Putin Invades Ukraine -- Examining Why

The glory and freedom of Ukraine has not yet perished
Luck will still smile on us brother-Ukrainians.
Our enemies will die, as the dew does in the sunshine,
and we, too, brothers, we'll live happily in our land.

We’ll not spare either our souls or bodies to get freedom
and we’ll prove that we brothers are of Kozak kin.

– Formally known as the “State Anthem of Ukraine,” its native title “Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy” translates into English as “Ukraine Has Not Yet Perished”

We freedom-loving Americans abhor Russian President Vladimir Putin's bloody invasion of Ukraine. Even for a dictator like Putin, this terrible death and destruction is unthinkable. Russian forces invading Ukraine have killed more Ukrainian civilians than soldiers, Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on March 11. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has killed at least 549 civilians, 41 of whom were children, the United Nations said.

In addition, more than 1.45 million people have left Ukraine since Russia invaded the country nine days ago, the International Organization for Migration said on Saturday, sparking what the United Nations agency described as the fastest and largest displacement of people in Europe since World War II.

Putin kicked off the military action with a worldwide address on state television, threatening any foreign nation looking to involve itself in the conflict against his country with "consequences you have never seen."

What Is This Madman Thinking?

It is difficult to understand why Russia would invade a sovereign nation with seemingly little to no cause. For years, Putin has been saying Russians and Ukrainians are so closely historically and culturally aligned that they are essentially one people. However, he has also said that Ukraine as an independent country is an artificial construct and lamented the breakup of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.”

As Putin moved toward war, his distorted views on Ukraine’s history and statehood re-emerged, leaving even the most seasoned of Russian analysts alarmed. Explaining the reasons for this action in one simple essay is a difficult task, even for experts on Russian culture and history.

In eastern Ukraine, Moscow-backed separatists had been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014 in a conflict that cost an estimated 14,000 lives, intensified concerns that the Kremlin was trying to create a pretext for an attack.

Today's blog entry attempts to seek the truth about the invasion. To help us, Yuliya Talmazan, London-based journalist, supplies some necessary background …

“But the leaders of the two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, the self-proclaimed 'Donetsk People’s Republic' and 'Luhansk People’s Republic,' ordered their residents to evacuate to Russia, warning of an imminent attack by the Ukrainian army – which Kyiv adamantly denied. Russian state media began to deliver a flood of public reports about alleged 'atrocities' taking place in the region, which Putin has repeatedly called a “genocide.” International monitors categorically deny that’s the case. 

“Just days later, Putin conducted apparently staged consultations with senior Kremlin officials.

“One by one, they lined up to tell him that the only way to stop the alleged “carnage” in Donbas was to recognize the separatist regions as independent. Hours later Putin did just that, while also promising to send Russian troops into the breakaway republics under the guise of 'peacekeepers.'

“The move was met with international condemnation and sanctions, and the U.S. called it the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“After much speculation, Putin clarified that he had recognized the breakaway regions’ claim to the borders that existed when they proclaimed their independence in 2014 and that included vast swaths of territory held by Ukraine. Putin was also given carte blanche to move his troops outside Russia after the country’s parliament rubber-stamped his request.

“With Putin’s plan taking shape, Ukraine’s leaders moved to introduce a state of emergency and began conscripting reservists. After hours of frenzied rumors and reports of Russian troop movements, Putin delivered his address and launched his attack.”

(Yuliya Talmazan. “From buildup to battle: Why Putin stoked a Ukraine crisis — then launched an invasion.” NBC News. February 25, 2022.)

History Note:

Russia and Ukraine have been linked by a common history since the ninth century, when Kyiv became the capital of the ancient state of Rus. They also have closely related languages, with many people in the two countries sharing strong family ties.

In the early 20th century, the two nations and nearby Belarus formed the Slav core of the communist Soviet Union.

The two neighbors stayed aligned after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, but began drifting apart in the 2000s as Kyiv sought deeper integration with Europe.

The relationship had completely soured by 2014, when months of deadly protests and the toppling of Ukraine’s pro-Russian government culminated in Moscow annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and Russia throwing its weight behind the separatist insurgency in Ukraine’s east.

