Zelensky is not a patriot or a hero – any more than Putin is a strong man or a liberator

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Here is a useful link for understanding current events in Ukraine:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change

It lists but a tiny fraction of US meddling in foreign governments, a litany of the complete contempt that the US has for national sovereignty, democracy and international law. Oddly missing from this list is Ukraine – but American ‘involvement’ in Ukraine is undeniably pivotal.     

In a famous conversation between the then assistant US secretary of state, Victoria Nuland and a US ambassador to Ukraine back in 2014 – the upcoming composition of the Ukrainian government was discussed, the pair mused who they wanted in what positions.

The context of this conversation is important. Street protests against the democratically elected and mildly pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych were taking place demanding faster EU integration. But the exchange reveals that the US government had already decided that Yanukovych’s government had to go. This is the true Western love of democracy – useful to rubber stamp pre-decided outcomes.

Yanukovych never saw out his term. A loose association of far right fascist paramilitaries hijacked the protests and attacked security forces in Kyiv. A stream of visits and heavyweight endorsements from US, German and Polish politicians and fixers was followed by an armed coup. The Ukrainian military looked the other way and the West got its way. The new government looked almost exactly as Nuland had wanted. 

None of this should be raise the slightest flicker of surprise to anyone who has followed the venal history of American foreign policy. That the US would support neo-Nazi militias against a pro Russian government is more than plausible, its almost inevitable. 

The ultra nationalist militias pivotal to the pro-western regime change in Ukraine went to war with the separatist Russian speaking areas of Ukraine.  Standing against corruption and for peace, comedian Volodymyr Zelensky was elected by a landslide in 2019 but his efforts to reign in the militias soon met with the geo-political reality.

The fascists of the Azov Battalion etc (supplied with western weapons and quite confident of ongoing support) told Zelensky that he ought to be more concerned with his own safety than that of ethnic Russians in the Donbass.

Zelensky was a quick learner. Rather than confront the paramilitaries Zelensky incorporated them within the Ukrainian military – this despite many allegations of war crimes committed by them against Russian speaking civilians in the Donbass.

Instead of draining the swamp of corruption Zelensky had joined it before he was even elected – named in the Pandora Papers for having his own web of shell companies to syphon wealth out of the country and hide it. One can only imagine how compromised and limited Zelensky’s power really is. 

In fear of his life from the very western backed fascist paramilitaries that had overthrown Yanukovych’s government and deeply implicated in exactly the kind of corruption endemic to puppet governments the world over – Zelensky has fallen over himself to give the finger to Russian sensibilities ever since. 

Zelensky was warmly congratulated by the Washington Post for failing to implement the framework of The Minsk Agreement aimed at ending the fighting in the Donbass. The only people who wanted the agreement to fail were the ultra-nationalist paramilitaries and their backers. The overwhelming majority of the Ukrainian people, the European Union and the people of the Donbass wanted peace.

But as Nuland had remarked in her conversation about the correct alignment of Ukranian politics back in 2014 – ‘Fuck the EU’ – that wasn’t a play that worked for the US.

Not long afterwards Zelinksy was muttering about the Budapest memorandum and hinting none too subtly that Ukraine wanted its own nuclear weapons. its almost like certain interests wanted a Russian invasion… 

Its easy to see why the US has no interest in peace in Ukraine. It has proved a win-win-win scenario for American interests.

Zelensky is the perfectly corrupt partner for American corporate interests to asset strip Ukraine. If the Russians did nothing then slowly but surely Ukraine would join the EU and then NATO.

US military bases would follow and Washington would have a launch pad for missiles right on Moscow’s lawn. If Russia intervened militarily then the US could sell weapons, create a quagmire for Putin and score a major propaganda victory. As a bonus Putin’s invasion has spooked Finland and Sweden to beg for NATO membership and has raised military spending amongst NATO members.

What is the true context of the war in Ukraine? Its simply this – two gangs of super-power mafioso fighting for control of territory and resources. The citizens of the Ukraine are in the way – just as countless other nations have been squashed between empires throughout history.

The USA is by far the more powerful of the two gangs currently involved and fights on the front foot – the Russian’s play the game defensively but with no shred of additional morality. 

All of the other rubbish you’ll hear from every orifice of the western or Russian media is just laughable. A simplistic Punch and Judy show – in which one side are patriot defenders of truth and justice and the other insane evil aliens.

Zelinksky is not a patriot – he is an actor and a stooge. Putin is not a patriot or a liberator – he is a mob boss worried about being chased out of his territory with dreams of empire of his own.

The banal chauvinism directed towards Russia is particularly dangerous – many it seems would rather have World War 3 than avoid Russian military humiliation in Ukraine.

This is where reductionist crayon drawings of complex geopolitical truths can lead. There are a lot of people on both ideological sides of the war in Donbass that need to read a little bit of history and grow the fuck up…

…before the bombs start dropping on our towns and we too can learn the true price of Churchillian posturing and naïve name calling.

Since 2013 I have worked on this Ad-Free site: trying to give a voice to those without the power or agency to speak out for themselves and speaking simple truths that well paid journalists in the corporate media dare not utter.

I am a home schooling parent on a low income – paying for the domain, web hosting and security entirely out of my own pocket.  

If you find this website useful and could spare us a few shillings to help keep our lights on, it would be very much appreciated.

Thank you in solidarity with all our readers. John Lynch, Editor.     

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