Russians: 'You Will See Our Faces ... Not Our Backs'

"You have been told that this flame will bring liberation to Ukraine's people. But the Ukrainian people are free."

"Donetsk, which I have visited dozens of times? Where I looked in people's faces, in their eyes? Artyoma Street, where I strolled with friends? The Donbas Arena, where I rooted for our boys together with Ukrainian lads at the European Championships? Shcehrbakov Park, where I drank with friends when our boys lost?"

"Luhansk, where the mother of my best friend is buried? Where his father also rests?"

"Many of you have visited Ukraine. Many of you have relatives here. Some might have studied at Ukrainian universities and befriended Ukrainians. You know our character; you know our people, and you know our principles. You know what we value."

"So stop and listen to yourselves, to the voice of reason, to the voice of common sense."

"The Ukrainian people want peace, as does their government. We know for sure that we don't need the war. Not a Cold War, not a hot war. Not a hybrid one. But if these forces attack us, if they try to take our country away from us, our freedom, our lives, the lives of our children, we will defend ourselves.Not attack, but defend ourselves."

"And when you attack, you will see our faces. Not our backs, our faces."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, an appeal to Russia

The mass exodus of refugees from Ukraine to the eastern edge of the European Union showed no signs of stopping Monday as civilians flee Russia’s burgeoning war, with the United Nations estimating that more than half a million people have already escaped. Here, people wait in freezing conditions to board a bus bound for a refugee centre in Przemyśl, Poland, on Monday. (Bryan Woolston/Reuters)

 

Ukrainians are fleeing their country. In staggering numbers, on their way to becoming a full-scale refugee crisis in Europe not seen since the Second World War. A crisis that has been the result of Vladimir Putin's decision to mount a full-scale invasion on his neighbour, knowing full well that imposing the threat and the reality of countless deaths and destruction will inevitably cause hundreds of thousands of people to seek refuge elsewhere than where he has directed his military to strike.

And since he has directed his military to strike wholesale throughout the length and breadth of Ukraine, the response has been disastrous; refugee numbers are exploding from day to day. Several days earlier an estimated 368,000 Ukrainians fled to the borders of their European neighbours; Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia and Romania, with thousands more desperately attempting to forge their way through clogged borders.

People, frightened and vulnerable, waiting for hours in the cold, in cars, or on foot; with them the bare few belongings they could manage to assemble in their panic to escape. A 14-kilometre-long backlog was assembled at the crossing into Poland two days ago. Some people had been waiting for 40 hours in -18C night-time temperatures.

 

Ukrainian refugees are seen at the temporary refugee centre in a local primary school at Tiszabecs, eastern Hungary on Monday. (Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images)

 

In 2015 over a million refugees flooded Europe's borders, coming from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, triggering a continent-wide crisis with some countries willing to accept some refugees and others adamant that they would not. And those that would not take in Muslim refugees fleeing the countries of their birth, beset by horrendous violence from Islamist forces and their very own leaders, are now opening their borders wide to Ukrainian refugees.

Countries such as Slovakia, Hungary and Poland, where their borders had been hardened on that earlier 2015 occasion, assailed by waves of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa are preparing to welcome Ukrainian refugees into their fold. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser stated Germany was ready to offer Poland and other Eastern European countries support in the handling of the sudden Ukrainian refugee surge.

Up to five million of Ukraine's total 44 million population could become refugees, warns the United Nations, should Russia's attacks on Ukraine continue. For the most part it is women, children and the elderly who mass at the borders, since Ukrainian men have been barred from leaving, in light of President Zelensky having called on Ukrainian males to take up arms in defence of their country.

To complicate matter still further, a data-wiping software has hit a Ukrainian border control station processing people trying to enter Romania, according to a cybersecurity expert. "It's massively hitting the border control. They are processing people with pen and pencil." 

