Is it possible that we’re the instigators in this conflict between Russia and Ukraine? It’s curious things flared up again shortly after President Biden took office. The same people are now in charge of our foreign policy that were in charge during the Obama Administration. You know… the last time things went bonkers over there. But, if we are the bad actors, what is the reason behind it? Do we enjoy jerking people around and don’t care about the civilian casualties? What do the people in the Biden Administration get out of this? Is it weapons sales? Is this the evilness of the military industrial complex? They need constant war in order to keep the money flowing?
We’re not told anything of substance about the Russia/Ukraine conflict. All we get are Zelensky in his olive green t-shirt asking for more money and weapons while spouting the need for the West to get directly involved in the war. We get pictures of Putin sitting 3 miles away from his generals while supposedly having meetings about the current status of the war. There is no nuance. No real in depth reporting on how we got here. But, every once in a while an article will pop up that may explain why we are where we are. It sounds far more plausible than anything we’re being fed by American news networks.
Jacques Baud, who is billed as a former colonel of the General Staff, ex-member of the Swiss strategic intelligence, specialist on Eastern countries, and was trained in the American and British intelligence services, wrote an article on the French web site cf2r.org which is the French Intelligence Research Center. I don’t know this site or Mr. Baud from a hole in the ground so take all of this with Gibraltar sized salt. The article is entitled, “La Situation Militaire en Ukraine”, or “The Military Situation in Ukraine”.
He starts out explaining the conflict in Ukraine between the eastern section and the western section had nothing to do with wanting to separate from Ukraine. It had everything to do with being autonomous within Ukraine as a nation. They sought to keep Russian as their native language among other issues.
In fact, these republics did not seek to separate from Ukraine, but to have a status of autonomy guaranteeing them the use of the Russian language as an official language. Because the first legislative act of the new government resulting from the overthrow of President Yanukovych, was the abolition, on February 23, 2014, of the Kivalov-Kolesnichenko law of 2012 which made Russian an official language. It is as if putschists decided that French and Italian would no longer be official languages in Switzerland.
This decision caused a storm in the Russian-speaking population. The result was a fierce repression against the Russian-speaking regions (Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Luhansk and Donetsk) that began in February 2014 and led to a militarization of the situation and some massacres (in Odessa and Mariupol, for the most important). At the end of the summer of 2014, only the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk remain.
French Intelligence Research CenterThe military situation in Ukraine » French Intelligence Research Center (cf2r.org)
After 4 years of war withing Ukraine with the areas seeking to be autonomous the Ukrainian military was in a shambles. They resorted to seeking out paramilitary militias that are composed of foreign mercenaries. He says in 2020 these militias constituted 40% of the Ukrainian forces and they were largely funded and armed by the U.S., UK, Canada, and France.
The Ukrainian army was then in a deplorable state. In October 2018, after four years of war, The Chief Ukrainian Military Prosecutor Anatoly Matios declared that Ukraine had lost 2,700 men in Donbass: 891 to diseases, 318 to road accidents, 177 to other accidents, 175 to poisonings (alcohol, drugs), 172 to reckless handling of weapons, 101 to security violations, 228 murders and 615 suicides.
In fact, the army is undermined by the corruption of its cadres and no longer enjoys the support of the population. According to a report by the UK Home Office, during the recall of reservists in March-April 2014, 70% did not show up for the first session, 80% for the second, 90% for the third and 95% for the fourth. In October/November 2017, 70% of the conscripts did not show up for the “Fall 2017” recall campaign . This is not to mention suicides and desertions (often for the benefit of autonomists) which reach up to 30% of the workforce in the ATO area. Young Ukrainians refuse to go and fight in Donbass and prefer emigration, which also explains, at least partially, the country’s demographic deficit.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence then turned to NATO to help it make its armed forces more “attractive”. Having already worked on similar projects within the framework of the United Nations, I was asked by NATO to participate in a programme to restore the image of the Ukrainian armed forces. But it is a long-term process and the Ukrainians want to move quickly.
