It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
originally posted by: TheMisguidedAngel
originally posted by: BedevereTheWise
Crimea has been part of Ukraine since the 1950s.
And Crimea was more then happy to join Russia
www.foreignaffairs.com...
www.washingtonpost.com...
originally posted by: RickyD
Should have picked a better proxy like poland...ukraine isn't going to do it and russia will regain its breadbasket
originally posted by: TheMisguidedAngel
Russia vs NATO is indeed taking place with the Ukrainian civilian (some of them) paying the price.
originally posted by: quintessentone
I'm not sure how Ukraine will pay it back when they will need to ask for financial assistance to rebuild.
originally posted by: TheMisguidedAngel
And Crimea was more then happy to join Russia
Ukraine has extremely large amounts of natural resources such as one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world They are also huge in Agriculture as being one of the breadbaskets of the world. They also are one of the largest mineral producers in the world with mining. It's a huge country with great potential. Why do you think Russia wants it back as it is also their direct gateway to the EU with either energy or war?
originally posted by: TheMisguidedAngel
The way the Ukrainian Nationalists and the Poroshenko Ukrainian government was treating the millions of ethnic Russian Ukrainians in the east, Putin showed a lot of restraint for not dropping bombs in 2014/15; when Poroshenko was bombing residential areas all Over the Donbass
About 14,000 people were killed in the war: 6,500 Russian and Russian proxy forces, 4,400 Ukrainian forces, and 3,400 civilians on both sides of the frontline.
originally posted by: Oldcarpy2
a reply to: quintessentone
"Hit Putin where it really hurts, his wallet."
Novichock? Polonium tea?
Would be nicely apt.
originally posted by: Oldcarpy2
a reply to: quintessentone
He could probably use his wallet to beat a whale to death ☠️
From 1964 to 1973, the Soviet Union was considered by some the biggest whaling nation in the world.
originally posted by: Oldcarpy2
It didn't work!
In his March 18, 2014, speech, Vladimir Putin claimed that the peninsula had “a sacred and civilizational” meaning for Russia, being the alleged location of the baptism of Vladimir the Great, the ancient Prince of Kyiv.
Crimea, according to Putin, had always been “an integral part of Russia,” and its transfer to Soviet Ukraine was a mistake. Russia, therefore, was simply “robbed” after the dissolution of the Soviet Union when the peninsula stayed a part of Ukraine. The people of Crimea suffered from this injustice, Putin declared, and were especially affected by the attempts of the Ukrainian government to “assimilate them” by stripping them of their “historical memory” and “native language".
For Putin personally, retaking Crimea became his then most important legacy, which he hoped to be remembered by in history textbooks. Indeed, even some of Putin’s staunchest critics, including Alexei Navalny, admitted in 2014 that while what Putin did was illegal, Crimea was to stay with Russia for the foreseeable future (Navalny has since changed his opinion).
After absorbing Crimea, the Kremlin began recolonizing the peninsula. While tens of thousands of Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians relocated from Crimea after the 2014 annexation, a large influx of Russian citizens replaced them and took up residence on the peninsula. The remaining Crimean Tatars are often persecuted. The policies that caused displacement of the Crimean population and incentivized Russian recolonization of Crimea removed the potentially hostile population from the crucial militarized region and further reinforced the myth of Crimean inherent Russianness.
The successful legitimization of Crimean annexation through appeal to a historical claim opened a can of worms. Putin’s instrumentalization of history and religion for his political needs became even more brazen: if Russia is entitled to Crimea because of the Kyivan prince’s baptism there, then Russia is entitled to decide the fate of Kyiv and the entirety of Ukraine. With this logic, which Putin has repeatedly voiced in a number of articles and speeches, Russians and Ukrainians are the same people, only Russia is better and stronger.
Uprising in Russia: Mobilized Soldiers' Wives Stand Firm Against Putin.
Russian women are increasingly demonstrating their rebellion against Russia's involvement in the war with Ukraine, and most importantly, against the mobilization of men. Wives of mobilized soldiers have formed a movement "The Way Back Home," aimed at persuading Putin to change his current war-related actions.