Poland is setting up reception centres along the contiguous 480-kilometre border with Ukraine, offering food, medical care and needed social welfare resources. Thousands of soldiers from the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division have been deployed to assist. In 15 hours on Saturday alone, 45,200 Ukrainian refugees crossed into Poland.

Refugees fill a warehouse in Poland after escaping Ukraine.

Putin, the Ultimate Malignant Narcissist

"As you can see, not only do Western countries take unfriendly measures against our country in the economic dimension - I mean the illegal sanctions that everyone knows about very well - but also the top officials of leading NATO countries allow themselves to make aggressive statements with regards to our country." 

Russian President Vladimir Putin

 

"If Putin's order to ready nuclear forces is a direct threat to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine, then I have a very simple message."

"It will be a disaster for the world, but it will not break us."

Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba  

"We've seen him do this time and time again. At no point has Russia been under threat from NATO, has Russia been under threat from Ukraine."

"This is all a pattern from President Putin and we're going to stand up to it. We have the ability to defend ourselves, but we also need to call out what we're seeing here from President Putin."

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki

A man walks in front of a destroyed building after a Russian missile attack in the town of Vasylkiv, near Kyiv, on February 27, 2022 (photo credit: DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images)

"There is no reason in the long term to think he'll stop there [in Ukraine]."

"The themes hearkening back to a glorious imperial past, and the tragedy of its loss, have become more prominent in [Putin's] speeches over the past decade."

"He's bloodless and that is something that people need to realize about him. He's calculating, ruthless and brutal."

"It is worrying how far he's willing to escalate things."

Roland Paris, director, graduate school of public and international affairs, University of Ottawa

"[Fortunately, most of those leaders eventually fail] crippled by unchecked grandiosity and paranoia that drives them to commit acts of political suicide and/or destruction evoking [sic] pushback and rebellion."

Elizabeth Mika, psychotherapist

According to Elizabeth Mika many authoritarian leaders share a character defect identified as a severely-impaired conscience, aligned with an insatiable thirst for power and adulation; to which the name 'malignant narcissism' has been given denoting a pathological condition. Unsurprisingly, the very characteristics of psychopaths, which designation fits Russian President Vladimir Putin quite comfortably.

 

His mind lingers on the absurd falsehood of referencing "the gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis that settled in Kyiv and took hostage the entire Ukrainian people" as justification for advancing a military invasion of Ukraine, ostensibly for the purpose of 'rescuing' the country from the malevolently sinister talons of a man of principle and courage, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinski, imbued with human decency that somehow eluded Mr. Putin when the quality of humanity was being distributed.

 

NATO is ensuring that its 40,000-strong force is activated; a measure of defensive positioning undertaken for the first time in its history, responding to the invasion of Ukraine, when Russia unleashed a violent assault against its neighbour necessitating NATO to react with its own multinational force of land, air, sea and special forces to ensure protection against a similar scenario potentially enacted against its Baltic NATO members.

The alliance is in the act of deploying thousands of additional troops. It has 100 jet planes on alert, and 120 vessels on standby. No room is to be left for miscalculation or misunderstanding by Russian President Vladimir Putin. "We will protect and defend every inch of NATO territory", said Jens Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary general.

An overwhelmingly realistic sense of inevitability pervades, relating to the final outcome of Ukraine's battle to save itself and its people from Russian violent aggression. Social media viewed footage of a Russian armoured vehicle on a Kyiv highway crushing a passenger car; a realistic a metaphor for what may result despite the courageous stand of the Ukrainian government and its military and its citizens who have taken up arms against Russian troops outnumbering and out-militarizing its smaller neighbour.

While the civilized world is prepared to exact a heavy toll against Russia that will deliver economic pain and isolate it as a pariah state, there seems little that can be done by the West to avert the tragic consequences of this unprovoked, vicious attack on Ukraine. Ukraine is battling superior forces with its own superior resolve to prevail over evil. Non-involved countries soothe their guilt by showering it too late with gifts of military hardware.

