Russia has made its war objectives in Ukraine clear:
1. Ukraine to acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory.
2. Ukraine to end the sniping and shelling of the breakaway Donbas republics of Donetsk and Luhansk that is reported to have claimed 14,000 lives over the last seven years.
3. Ukraine to commit to remaining outside the anti-Russian NATO military alliance.
That Ukraine will not accept these terms, reveals what Zelensky wants. Specifically, Zelensky wants:
A. To continue painting the 2014 Russian occupation of Crimea as illegitimate, notwithstanding that:
i. Ukraine, including Crimea, has been Russian territory for much of the last one thousand years.
ii. The Russian state was founded in Kyiv where, following the baptism, in Crimea, of Vladimir I prince of Kiev, in 988, Orthodox Christianity became the Russian state church headed by the metropolitan of Kiev.
ii. Russia has ruled Crimea continuously from the time of Catherine the Great until the 1950's, when a Ukrainian General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, Nikita Khruschev, gifted Russian Crimea to the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine. At the time of the transfer, it made no great difference to anyone since both Russia and Ukraine were subordinate to the Soviet Communist Party. On the breakup of the Soviet Union, however, Kruschev's action resulted in the Russian-populated, former-Russian territory coming under the rule of an, at times, genocidally anti-Russian Ukrainian government.
iii. In the 1850's, Russia defended the Crimean peninsula against an assault by British, French and Turkish forces in a war estimated to have cost 650,000 lives. Leo Tolstoy served in the defense of Sevastapol, winning a medal for bravery and, for his dispatches from the front, his first recognition as a writer.
iv. In early 2014, following a referendum in which over 90% of the mainly Russian-speaking population of Crimea voted for union with Russia, the Crimean Parliament requested to join the Russian Federation, which request was accepted, resulting in an essentially peaceful transfer of sovereignty. Among Ukrainian troops stationed in Crimea, many switched loyalties, becoming members of the Russian armed forces.
v. The validity of the Crimean referendum was confirmed by the US-based Pew Trust, which conducted its own opinion survey in Crimea.
B. To destroy the breakaway Donbas republics and eliminate official use of the Russian language, including in education, throughout Ukraine, notwithstanding that the majority of citizens in Eastern Ukraine are Russian speakers.
C. To join the anti-Russian NATO alliance and thus obtain the military backing of the Western nations, while wiping out Russian culture and Russian language-use across Ukraine.
As Canada's Prime Minister, dictator-wannabe Justin Trudeau, shuttles around Europe lobbying for NATO membership of Ukraine, Canadians might reflect on the consequences of Zelenskyism were it to be applied in Canada. Specifically, they should think of the consequences of a Ukrainian-style, one-language, one-culture policy as it would affect Canadian unity: except there would be no Canadian unity. Quebec would be gone, and if restrained, Quebec would fight.
Related:
Ukraine news – live: Kyiv rejects proposed neutrality30% Of "Ukrainian Refugees" Are Actually From Other Countries That's OK. Canada will have them. We need them. As the fertility of the Canadian nation collapses, thanks to Trudeau I's policies on divorce and abortion, we will replace the historic Canadian nation with people from elsewhere.
