Ukraine: Why is the War Continuing? There is responsibility on both Sides

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"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, Aug., 2018)

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The Russian assault on a range of geographical sectors of Ukraine, apparently intended to topple the government of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has apparently failed in achieving that objective. Accompanying it has been the "achievement" of major physical destruction of and many deaths in a variety of Ukrainian cities, even as far west as L'viv. The physical destruction/killings have been especially intense in the Eastern sector of the country, now well-known to all observers as "The Donbas," and apparently, with a new Russian offensive under way in that sector, they are going to get worse. As is well-known, this sector, comprised primarily of the two provinces, Luhansk and Donets, is populated primarily by Russian-speakers.

Originally, going back to the U.S.-supported/engineered change of the Ukrainian government in 2014, the demands of that population focused on the maintenance of Russian as an official language for Ukraine (at least in that region) and the devolution of a significant level of authority to their local government organs. As is also well-known, up to the Russian invasion there had been an ebb-and-flow of civil war between Russian-speaking units (with some backing from the Putin government) and elements of the Kyiv-based Ukrainian government, apparently with the active participation of the openly Ukrainian-Nazi "Azov Battalion."

Leading up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there had been a variety of attempts at achieving some sort of compromise that would have prevented that from happening. I summarized its major elements in my first current column on Ukraine:

"Ukraine commits to not join NATO for a minimum of 10 years; that local govt. powers are guaranteed to Luhansk and Donets; that the status of Crimea remains the status quo; that Russia and Byelorussia commit to guarantee the territorial integrity of Ukraine for as long a Ukraine does not join NATO; that Russia guarantees Ukraine unhindered access to their ports on the Seas of Azov and transit through the Kerch strait; that some sort of overarching super-power guarantee is provided for the agreement."

As for the 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia, in that same column I noted that:

"As for Crimea and the Russian annexation, Russia's only warm water port is at Sevastopol, at Crimea's Southern tip. In 2014, Russia was holding the port only on a 30-year lease from Ukraine. With a frankly anti-Russian government installed in Kyiv, Putin obviously had to move quickly before that government, under US/NATO influence, could move to cancel the lease. And so, the very quick referendum to have Crimea secede from Ukraine and join Russia (probably pretty truly representing the wishes of the overwhelmingly Russian-speaking people of Crimea, particularly given the attitude of the government in Kyiv towards the Russian-speakers in the Donets Basin to the North)."

As I write this, Russia is launching a major offensive against Ukrainian control of the Donbas region. This time, instead of simply supporting Ukrainian Russian-speakers to establish some devolution of powers, they apparently aim to conquer the region, literally splitting it off from Ukraine and incorporating it at some level into Russia. A principal reason, other than the geo-political ones, would be to get control of the rich store of natural resources that lie in the region. As noted above, the Russian attempt to essentially conquer the whole of Ukraine or make that whole into some sort of puppet state, was, for whatever reasons, unachievable for the Russian military.

Now, operating in a much more confined geographic area, against a foe for whom resupply of arms and munitions (to say nothing and food, medical supplies, and etc.) will become increasingly difficult simply because of the geography, the Russians should be able to do much better. That is, the Russian army is attacking the Donbas from the West, thus controlling most, if not all, land access to the region, and Ukrainian re-supply from the sea is becoming increasingly dicey. (As for re-supply from the air, even if Ukraine had the aircraft which would enable them to do that, the Nazi experience at Stalingrad, once General von Paulus' 6^th Army was surrounded, is instructive.)

And so, one might ask, since there were negotiations going on before the Russian invasion, and for at least some few weeks after it began, why could not some settlement have been reached concerning language and local devolution of governmental powers, along the lines of the outline for such an agreement presented above (which, I must say, is hardly original)? From the Western side, much of the blame is placed on Putin. I agree with that, to a certain extent, but for reasons other than ones usually given by Western sources. From the Western-Left, it is all the fault of NATO expansion (which I don't think had anything to do with it), and from the Western-Liberal/Right Putin is just a really bad guy who wanted to try out his military (which he thought was much better than it has proved to be, so far at least).