A Ukrainian service member at a check point in Zhytomyr, Ukraine. The value of the Russian rouble has started to collapse after tough sanctions were unveiled over the weekend.  Photograph: Viacheslav Ratynskyi/Reuters

 

 

Defending Kyiv, Ukraine

In this screenshot from a video posted Saturday morning, February 26, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukrainians will fight for their land, as Russian troops were said to be closing in on the capital, Kyiv. (Screenshot/Twitter)

"[The] enemy has marked me down as the number one target. My family is the number two target." 

"They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state."

"There is a lot of fake information on the networks that I am calling on our army to surrender and that there is an evacuation, but I am here. We will not lay down our weapons. We will fight for our land."

"Our weapon is our truth, and our truth is that it’s our land, our country, our children. And we will defend all of that. Do not believe the fakes."

"We’re all here. Our military is here. Citizens in society are here. We’re all here defending our independence, our country, and it will stay this way."

"I want everyone in Russia to hear me. Everybody. Hundreds of captured soldiers who are here in Ukraine don't know why they were sent here to kill people or be killed. People need to tell the government why the war has to be stopped, more people from your country will stay alive."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

"I once again appeal to the military personnel of the armed forces of Ukraine: do not allow neo-Nazis and [Ukrainian radical nationalists] to use your children, wives and elders as human shields."

"Take power into your own hands, it will be easier for us to reach agreement."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Benevolent Vladimir Putin, concerned over the well-being of ordinary Ukrainians, cautioning them to be aware of the presence of 'racists' and 'terrorists' and 'fascists' and 'neo-nazis', among themselves in Ukraine, mingling with ordinary citizens, infiltrating the government, prepared to take over the country. In invading Ukraine with ground forces, helicopters and planes, tanks and munitions, Russia is demonstrating its concern for its neighbour.

And ridding Ukraine of these unsavoury, dangerous elements would be so much easier if only Ukrainians were sensible and agreed to turn against their democratically-elected government, posing as authorities whose administration of the country's affairs reflect the best interests of the country and its citizens. It is why Belarus has helped Russia invade and bomb the cities of Ukraine, and why Chechnya has marched its forces into Ukraine; concern for the well-being of the country that has gone astray.

After all, the Kremlin has made it public that it is prepared to meet with Ukrainian officials in Minsk, Belarus, for negotiations. It is Ukraine's administration that has decided to make matters more difficult by insisting any such meeting take place in Warsaw, Poland. It would, needless to say, be simpler for the Russian special operations unit to arrest or assassinate Ukraine's leader in Minsk, whereas safety would be assured in Warsaw. But come -- that's the cynic's view.

Firefighters extinguish fire in a high-rise apartment block which was hit by recent shelling in Kyiv on Saturday

 

Moscow claims to have taken the airfield northwest of Kyiv, recognized as a potential staging post for a full-on Kyiv assault. Fierce fighting has taken place there since Russian paratroopers landed in the first hours of the war. Kyiv's mayor, former world heavyweight boxing champion, Vitali Klitschko said "the enemy wants to put the capital on its knees and destroy us", in response to news that Russian saboteurs had infiltrated the city.

Ukraine's defence ministry has urged Kyiv residents to make petrol bombs with the intention of repelling the intruders. Witnesses reported Friday evening that artillery rounds and intense gunfire could be heard from the capital's western region. President Zelensky had a video produced of himself with aides on the streets of Kyiv as he vowed to defend Ukraine's independence.

Kyiv was pounded overnight by Russian missiles, sending residents into shelters, while others attempted to board packed trains heading west, and others of the hundreds of thousands who left their homes to find safety, crowded highways to a standstill. The U.S. government offered to assist Ukraine's president in leaving to avoid capture or assassination; he responded that he needed more weaponry, not an exit plan. According to Ukrainian authorities, over a thousand Russian soldiers have lost their lives so far, reflecting the strength of the Ukraine military's resistance to the invaders.  

