• a_fanonist_hexagon [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Yes, my favorite resource on the conflict so far (so much so that I typed the url from memory without looking it up) was published in April by a Swiss Colonel and former NATO advisor who actually worked with the Ukrainian army in 2014. He provides important background on the progress of the civil war in the Donbass, the composition of the Ukrainian armed forces, the OSCE observations I alluded to, and more.

      ***Unfortunately it also contains disinformation about the Holodomor, but that isn't germane to the current situation.

      He was interviewed by Aaron Mate on Pushback, which incenses me whenever I see Aaron ignoring this fact as well.

      https://www.thepostil.com/the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine

      Edit: I think it's important because the entire framing of this conflict in the western imaginarium has been that Putin is the aggressor. It hasn't been true at any step of the way. But to admit that the Ukrainians started the shooting in February would be to ask why all their forces were sitting on the contact line in the Donbass rather than in defensive positions along the Russian border. Why were they mounting an offensive? That would then ask us to explore the deeper roots of this conflict, like why the LDNR are trying to separate from the Kiev regime. Why are miners and factory workers organizing into militias and asking the big bad Russian army for assistance? Can it be that they didn't feel they were dignified by the "revolution of dignity" back in 2014? But if that revolution wasn't representative of all the Ukrainian people then who DID it represent?

      • Rod_Blagojevic [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I remember watching the intensifying attacks on the Donbas, in what seemed like an effort to provoke a Russian response. I thought that maybe there was an accusation of an attack on Russian territory.

    • Rod_Blagojevic [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Follow up observation: I don't think it actually matters who shot first. Let me know if I'm way off base here, but Putin is bad for using right wing culture war and violence to redirect class resentment away from the rich (like a western politician), not because he intervened in a humanitarian crisis happening on the Russian border and disrupted NATO's ability to limit the autonomy of the people Russia.