Thus, to compensate for the lack of soldiers, the Ukrainian government then resorted to paramilitary militias. They are mainly composed of foreign mercenaries, often far-right activists. In 2020, they constitute about 40% of the Ukrainian forces and have about 102,000 men according to Reuters. They are armed, financed and trained by the United States, Great Britain, Canada and France. There are more than 19 nationalities – including Swiss.
French Intelligence Research CenterThe military situation in Ukraine » French Intelligence Research Center (cf2r.org)
If any of this is true American tax dollars has been funding far right antisemitic militias who were wantonly killing Ukrainian civilians prior to this conflict. That should make all Americans sick to their stomachs.
These militias are the groups Putin refers to as Nazis within Ukraine. When he speaks of de-Nazification of Ukraine these are the people he’s talking about.
The qualification of “Nazi” or “neo-Nazi” given to Ukrainian paramilitaries is considered Russian propaganda. Perhaps; but this is not the opinion of The Times of Israel, the Simon Wiesenthal Center or the Counterterrorism Center of the West Point Academy. But this remains debatable, because, in 2014, Newsweek magazine seemed to associate them with… the Islamic State. Your choice!
Therefore, the West supports and continues to arm militias that have been guilty of many crimes against civilian populations since 2014: rape, torture and massacres. But while the Swiss government has been very quick to take sanctions against Russia, it has not adopted any against Ukraine, which has been massacring its own population since 2014. In fact, human rights defenders in Ukraine have long condemned the actions of these groups, but have not been followed by our governments. Because, in reality, we are not trying to help Ukraine, but to fight Russia.
French Intelligence Research CenterThe military situation in Ukraine » French Intelligence Research Center (cf2r.org)
A year ago Zelensky issued a decree for Ukraine to retake Crimea. Did we ever hear about this? Ukraine repeatedly violated the Minsk Agreements and refused to implement them. There has been a lot of talk about these agreements but never in the vein of Ukraine being the bad actor. Ukraine continued to pound the areas seeking autonomy with the full support and knowledge of the U.S., the UK, and the EU. In response the Russian Parliament requested that Putin recognize their independence and take action. I never heard about this either.
In fact, as early as February 16, Joe Biden knows that the Ukrainians began to pound the civilian populations of Donbass, putting Vladimir Putin in front of a difficult choice: to help the Donbass militarily and create an international problem or to stand by and watch the Russian speakers of Donbass be crushed.
If he decides to intervene, Vladimir Putin can invoke the international obligation of “Responsibility To Protect” (R2P). But he knows that whatever its nature or scale, the intervention will trigger a rain of sanctions. Therefore, whether its intervention is limited to Donbass or goes further to put pressure on Westerners for the status of Ukraine, the price to pay will be the same. This is what he explains in his speech on February 21.
On that day, he acceded to the Duma’s request and recognized the independence of the two Donbass Republics and, in the process, signed treaties of friendship and assistance with them.
Ukrainian artillery bombardments of the people of Donbass continued, and on 23 February the two republics requested Russian military aid. On the 24th, Vladimir Putin invoked Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, which provides for military assistance within the framework of a defensive alliance.
In order to make the Russian intervention totally illegal in the eyes of the public, we deliberately conceal the fact that the war actually began on February 16. The Ukrainian army was preparing to attack Donbass as early as 2021, as some Russian and European intelligence services knew well… Lawyers will judge.
In his February 24 speech, Vladimir Putin set out the two objectives of his operation: to “demilitarize” and “de-Nazify” Ukraine. It is therefore not a question of seizing Ukraine, or even, presumably, of occupying it and certainly not of destroying it.
French Intelligence Research CenterThe military situation in Ukraine » French Intelligence Research Center (cf2r.org)
From there he goes on to explain the war and Putin’s objectives. He talks about strategy and what might constitute victory for Russia. None of what he describes fits what we’re being told by American media. I believe much of what he says to be true because we have been lied to repeatedly for so long about so many things. There are also things that don’t fit what we’re being told and Mr. Baud fills in some of those blanks.
I don’t like the idea that we’re the bad actor in all of this. I don’t know what we would get out of this other than keeping our military machine selling weapons.
Read the entire piece. It’s enlightening.