Here I posted this last night for someone asking the same:
Being a bit of war/military/history buff, I have followed the Ukraine saga very closely since 2014, and I think I can shed some light onto the context here that you will definitely not get from Trudeau's Lying Media. Open to comments and criticism if you think I've got anything wrong:
You have to start all the way back in World War II. When the Nazis invaded Ukraine, many people in western Ukraine sided with the Nazis against the Soviets, as communist life was no picnic for those people. But this did not happen so much in the East of Ukraine. This is because that Eastern regions of Ukraine used to be part of Russia, and all the people living there were (and are to this day) Russian speaking and pro-Russian.
Ukraine is beset by political turmoil the likes of which it hasn't seen in almost a decade. What started as protests over the handling of a trade pact with the European Union escalated to the ousting of the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Note: my goal is not to whitewash anything the Soviet Communists did - they were as bad or worse than the Nazis, and this 'gluing together' of disparate people into one country was a common tactic of theirs, entirely on purpose in order to set up events happening now (making it impossible to move Ukraine out of the Russian sphere of influence).
Of course the Nazis lost WWII, and the Soviets crushed the local Ukrainian Nazis there. (Interesting aside: one of those Ukrainian Nazis was the grandfather of Christia Freeland, who fled to Canada.) Things were fine until the Soviet Union broke up in the late 1980s, and Ukraine was suddenly independent of Russia. It created a problem because all of these Russian areas of Ukraine actually would have preferred to stay with Russia.
Fast forward to the 2010s: the US Obama government got involved in the Ukraine, with the bright idea of turning the Ukraine into a NATO country and an American puppet state, where they could put US military bases, nuclear arms, etc. If you look a map, the East of Ukraine is very close to all the major Russian cities, like Moscow, so if the Americans had nukes there, they could wipe Russia out before Russia could respond. Putin drew a firm 'red line' that Russia would never, ever, tolerate this happening.
Despite this, in 2014 the maniacs in the Obama government helped arrange the overthrow (or coup) of the legally elected Ukraine government (that was pro-Russia) and installed a pro-U.S. puppet government there instead. In order to accomplish this, they enlisted the help of the remnants of the old Nazi supporters in the west of Ukraine, who had come out of hiding after Ukraine was independent. They had formed themselves into various neo-Nazi armed militia groups. After the coup, these militia groups decided to seize the moment and had the government declare that Ukraine was now "anti-Russian" and that Russian language would be banned (despite millions who spoke it) and the more extreme elements within the Nazi groups wanted to actually exterminate and/or ethnically cleanse all Russian-speaking people from the borders of the Ukraine (despite the fact that these Russian speaking people had ALWAYS lived there).
Two separatist regions of the East Ukraine, Donetsk and Lugansk, declared that they rejected this new government and their Nazi ideas. So the Ukraine foolishly charged in with their military and the neo-Nazi militias to crush the uprising with brutal force. The people of that region, with the aid and arming of Russia, quickly organized themselves into a military and fought a civil war against the Ukrainian military. Against all odds, they actually won this war, not retaining their entire lands, but most of them. They encircled entire Ukrainian armies into tactical "kettles" or "boilers" and eliminated them all, it was quite something. This was in 2014 and 2015. A ceasefire of sorts was declared in 2015, with an armed line of demarcation between the two sides, kind of a frozen conflict line. These breakaway regions operated independently after that. Russia wanted to negotiate a settlement with the Ukraine, using something called the "Minsk" agreements that outlined a path to peaceful resolution, that including things such as recognizing Russian language rights, and tried to do so for the next 8 years. During that entire time, the western back Ukrainian government refused to negotiate, and the Ukrainian military and neo-Nazi militias, supported by the West (including Canada) kept firing random artillery into the separatist regions, kind of keeping the conflict simmering.
Things were pretty quiet during Trump, even moving towards peace, but as soon as Biden got into office, he started encouraging the Ukrainians to amp up the conflict again. So more weapons and money was flowing in the Ukraine again to entice them to take back those separatist regions so the original plan (take over Ukraine and put US bases there) could be done.
In the last couple weeks, the Ukrainian military started moving troops into the region, started shelling more again, and looked to be preparing something. Thousands of civilians in the separatist regions were evacuated to Russia. Putin finally declared, two days ago, that Russia had had enough. He declared that the two separatist regions were now countries in the eyes of Russia, and under full Russian protection, not only in their current state, but back to their original pre-war borders.
This suddenly meant that the entire Ukrainian military was now standing on land Russia claimed control over. Russia said "leave now, or else." They did not leave, so last night, Russia made them leave / eliminated them. The stated goal of their operation is to ensure the security of the separatist regions, to entirely 'disarm' the Ukraine and "de-nazi" the Ukraine (Putin actually used that term). It's not certain yet how far they will take things and how much land they intend to control - if its just the separatist regions or all the Russian speaking regions. The military response from the west is still uncertain, but Putin has told them to stay out or he will openly attack them, up to and including nuclear war.
