Reuters: Ukraine marks Independence Day vowing to reclaim annexed territory
KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine held its first military parade in several years, celebrating the 30th anniversary of its independence and declaring it would reclaim areas of its territory annexed by Russia.
Units of the Ukrainian army, tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and air defence systems marched along the central street of Kyiv, while a parade of Ukrainian Navy units took place in the Black Sea port of Odessa.
"We are fighting for our people, because it is possible to temporarily occupy territories, but it is impossible to occupy people's love for Ukraine," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said at a ceremony before the parade.
"People in Donbass and Crimea will return to us, because we are a family," he said.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: 80% (if not more) of Crimea is occupied by Russians, and they have been there for almost a thousand years. To think they are now going to willingly join Ukraine that has banned Russian from government services, schools, and public businesses .... good luck to that.
More News On Ukraine’s President Pledging To ‘Return’ Russia-Annexed Crimea
Ukraine’s leader vows to do all he can to bring back Crimea -- AP
Ukraine’s president pledges to ‘return’ Russia-annexed Crimea -- Al Jazeera
Zelenskiy Looks To International Forum To Return Russia-Annexed Crimea -- RFE
Ukraine opens international summit calling for 'return' of Crimea from Russia -- France 24
1 comment:
You are correct that the majority of the population in Crimea is ethnic Russian and they do not want to belong to Ukraine. That has been the status quo almost since Ukrainian independence (though Crimea had always been willing to accept/tolerate rule from Kiev before Putin's invasion). However, I don't think you are correct that they have been there for almost a thousand years.
That time frame indicates you think "Russians" have been there since the time of Kievan Rus. But if so that would make them closer to modern Ukrainians then modern Russians. It also ignores the 500 years that Crimea was controlled by Mongols and Tatars during which time any Rus population disappeared. They as well as the other peoples who were in Crimea by that time or earlier - Goths, Greeks, Italians, Cumans, etc. were assimilated with the new invaders as the Crimean Tatars. And today's Crimean Tatars are loyal to Kiev. The Russians in Crimea date to the Russian conquest of Crimea in 1783. That doesn't invalidate their concerns, but it also doesn't excuse misstating how long they have been there.
While you constantly assign blame to the post-Maidan Kievan government for all problems, you ignore that Putin invaded Ukraine for the purpose of territorial expansion and still backs separatists in order to destabilize Ukraine in order to open it up for further conquest and plunder. Ukraine obviously has to take steps to address that aggression. Putin's continued interference there thwarts any attempts at conciliation in Ukraine because Putin only wants to see steps that destroys Kiev's ability to control its own territory. Your sympathies for the Russian minority in Ukraine erodes the normal level of analysis you apply elsewhere.
If there is going to be any resolution to the situation in Ukraine, it will likely only come about when Ukraine acknowledges that the population would prefer to remain in Russia AND Russia acknowledges their invasion of Crimea was illegal, agrees to an international accepted plebiscite to replace the tainted one Putin held (but which will likely achieve the same result but this time in a fair manner), and offers proper compensation to Ukraine for the transfer of Crimea to them as well as reparations for their other invasions of Ukrainian territory.
But that will likely never happen or only happen a long time after Putin is gone.
I normally enjoy your analysis and think your blog is excellent. And I think it is good to hear the POV from an ethnic Russian perspective inside Ukraine, but it's very important to point out to others that yours is not that of a neutral observer, but a biased one. For those interested in the other POV, I would recommend the Power Vertical podcast by Brian Whitmore. At some point, I would love to see a discussion between the two of you on Ukraine.
Chris
Post a Comment