to the West and away from Russia as violence continued in two eastern Russian-speaking provinces (Donetsk and Luhansk) on Russia’s border and when Russia took Crimea. Spouting independence, the two provinces (known as the Donbas) remain internationally recognized as part of Ukraine while President Putin now recognizes them as “Russian.” Crimea has already been swallowed by the Russian Bear.