 

A draft United Nations Security Council resolution was vetoed by Russia, meant to condemn Moscow's invasion. What could possibly be more ludicrous than Russia, as a member of the permanent UN Security Council condemning itself? China, the United Arab Emirates (surprisingly) and India abstained from the vote while the balance of the council members voted in favour of the resolution now expected to go before the 193-member UN General Assembly.

Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers inspect damage on a road caused by Russian shells on Saturday

The Drums of War

"Peace on our continent has been shattered. Russia is using force to try to rewrite history, and deny Ukraine its free and independent path."

"This is a deliberate, cold-blooded and long-planned invasion. Russia's unjustified, unprovoked attack on Ukraine is putting countless innocent lives at risk with air and missile attacks."

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg

Missiles pounded Kyiv on Friday, Feb. 25, 2022, as Russian forces advance to the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital — a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine that has shocked the world. Here, Natali Sevriukova is seen next to her home in Kyiv after a rocket attack. (Emilio Morenatti/The Associated Press)

 

NATO plans to create combat units in Romania and Bulgaria, possibly Hungary and Slovakia as well, to reflect those already set up several years earlier in Poland and the Baltic states, as a deterrent to potential Russian aggression in Vladimir Putin's pathological delusion that he will go down in history with a legacy project fulfilled; the reincarnation of the Soviet Union by re-creating the forcible union that most of its neighbours dread.

No NATO troops were to be sent to Ukraine to aid its resistance to the Russian invasion. Ukraine is on its own. Its delicate state of ongoing oppression by Russia was what led NATO to keep Ukraine at arm's length, even though other former USSR satrapies have been accepted into the Alliance. Foreseeing just such an event occurring at some future date -- albeit not quite in the violent form currently seen -- led NATO to err on the side of caution.

"As recently as 2016, an operation on this scale would have required every battalion tactical group in Russia's ground forces; with more contract personnel, and thus more BTGs, Moscow can now undertake such a move while still retaining substantial forces elsewhere in Russia."

IISS Military Balance 2022 global military capacity survey

Ukraine, the second-largest country in Europe, is hugely outmatched against the largest geographic country in the world, Russia, despite materiel support that NATO countries have provided to the Ukraine military to help beef up its military arsenal. In 2020, military spending in Ukraine came in at about $6 billion, roughly a tenth of the figure for Russian military expenditures for the same year; $62 billion.

Russia has had quite a bit of practise in nipping away bits and pieces of the geography of former Soviet member-countries. As it did in Georgia, and that former Soviet satellite was left to defend itself and still lost two of its territories to Russia. Russian warplanes have had ample practise, not just the war games of recent vintage with Belarus, but real-time conflict flying aerial missions over Syria where it bombed civilian enclaves, along with hospitals.

Its practise run in 2014 with ethnic Russian rebels culminating for the time being with the seizing of the Crimean peninsula and portions of eastern Ukraine in the Donbas gave it ample practise for a long-range plan for total control and absorption of Ukraine in its bid for imperial influence over the former Soviet Union states. Ukraine has been viewed by President Putin as the jewel in its imperial crown, first to be wholly re-absorbed, leaving other former states in fear.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when Russia was left a crumbling vestige of its former self, the ascension of Vladimir Putin to the presidency several decades ago saw Russia's vast reserves of gas and oil in huge demand throughout Europe. That source of income built Russia a formidable treasury, quite a bit of it used for rebuilding its military.

Enabling him at this juncture to deploy over 100,000 troops to the border with Ukraine and 30,000 in Belarus, a show of purpose for that military investment in the past 35 years. Reclaiming Abkhazia and South Ossetia were mere trifles to practise on; the absorption of Ukraine is more to the point for Mr. Putin's reemerging Greater Russia ambitions.