So, in the warped mind of Vladimir Putin, modern Ukraine was “entirely created by communist Russia” and had since fallen into the hands of nationalists and corrupt “puppets” controlled by the West. He said it was not “just a neighboring country,” but an “an integral part of our own history, culture and spiritual space.”

(Yuliya Talmazan. “From buildup to battle: Why Putin stoked a Ukraine crisis — then launched an invasion.” NBC News. February 25, 2022.)

It is evident that the increasing presence in Eastern Europe of NATO and the West’s close ties with Ukraine are at the crux of Russia’s demands. Putin believes he has “unfinished business” and wants to follow the annexation of Crimea with further action to bring Ukraine back under Moscow’s influence, as he looks to reconstitute a Moscow-led Eastern bloc reminiscent of Soviet times.

With Ukraine slowly drifting out of his control to align with the West, Putin wants to strike now.

And the true reason for Putin's invasion according to many experts? Secretary of State Antony Blinken says …

“This has never been about Ukraine and NATO per se. What President Putin has made clear is that this is about the total subjugation of Ukraine to Russia. It’s about reconstituting the Russian empire or, short of that, a sphere of influence, or, short of that, the total neutrality of countries surrounding Russia …

“His plan all along has been to invade Ukraine; to control Ukraine and its people; to destroy Ukraine’s democracy, which offers a stark contrast to the autocracy that he leads; to reclaim Ukraine as a part of Russia.”

(Antony J. Blinken. “Secretary Antony J. Blinken And Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba At a Joint Press Availability.” U.S. Department of State. February 22, 2022.)

Analyzing Further

Bruno Maçães, Portuguese Europe minister from 2013-2015 and author of Geopolitics for the End Time: From the Pandemic to the Climate Crisis puts Putin's actions in simple terms:

“A much simpler reason that Putin never behaved with this ambition and boldness in the past is that he was never able to before.

“A decade ago the Russian army was ill equipped to perform the way it is performing in the Ukraine campaign. By 2018 Putin was lauding the armed forces and telling the Federal Assembly that Russia possessed a 'modern high-technology army.” He was also creating the political conditions that now allow him to take decisions without any concern for public opinion or the opinion of his officials. Repression of dissent was perfected and the media fell under state control.

“The same argument applies to the vulnerabilities of the Russian economy: a decade ago the fragility of the Russian economy worked as a limit on his ambition. Today, by contrast, central bank reserves are worth approximately $640bn, enough to protect Russia from any immediate shocks resulting from the economic sanctions that Western governments have just enforced. Putin’s talent is to know how far he can go, but the limits of his action have been expanding so dramatically that he is now in a position to surprise us.”

(Bruno Maçães. “Why Putin invaded Ukraine.” The New Statesman. February 25, 2022.)

In a nutshell, Putin dreams of a world where nothing of great importance can be decided without asking Moscow for its opinion. Power, money, influence – under a dictatorship reminiscent of the days of the USSR.

A Last Word

John Bolton, who served as President Donald Trump's national security advisor, said recently that Russian President Vladimir Putin didn't invade Ukraine while Trump was in office because "Putin saw Trump doing a lot of his work for him."

Bolton pointed to Trump's outspoken criticism of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the military and diplomatic alliance established in the wake of World War II.

"I think one of the reasons that Putin did not move during Trump's term in office was he saw the president's hostility of NATO. It was widely reported in American media," Bolton said during an interview with SiriusXM's Julie Mason. "And to Putin's mind, it's a binary proposition: a weaker NATO is a stronger Russia."

Bolton went on, "Putin saw Trump doing a lot of his work for him, and thought, maybe in a second term, Trump would make good on his desire to get out of NATO, and then it would just ease Putin's path just that much more."

(Oma Seddiq.”Ex-Trump national security advisor John Bolton says 'Putin saw Trump doing a lot of his work for him,' so he chose not to invade Ukraine.” Yahoo News. March 9, 2022.)

Trump undermined NATO during his time in office. In 2018, he privately discussed withdrawing the United States from the alliance, raising concerns among national security officials. Bolton, in remarks during a virtual event with The Washington Post said that he believes Trump would have withdrawn from NATO if he had won a second term.

