Author: Blazingcatfur

The moral defeatism of the West stands in stark contrast to the valiance of Ukraine.

Of the millions of words uttered about the war in Ukraine, the most pertinent came from Olexander Scherba. He’s a Ukrainian diplomat. He was the Ukrainian ambassador to Austria from 2014 to 2021. And like other members of Ukraine’s political class, he has been doing the media rounds this past fortnight, eloquently making the case for his nation’s right to resist the Russian onslaught. A few days ago he took to Twitter to express irritation. ‘Every time I give an interview to Western media I get a feeling that they want us to give up’, he said. Then he posed a question that ought to make our commentariat engage in some serious self-reflection. What’s behind this moral defeatism infecting the media elites, he wondered? ‘[Is] it because they know they wouldn’t be fighting like us if they were in our shoes?’

Putin doesn’t need a reason to kill

Why did Smerdyakov kill cats? Just because. The lackey is one of the most washed-out faces in Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. He is inconspicuous, elusive, slippery, always hiding, always doing things on the sly. And yet behind this mask of anonymity there lies something frightening: a compulsion to do evil for its own sake. When Smerdyakov is introduced, we learn of him that “as a child he was fond of hanging cats and then burying them with ceremony”.

Russian soldiers have shot people dead in the street as they took over Ukrainian villages, according to fleeing residents.

Soldiers shot randomly at buildings, threw grenades down roads and went from house to house confiscating phones and laptops, witnesses said.

Online groups created for family members or friends looking for information about people in affected areas are receiving hundreds or even thousands of requests a day.

#Ukraine: Russian Ka-52 helicopters hitting at least one 2S1 Gvozdika SPG of the Ukrainian Army. pic.twitter.com/ZphuIJyq1i

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 14, 2022

#Ukraine: Ukrainian farmers found themselves another two MT-LB, it seems. (We also see a burned out truck) pic.twitter.com/XOaxrdga2a

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 14, 2022

Since Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine two and a half weeks ago, more than 330 companies have announced that they are suspending or terminating their operations in Russia, according to a list compiled by Yale University professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. While Russia’s aggression was certain to provoke some reduction of trade, the unprecedented scale and speed of the boycott has surprised even the most seasoned analysts. Boycotters include many with significant financial stakes in Russia, and some were pioneers of Western investment in Soviet Russia and corporate emblems of the end of the Cold War.

Putin is building his Russian fantasy atop Ukrainian corpses.

“What’s really happening in Ukraine?” This question has hit my inbox ever since Russia moved troops to the Ukrainian border. Friends look to me because much of my career has centered on Ukraine: I was a U.S. Army Russian linguist, spent four years as an Evangelical missionary in Ukraine, studied Ukrainian history in graduate school, and served in U.S. Embassy Kyiv for two years. I was there for the Orange Revolution, the Revolution of Dignity, and Russia’s 2014 invasion.

So what’s really happening? Putin is a throwback to a bloodier era in Europe when autocrats settled historical grievances by force. Except for Milosevic trying to build Greater Serbia via ethnic cleansing, such wars have been extinct since 1945.

Nearly three weeks have passed since Russian President Vladimir Putin began his invasion of Ukraine, but it still is not clear why he did so and what he hopes to achieve. Western analysts, commentators and government officials have put forward more than a dozen theories to explain Putin’s actions, motives, and objectives.

Some analysts posit that Putin is motivated by a desire to rebuild the Russian Empire. Others say he is obsessed with bringing Ukraine back into Russia’s sphere of influence. Some believe that Putin wants to control Ukraine’s vast offshore energy resources. Still others speculate that Putin, an aging autocrat, is seeking to maintain his grip on power.