12 Russian battalion tactical groups were put into action around northeast Ukraine in 2015 during the war that wasn't quite a war, but as U.S. President named it, a 'minor incident'. Not, however, so minor to Ukraine which lost Crimea in that bitter encounter. Now, well over 100 battalion tactical groups have been deployed to make for this full-scale invasion from Russia and Belarus.

Ukraine has 290,000 military personnel, to Russia's 900,000, and Russia can call up another two million reservists, as compared to Ukraine's 900,000. The Russian army has over 12,000 tanks, with Ukraine in possession of less than 3,000. A similar imbalance exists in the numbers of armoured vehicles and artillery. Ukraine with its 34 attack helicopters and 98 jets is up against Russia's 500 attack helicopters and 1,500 fighter jets.

Ukrainian President Vlodomir Zelensky insists he's not leaving Kyiv as Russian forces close in on the Ukrainian capital.

Vladimir Putin's Little Psychopathic War

People try to leave the capital Kyiv.   Getty Images

"He is as ready as he can be. They have advanced their readiness to a point where they are literally ready to go -- now -- if they get the order." 

"We do have indications that they plan to use reserves and their equivalent of the National Guard and that is concerning because that would connote to us -- long-term goals."

Senior U.S. Defense Official

 

"Predicting what might be the next step of Russia, the separatists or the personal decisions of the Russian president -- I cannot say."

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky

Ukrainian servicemen get ready to repel an attack in the Lugansk region   AFP

 

Speculation has been on high alert of a planned, imminent invasion by Russia of its neighbour Ukraine. The stress has been palpable for weeks, building on the alert expressed months earlier at the buildup of Russian troops and equipment near the border with Ukraine, inside Russia. There could only be one reasonable explanation for the unreasonable imagery interpreted by military and intelligence experts in the West as clear and ominous signs of an impending strike against Ukraine.

By a neighbour that had been responsible for an earlier military strike by proxy in 2014, one that has been on standby ever since, an uneasy 'truce' that the ethnic Russian-Ukrainian rebels had been persuaded to accept with Ukraine through international intervention, approved by Moscow who claimed then as it claimed now that it was in no way involved, despite training, arming and militarily supporting the separatist element to Ukraine's territorial detriment.

Even as France and Germany made diplomatic overtures in visits to Moscow, conferring with Vladimir Putin, and Britain and the United States stuck to their warnings of imminent conflict, the Russian President scoffed at the hysteria of the West, determined to smear Russia's reputation with unfounded accusations. Scheduled war games with Belarus, simply put. While inveighing against the perfidy of Ukraine in aspiring to join NATO, leaving behind its glorious past with the Soviet Union.

Spurning Russia's love for Ukraine! Despite which the West, NATO and the United States in particular were on a witch-hunt; the Kremlin had no reason to assault Ukraine, would never think of it even though Ukraine was rife with fascists and war-mongers. If Russia were to intervene in the Donbas it would be to send peacekeepers, not a military invasion. 

 

Civilians shelter in a metro station in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in a photo taken by Victoria Vota. "We are trying to stay strong," she said.

 

Two dozen warships deployed in the Black Sea with landing ships and Marines aboard, artillery and missile forces, over 150,000 Russian forces assembled. Over 120 battalion tactical groups. The alarmist United States intelligence stated the Russian military assembled close to one hundred percent of forces required to mobilize for a large scale attack. Plus the mobilization of reserve forces.

More alarmism when the Ukrainian parliament approved a declaration of a state of emergency to last 30 days. Even as the Russian parliament approved formal Russian recognition of the two rebel-held territories in the Donbas, the 'Republic of Luhansk' and the 'Republic of Dunetsk'; independent of Ukraine because Russia deems it so. Echoes of the stealth military capture and annexation of Crimea. Slow and steady; inexorable territorial pillage.