During the invastion of Ukraine, Trump more than once has praised "smart" Vladimir Putin. Trump has long expressed admiration for Putin, and recently described his war strategy in Ukraine as "wonderful" and "genius." Democrats and military veterans have criticized the former president for his complimentary words about the Russian leader amidst a brutal attack on an independent nation.

Donald Trump’s affection for Vladimir Putin never seemed to bother Republicans in Congress. And, now, on Thursday, March 10, Trump was given several chances during a Fox News interview to reject autocrats and walk back his praise for President Vladimir Putin of Russia but didn’t.

Fox’s Sean Hannity set Trump up multiple times during a 30-minute exchange to criticize Putin, but the former president didn’t go along. He instead touted his relationships with Putin, the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Xi Jinping of China.

Here is part of the exchange between Hannity and Trump:

Hannity: “I think you also recognize he’s evil, do you not?”

Trump again didn’t go that far, but Hannity gave it another try.

Hannity: “Let me go back to the issue of the criticism, because I’ve known you well over 25 years. And when you got criticized for saying that Vladimir Putin is smart, we’ve had many conversations, and you’ve often quoted to me Sun Tzu, ‘The Art of War’: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Is that how you viewed Vladimir? Did you view Vladimir Putin and people like President Xi and Kim Jong Un and the Iranian mullahs as enemies that you needed to keep close?”

Trump, in response, didn’t call his former counterparts enemies.

Trump: “I got along with these people. I got along with them well. That doesn’t mean they are good people. It doesn’t mean anything other than the fact that I understood them and perhaps they understood me — maybe they understood me even better. That’s OK, because they knew there would be a big penalty.”

Hannity: “And you understood that they were capable of evil things.

Trump: “Putin is for Russia, and you see what happened. And that is all because they didn’t respect our leader. Look, there was nobody, and Putin will tell you this – if he was telling the truth, and I am sure he has told it to all of his inner sanctum – nobody was tougher on Russia than me.”

(Ryan Bort. “Trump Refuses to Condemn Putin Despite Sean Hannity Practically Begging Him To.” Rolling Stone. March 11, 2022.)

It is unbelievable that a former U.S. president would react this way to the obvious death and destruction unleashed by Putin. But, Trump has a long history of praising men who rule their countries with an iron fist.

For example, Hungary's Viktor Orbán, who, according to the New Yorker, has been cracking down on LGBTQ rights and the free press in his country, drew praise from Trump, who called him a "strong leader" and said he's doing a "powerful and wonderful job in protecting Hungary."

Of China's Xi Jinping, whose human rights record is dismal according to Human Rights Watch, Trump said he is "a strong gentleman ... a strong guy, tough guy." Per CNN, Trump has also praised dictators such as Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

(Aaron Homer. “Why Donald Trump Admires Putin So Much.” Grunge. March 02, 2022.)

Being perceived as strong is all that matters to Donald Trump. It's the old philosophy of “might makes right.” It is echoed in his “America First” slogans. To this classic narcissist, power … and money are paramount.

Money? Trump is also allegedly obsessed with Putin's wealth. Although the Russian president's net worth is hard to nail down, Trump himself was apparently convinced that it eclipsed his (Trump's), and was probably that of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos. "[Putin is] the richest man in the world by a multiple," Trump reportedly said of Putin.

Donald Trump's fondness for dictators informed how Trump wanted to run the United States, according to a book by his former lawyer and "fixer," Michael Cohen, via Business Insider. "Locking up your political enemies, criminalizing dissent, terrifying or bankrupting the free press through libel lawsuits – Trump's all-encompassing vision wasn't evident to me before he began to run for president," Cohen said in his book.

There is much to fear in the world today. A renewed Cold War, a new threat of World War, and the undying specter of a man who led an insurrection on Congress – wise heads look to this news and prepare to support efforts to stop oppression, hatred, and foster lasting peace. We, like Ukraine, must prepare to stand up against bullies and 21^st century tyrants – both those abroad and at home. God help us to stop those who preach dissonance, civil war, and armed conflict before the basest instincts that drive this death and destruction take over.