Fra Hughes writes from West Belfast
IN my opinion, the coup in Kiev in 2014 and the murders of men women and children in the Odessa massacre on May 2, 2014 by fascists was the catalyst that drove the people of Crimea and the Donbass region to refuse to live under an American EU-NATO installed, rogue regime in Ukraine.
Crimeans voted to join the Russian Federation.
The people of Lugansk and Donetsk oblasts denounced the undemocratic coup in Kiev, the death threats against their democratically elected President and they took to the streets.
While the President fled, the people of Donbass were subjected to a repressive military occupation by their fellow countrymen.
Peaceful protests were brutally repressed by the Ukrainian army, many of whom were openly fascist and Russophobic.
A local militia was formed to defend the people which then went on to liberate areas of Donbass from the undemocratic, unwanted, brutal, unelected fascist leadership in Kiev.
Having visited both Lugansk and Donetsk, I am reliably informed the militia had the military advantage during the conflict and could have freed most of eastern Ukraine.
Much like today, large sections of the Ukraine forces were surrounded.
In 2014, they were allowed to evacuate unhindered.
It was a pyrrhic victory.
I say this because having spared the lives of the mainly conscripted Ukraine army, some of whom wanted no part in the Kiev coup’s vicious attack on their fellow citizens, the people of the liberated areas, the independent Republics of Lugansk and Donetsk have suffered eight years of continuous attacks along the line of contact, the de facto ceasefire positions of 2014.
Thousands were murdered and many more injured. The Ukraine army is once again committing heinous war crimes against Russian speaking, Russian Orthodox, Catholic Ukrainians and in some cases killing, torturing, maiming, raping and castrating those they deem to be sub-human.
From Russian speaking Ukrainians to gypsies, Roma and anyone dissenting from the Zelensky-NATO-American-British and EU narrative, many have suffered appallingly under these fascist monsters, who are roaming Ukraine with western media support seeking out the enemies of the state.
The ‘Untermensch’, was a German word used by the Nazis to describe inferior people such as Jews, Roma and Slavs to include Poles, Serbs, Ukrainians and Russians.
If the people’s militia had continued their advance in 2014, Ukraine might not be where it is today.
If Russia had recognised the Donbass Republics in 2014, the current war may never have become necessary.
Allowing the failed Minsk Agreements of 2014 and 2015 to form the basis of the ceasefires, with hindsight, only encouraged America, the EU and NATO to rearm the fascists in Kiev and encourage the reoccupation of the Donbass, thus forcing Russia to intercede to defend Russian-speaking ethnic Ukrainians and Russian passport-holding citizens against a possible massacre.
With Bucha, we have an example of why Russia should not abandon areas it liberates.
While the Ukrainian Mayor of Bucha claims his town was liberated, in reality it was only after the Russian withdrawal that the Ukraine army entered.
The Russians having freed Bucha, were welcomed by sections of the population. They were then abandoned to potential fascist reprisals.
Having spoken to people on the ground in Lugansk, I have been informed that up to 30 people were murdered.
The murdered in Bucha were undoubtedly killed by Ukraine forces with their corpses then used for propaganda.
There is video of dead bodies being dragged into position on the road for Ukraine army propaganda videos.
I will let others forensically dissect the video evidence offered by the fascists, supported by Western msm (mainstream media) and governments in their continuing false-flag propaganda and reinvention of the facts on the ground.
If Russia allows the bulk of the Ukrainian forces to again go free to include mercenaries and jihadists, we may simply have a new extended line of contact that I believe NATO and Biden will continue to exploit.
Putin and the Russian government may believe guarantees given by Zelensky and the Ukrainian Parliament that Ukraine will remain a neutral country and recognise the Lugansk and Donetsk independent Republics, with Crimea as part of the Russian Federation.
Any assurances given, much like the agreed Minsk Agreements which were guaranteed and underpinned by France and Germany and signed by the Kiev regime, may simply be ignored if it is politically convenient to do so.
A new de facto border will now exist.
Russia has effectively expanded into Ukraine.
A buffer zone is now in play.
America for its own domestic and foreign capitalist interests wants an extended, prolonged, exhausting and financially debilitating war for Russia in Ukraine which in conjunction with multiple sanctions is designed to undermine the Russian economy.
Russia has the largest land mass in Europe but an economy comparable to Spain or Italy.
America wants to destroy Russia and install a pro-Western Imperialist puppet regime much like it had under Yeltsin, so American companies can steal the wealth and natural resources which belong to the Russian people in a prelude to a similar attack on China for the same material gain.
Remember the massacre in Bucha.
Remember the massacre in Odessa.
Remember the sacrifice of 27 million Russians who died defeating fascism in WW2.
Remember the victims of fascism, the Jews, the socialists, the Roma and the disabled.
What Russia takes, Russia must hold.
To abandon people to fascist oppression and reprisals is unconscionable.
I am not a general. I do not know the forces at work on the ground in Ukraine.
I am not tactically aware of frontal military attacks, feints and distractive assaults.
I do know it’s wrong to liberate people and then abandon them to forces who have no regard for human life and glorify in the death of the other.
I am not a religious person.
If I was, I would pray for all those who are not Ukrainian nationalists now living in fear, under threat and in constant dread of coming to the attention of the Ukrainian fascist troops, their intelligence torturers, and superhuman overlords.
It is time we all stood against fascism.
Zelensky has been quoted as saying the new Ukraine will resemble Israel much more than it will resemble any European country.
Does he mean, armed soldiers will be on every street corner?
Does he mean an apartheid state?
Does he mean Russian-speaking ethnic indigenous Ukrainians will be subject to arrest, interrogation and treated as enemies of the state?
Will prisons be filled with those who oppose the new regime?
Then yes, I guess he is right.
Ukraine will mirror Israeli society much more than it will mirror European society.
Both Israel and the new Ukraine will resemble Nazi Germany of the 1930s much more than either will care to admit.