Here I posted this last night for someone asking the same:
Being a bit of war/military/history buff, I have followed the Ukraine saga very closely since 2014, and I think I can shed some light onto the context here that you will definitely not get from Trudeau's Lying Media. Open to comments and criticism if you think I've got anything wrong:
You have to start all the way back in World War II. When the Nazis invaded Ukraine, many people in western Ukraine sided with the Nazis against the Soviets, as communist life was no picnic for those people. But this did not happen so much in the East of Ukraine. This is because that Eastern regions of Ukraine used to be part of Russia, and all the people living there were (and are to this day) Russian speaking and pro-Russian.
Here are the territories appended to the Ukraine over time: https://www.sott.net/image/s31/637996/full/UA_Annexed_Territories.jpg
Ukraine is beset by political turmoil the likes of which it hasn't seen in almost a decade. What started as protests over the handling of a trade pact with the European Union escalated to the ousting of the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Note: my goal is not to whitewash anything the Soviet Communists did - they were as bad or worse than the Nazis, and this 'gluing together' of disparate people into one country was a common tactic of theirs, entirely on purpose in order to set up events happening now (making it impossible to move Ukraine out of the Russian sphere of influence).
Of course the Nazis lost WWII, and the Soviets crushed the local Ukrainian Nazis there. (Interesting aside: one of those Ukrainian Nazis was the grandfather of Christia Freeland, who fled to Canada.) Things were fine until the Soviet Union broke up in the late 1980s, and Ukraine was suddenly independent of Russia. It created a problem because all of these Russian areas of Ukraine actually would have preferred to stay with Russia.
Fast forward to the 2010s: the US Obama government got involved in the Ukraine, with the bright idea of turning the Ukraine into a NATO country and an American puppet state, where they could put US military bases, nuclear arms, etc. If you look a map, the East of Ukraine is very close to all the major Russian cities, like Moscow, so if the Americans had nukes there, they could wipe Russia out before Russia could respond. Putin drew a firm 'red line' that Russia would never, ever, tolerate this happening.
Despite this, in 2014 the maniacs in the Obama government helped arrange the overthrow (or coup) of the legally elected Ukraine government (that was pro-Russia) and installed a pro-U.S. puppet government there instead. In order to accomplish this, they enlisted the help of the remnants of the old Nazi supporters in the west of Ukraine, who had come out of hiding after Ukraine was independent. They had formed themselves into various neo-Nazi armed militia groups. After the coup, these militia groups decided to seize the moment and had the government declare that Ukraine was now "anti-Russian" and that Russian language would be banned (despite millions who spoke it) and the more extreme elements within the Nazi groups wanted to actually exterminate and/or ethnically cleanse all Russian-speaking people from the borders of the Ukraine (despite the fact that these Russian speaking people had ALWAYS lived there).
Two separatist regions of the East Ukraine, Donetsk and Lugansk, declared that they rejected this new government and their Nazi ideas. So the Ukraine foolishly charged in with their military and the neo-Nazi militias to crush the uprising with brutal force. The people of that region, with the aid and arming of Russia, quickly organized themselves into a military and fought a civil war against the Ukrainian military. Against all odds, they actually won this war, not retaining their entire lands, but most of them. They encircled entire Ukrainian armies into tactical "kettles" or "boilers" and eliminated them all, it was quite something. This was in 2014 and 2015. A ceasefire of sorts was declared in 2015, with an armed line of demarcation between the two sides, kind of a frozen conflict line. These breakaway regions operated independently after that. Russia wanted to negotiate a settlement with the Ukraine, using something called the "Minsk" agreements that outlined a path to peaceful resolution, that including things such as recognizing Russian language rights, and tried to do so for the next 8 years. During that entire time, the western back Ukrainian government refused to negotiate, and the Ukrainian military and neo-Nazi militias, supported by the West (including Canada) kept firing random artillery into the separatist regions, kind of keeping the conflict simmering.
Things were pretty quiet during Trump, even moving towards peace, but as soon as Biden got into office, he started encouraging the Ukrainians to amp up the conflict again. So more weapons and money was flowing in the Ukraine again to entice them to take back those separatist regions so the original plan (take over Ukraine and put US bases there) could be done.
In the last couple weeks, the Ukrainian military started moving troops into the region, started shelling more again, and looked to be preparing something. Thousands of civilians in the separatist regions were evacuated to Russia. Putin finally declared, two days ago, that Russia had had enough. He declared that the two separatist regions were now countries in the eyes of Russia, and under full Russian protection, not only in their current state, but back to their original pre-war borders.
This suddenly meant that the entire Ukrainian military was now standing on land Russia claimed control over. Russia said "leave now, or else." They did not leave, so last night, Russia made them leave / eliminated them. The stated goal of their operation is to ensure the security of the separatist regions, to entirely 'disarm' the Ukraine and "de-nazi" the Ukraine (Putin actually used that term). It's not certain yet how far they will take things and how much land they intend to control - if its just the separatist regions or all the Russian speaking regions. The military response from the west is still uncertain, but Putin has told them to stay out or he will openly attack them, up to and including nuclear war.
That's a great summary of Ukraine's recent history. Should make it a post so more people can see it.
Thank you for this!