Differing from both, as I spelled out in my second Ukraine column, I have come to the conclusion that Putin's primary original motivation for the invasion was to "Make the World Safe for Plutocracy." As it happens, given the destructiveness of the Russian assault on Ukraine proper, even though his forces could not hold geographical areas, I think that Putin has added another objective. That is, showing other nations that are, in his mind at least, weaker military than Russia that: "You mess [I am sure that readers can think of a stronger word] with me, and I am really going to mess [ditto] you over," e.g., the bombing of hospitals, cultural centers, and etc.

And so, the Ukrainians are just victims in all of this, no? Well, no. The following information gets very little if any recognition in the bulk of the Western media. It appeared on Yahoo News, hardly a propaganda channel either for Russia or the Ukrainian opposition to the ruling coalition under (or is it over[?]) Zelensky. That ruling coalition includes some self-proclaimed inheritors of the ideology of the well-known Ukrainian units which fought alongside of the Wehrmacht in World War II, under the leadership of one Stepan Bandera. At the present time they are known in the West as the "Azov Battalion(s)."

But further, at the same time that Pres. Zelensky is being considered in the West as a great hero for, among other things, defending Ukrainian democracy, consider the following (again from Yahoo News [3-20-22], again hardly either a Putin mouthpiece or one for the Western anti-Zelensky Left):

"On Saturday and Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invoked his emergency powers under martial law to suppress several opposition political parties and implement a 'unified information policy.' In an address to the nation delivered Sunday, he announced a temporary ban on 'any activity' by 11 political parties [emphasis added]. The ban includes the Opposition Platform - For Life party, which holds 43 seats in Ukraine's national parliament and is the largest opposition party. Opposition Platform - For Life is a pro-Russia party, but on March 8, party leader Yuriy Boyko demanded that Russia 'stop the aggression against Ukraine,' according to Ukrainian outlet LB. That same day, Viktor Medvedchuk, who was accused of treason against Ukraine in May and escaped from house arrest shortly after the invasion began, was removed from his post as the party's co-chair. . . . Zelensky's information policy involves 'combining all national TV channels, the program content of which consists mainly of information and/or information-analytical programs, [into] a single information platform of strategic communication' to be called 'United News.' Reuters notes that, until Saturday, privately owned Ukrainian media outlets 'continued to operate independently.' Zelensky said the measure was necessary to combat Russian misinformation and 'tell the truth about the war.' "

Indeed, Zelensky has apparently either locked up or, as it has been claimed in some quarters, is having "dissident elements face the constant threat of ultra-nationalist violence, imprisonment and even murder." A question that must be raised at this time then is, is this an un-democratic figure, and an un-democratic government, that the Western Powers want to continue to support, without making some serious demands for a return to democratic government?

A wider question is, why is the war continuing, especially when a reasonably-sounding-on-the-surface agreement could have been reached before it began? Well in my view, on the Russian side it is because: a) Putin's "make-the-world-safe-for-plutocracy" goal is being reached in cases such as Hungary and China (on different levels to be sure, so why stop); b) to demonstrate the utility of Putin's invention, "Industrial Feudalism," as a modern system of governance; and now, c) to get control of the rich lodes of natural resources in the Donbas region. As for Ukraine, what their true war aims are remains a mystery. Nevertheless, with the international pressure that was gathering before the invasion, with good will on both sides, with a bit more flexibility (and we do not know any of the details of the negotiations) the Ukrainians might have been able to achieve a settlement along the lines of the one outlined above. But that chance is gone, that is if it were ever there.

The Ukrainians apparently have, for the time-being at least, prevented Russian conquest of the whole nation. But it is highly unlikely that they will be able to prevent the complete loss of the Donbas region. As well, there has been much loss of life, an immense amount of physical destruction, and the creation a large Ukrainian e'migre' population which like the war/sanctions-caused Russian e'migre' one contains some of the best-and-the-brightest, may never return. Particularly given that the true war aims of the Zelensky Government are a true mystery, it is hard to see how this war is going to come to an end anytime soon. Fault on both sides? You can bet your sweet patootie on that one!