 

Crowds attempt to evacuate the capital by bus   Getty Images

 

An intelligence and military expert warned that just prior to an invasion there would be a wholesale cyberattack on Ukrainian government and state websites; Ukraine's parliament, cabinet and foreign ministry websites. Then, on Wednesday, Russia removed its flags from its Kyiv embassy, ordering Russian diplomats to evacuate for 'safety reasons'. 

And in the small hours of Thursday morning the denouement of Russia's innocent claims of business-as-usual. Kyiv residents rudely awoken to the sounds of the bombardment of war. 

Ukrainian State Emergency Service / Reuters

Handout picture from the Ukrainian State Emergency Service, rescuers work at the crash site of a Ukrainian Armed Forces' Antonov aircraft, shot down in the Kyiv region.

Ukraine's Lonely Plight

"[The only way that Ukraine can end the crisis would be to surrender ambitions to join NATO, declaring neutrality], demilitarize, [and give up any territorial claim to Crimea]."

"We expect, and I want to underline this, that all the difficult questions will be solved during negotiations [between Kyiv and the separatist leadership]."

Russian President Vladimir Putin 

 

"We are committed to the peaceful and diplomatic path. We will follow it and only it."

"But we are on our own and, we are not afraid of anything and anybody."

"We owe nothing to no one, and we will give nothing to no one."

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Western nations for sanctions against Russia and warned that the future of European security is being decided 'now, here, in Ukraine.

"If Russia goes further with its invasion we stand prepared to go further with sanctions. Russia will pay an even steeper price if it continues its aggression."

Who in the Lord's name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belongs to his neighbours? This is a flagrant violation of international law. [He is] carving out a chunk of Ukraine."

"I have authorized additional movements of U.S. forces and equipment, already stationed in Europe, to strengthen our Baltic allies, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania."

"There is still time to avert the worst case scenario that will bring untold suffering to millions of people."

U.S. President Joe Biden

Ukrainian service members take part in tactical drills at a training ground in an unknown location in Ukraine, in this handout picture released Feb. 22, 2022. (Press service of the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff/Handout via Reuters)

 

How much 'further with its invasion' must Moscow go to enable Washington to identify geographical theft that goes somewhat beyond the 'minor incident' that Mr. Biden mused about several weeks ago, leaving the impression that NATO and the U.S. could somehow overlook something as 'minor' as, say a repeat of the 2014 invasion and annexation of Crimea? The U.S. is a large country geographically, though not as large as Russia.

What would be the NATO and U.S. response if Russia looked with avarice at a territory it once owned and sold to the United States for a pittance? What would happen in response, as an example of a 'minor incident', if Russia decided to invade Alaska reclaiming it as a territorial imperative, that it should never have been released from Russian ownership. It is, after all, much closer geographically to Russia than it is to the United States....

Alaskans would be threatened by the 'occupation' and the governance of a country for whom violence is of little account in claiming what it insists is its by historical account, a heritage property beyond dispute... The social, civil upheaval with the resulting dispersal of civilian populations would be enormous and tragic; reflecting what Ukrainian citizens living in the occupied and now virtually annexed Donbas region of Donetsk and Luhansk face.

 

Ukrainians attend a rally Wednesday to protest after Moscow's decision to formally recognize two Russian-backed regions of Eastern Ukraine as independent. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Anger and determination to oppose Russia, on the part of those territories' civilian populations will have them bearing arms and fighting for their right to remain under Ukraine governance for they are Ukrainian and it is their country and their children's futures they fight for. Using the pretext of 'backing' the territorial claims of ethnic Russian separatists is a transparent ploy to invite Ukraine to order its military to greater action in defending Ukraine territory.

Giving Vladimir Putin the final reason he agitates toward to ignite a wider conflict. Mr. Biden's words of assurance to Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, along with Poland and others, will ring empty when viewed through the lens of European and NATO inaction in supporting Ukraine. It is the entire Donbas region that will find its way into the Russian Federation, and a little more gradually, more of Ukraine, as it defends itself against a vastly superior military machine.

Of course, