There has been many explanations to why #Russia decided to invade #Ukraine. Here is an ethnic Russian who was born and raised in a very pro-Russian environment in Sevastopol who gives his view on the question:
I think America generally fights wars on an ideological basis - out of a belief in the 'rightness' of a system. It can become too extreme and corrupted in this - as per Iraq and the Bush neocons.
The best lens through which to understand #Putin is that he is fundamentally a mafia boss. He is driven by the need for power, respect and loyalty - particularly from people he thinks have disrespected him - i.e. Ukrainians and the west.
Konstantin Zatulin, prominent #Russia politician and member of Duma
> Denazification, demilitarisation, protection of Donbas residents. On which of these points have we achieved results? None of them. Moreover, some of them have ceased to have any meaning. For example, the neutrality of Ukraine. What sense does it make to make this demand? None at the moment.
> The question is whether or not Ukraine will remain in existence as a result of everything that is happening? It will remain. Because there is not really enough strength to overcome it, with the support that is being given to them.
Zatulin is one of Russian politicians whose calls were intercepted in famous "Glazyev tapes". He coordination funding and actions of Russian agents who started riots in many Ukrainian towns in 2014, including Odessa.
Then he goes on into the details of the “political technologies”, as they call it, used to place Yanukovych as head of Ukraine:
Were there any other options, or what, after yes, at a certain stage betting on Yanukovych? Who? Leonid Danilovich Kuchma in 2004. And he did it deliberately, because Yanukovich was flawed from the beginning and Leonid Danilovich had to make the two, Yushchenko and Yanukovich, - I was there, I was present at the time, - they had to fight. They would have split 50/50, fought and fought, and then when they saw that no one could win, they would come to Leonid Danilovich and would say: “Leonid Danilovich, our land is big and plentiful, but there is no order in it, go and reign and rule over us”.
This was his idea, and Viktor Medvedchuk was implementing this idea as the head of Presidential Administration of Ukraine. And the power was reformatted in favour of more powers for parliament and so on, so that Kuchma could be prime minister under someone else. Leonid Danilovich used to fall asleep every night with the idea of leaving, as the constitution demanded after his second presidential term, and in the morning he would get up and think, “Maybe I will stay after all.” And that is what his policy was all about, leading up to Maidan.
Let that just sink in: #Zatulin explains, on a public forum in #Russia, with great details how a relative of #Putin (Medvedchuk) modeled the shape of neighbouring country using covert methods and political manipulation. But he goes on:
At that time, yes, there were specific people who, I believe, were responsible. Not for Yanukovych already, but for - when he did become president - how they formulated what was happening in Ukraine. And I don’t lay all the responsibility on the President personally. The President is a collective term in this sense, because a huge number of people work for him. Well, who wrote him speeches, who reported to him from Ukraine? Ambassador Zurabov told us that he had to recognize Poroshenko after Yanukovych, because Poroshenko is his own guy, he is the President of Ukraine for all appearance, but we can come to an agreement with him.
Tell me, haven’t we been supporting Poroshenko all these years, at least through Medvedchuk? Didn’t we share oil, gas with this Poroshenko-Medvedchuk company and so on, to sort of calm down passions.
I think that the mistake that our leadership made: they decided, and rightly so, that Ukraine is a corrupted state. That everyone can be bought there. It is true, but no one says who will buy and for what money. There are others who have money to buy. And there is more money in the West, as far as this competition is concerned. About the fact that it seemed that it was about to fall apart - so it is today as a statehood flourishing, because for the first time on the basis of Russophobia it was possible to consolidate Ukraine, the one that is at war with us.
@jeffjarvis I worry leaders in the #West have failed to convince many that the war in #Ukraine is existential, and that populists like the #AfD are fronts for #Putin
“What is nearly certain, however, is why all of this Russian kinetic jockeying is occurring. Except for #Putin, leaders in Moscow likely know the war in Ukraine is lost.The players in and around the #Kremlin are developing contingency plans to survive the power vacuum in a post-Putin #Russia. #Prigozhin is focused on weakening Shoigu and Gerasimov — and likely will avoid the FSB for as long as he can, in a game of “last man standing,” https://themessenger.com/opinion/the-curious-case-of-yevgeny-prigozhin
In a Russian state TV interview alongside accused Kremlin spy Maria Butina, former Biden assistant Tara Reade said she was feeling “at home” and “lucky” in Moscow.
I mean, what do I even have to say? Yes, of course Tara Reade was a Russian operative.
That’s why she tried to take down Biden and get Trump elected. Duh. And note the “journalists” who backed her play: every single one of them is either a witting asset or a useful idiot.
Conclusion: Believe women, but don’t believe Russian assets.
Russia has reached an impasse in Bakhmut, — The Wall Street Journal
Analyzing the available facts, the publication notes that the ten-month storming of Bakhmut led to the complete exhaustion of the invaders and deprived them of the opportunity to advance. The WSJ added that "Russia is at a dead end" and will soon lose the city it won by slaughter. #Ukraine️ #Russia#Putin#EU#NATO#Zelensky#war#news#Moscow#USA#UK#Germany