WHO BEGAN THE CARNAGE IN UKRAINE?

You may say this is an easy question to answer, that clearly Russia began it with its invasion of Ukraine on the 24th of February 2022. However, if so please hold that thought while we examine two historical and undisputed events.

The first is the carnage which took place on Kiev's Maidan Square through the winter period of 2013-14. This period was marked by extreme savagery and although it is very likely that the more psychopathic members of Ukraine's 'Berkut' special security force began it with unnecessary violence against the protesters of that time it soon developed into an all-out war where the preponderance of the violence was carried out by an influx of particularly violent extremists. At that point onward until the fall of both president and government anything that could be used as a weapon was, including the burning down of buildings, toxic sprays, heavy chains, clubs of all descriptions modified for maximum effect, Molotov Cocktails, hunting rifles and handguns.

While all this was going on various officials of the United States were on hand to lend support.

Ultimately, in a final outbreak of unconscionable violence a group from another nation (Georgia) arrived to effect a false flag event, shooting down scores of protesters. This was the most grievous first instance of the kind of violence which led us to where we are now in Ukraine.

The second outbreak followed soon after when the people of eastern Ukraine in the region known as the Donbass took matters into their own hands on seeing what had transpired in Kiev and began surrounding and taking over as many administration offices and functions as they could. You must understand that Ukraine is a nation divided in so many ways and in ethnic terms virtually divided in half, with one side speaking Ukrainian and looking west and the other speaking Russian and looking east. You may say the uprising in the Donbass was illegal. Those who did it would point to the recent insurrection which brought down the president and government ask you if what happened THERE was legal? (The president and government who had been overthrown by a West-approved and supported insurrection/coup/example of people power - however you wish to name it, were both democratically elected.) At any rate, no one died during the takeover of all administrative functions in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of the Donbass. A great many died in Kiev. Both among the ranks of protestors and among the police (17 officers died trying to maintain control).

So where does the violence which descended into carnage emerge from in this case? On Kiev’s Maidan Square we saw the arrival of violent militias who took over from the earlier, relatively peaceful protesters. After bringing down the president and government they turned their attention to the east, to the Russian-speaking Donbass region.

It was a week or two after the bringing down of the president and government that the response came from Kiev to the appeals of those who had taken over in Donetsk and Lugansk looking for the autonomy to run their own affairs. (The main areas of concern for them was to preserve their language (Russian), maintain their long-held affiliations and good relations with Russia (inter-marriage being very common among them) and to preserve also their entire culture which also included honouring the memory of the Soviet Red Army liberating the country from the Nazis.

The extremist minority in western Ukraine, many of whom were and still are within the Ukrainian military held an opposing view, that Hitler and the Nazis had been beneficial to the Ukrainian nationalist cause. This prompted an extremely violent urge among many of them who considered their fellow Ukrainians in the east to be Russians, traitors to Ukraine and they gave them the pejorative, generalised name, 'Moskals'.

So, where did the violence emerge from? The next major event in this saga saw Kiev send a large military force, perhaps with the initial purpose to merely intimidate the leaders of the autonomy movement in the Donbass. However, with an incident or two of violence at the checkpoints they set up these sparks led to the fire of general violence which led to the mass shelling of the urban areas of Donetsk and Lugansk. The worst of this shelling took place in 2014 and 2015 when random mortar shells landed indiscriminately among the civilian population. It is estimated that approximately 12,000 civilians, innocent men, women and children died up to 2022, the majority of whom died in the first years of the conflict. Gradually, what was termed a self-defence force was formed, some of whom travelled from Russia and elsewhere round the world. They began to deter the extremes of random shelling of the villages, towns and cities of the Donbass they saw occurring.

Once the self-defence forces of Donetsk and Lugansk regions were fully formed and mounting a fierce resistance against the Ukrainian military and militias the heavy bombardments seen during 2014 and 2015 diminished greatly, though they have continued on a sporadic basis and continue to this day and presently to a greater extent somewhat mirroring the events of 2014/15.

So, in order to fairly judge who began the carnage in Ukraine please bring into consideration all the factors above when attempting to answer the question of who began all this that we see occurring in Ukraine today. Always keeping in mind the goals of the people of the Donbass and that of the Russian Federation that remained true from 2014 to 2022, to attain a level of autonomy to preserve a way of life and language. Violence was not seen by them as the way to achieve this but ultimately defending against violence proved a necessity.

Finally, there is the question of the threat of violence which was implicit in Kiev rejecting the Minsk Agreement peace and reconciliation process. Kiev essentially said Minsk was dead, that though they had promised to speak directly to the leaders of the two autonomy-seeking republics of Donetsk and Lugansk and, though they had promised these regions would receive special status where they would have a high degree of autonomy, they had decided they would do neither.

The Ukrainian army had been added to consistently since the year before Russia's operation bringining it up to NATO standards, military vehicles and the most advanced weapons had been delivered in their hundreds and thousands right up to the borders of the Donbass republics seeking autonomy. And official statements from Kiev gave every indication that a military offensive against the two republics seeking that autonomy could not be far off. The amount of shelling by the Ukrainian military soared through the first weeks of February 2022 and an attack appeared imminent.

It was around this time also that President Zelensky of Ukraine talked of regaining nuclear status. All the signs were there that the Ukrainian regime had abandoned any thought of solving the situation in a peaceful way through dialogue leading to a compromise and stable agreement that would leave the republics within Ukraine but having the degree of autonomy they required to guarantee their way of life could continue.

In addition to the above, Russian military intelligence caught wind of an official plan to initiate such an offensive. Soon after, Russia recognised the republics and then in the days following mounted what it calls its 'special military offensive' on February 24th.

Scan back and forth from the winter of 2013 across the historic timeline, look into the kind of ultraviolence that took place on Kiev's Maidan, attempt to imagine how those in eastern Ukraine felt when those they had democratically elected to power were removed and think too of the manner of their removal. Consider what the people of eastern Ukraine were facing as they heard of a law to downgrade their language and replace it and all else they were hearing from those they knew very well meant them no good and only harm. Consider also if military force and violence was appropriate in dealing with a bloodless revolution to establish right of autonomy in these extraordinary circumstances.

After reading all of the above and doing your own research to determine how true the facts as stated are it is to be hoped that you will then be in an excellent position to finally decide exactly who began the carnage in Ukraine.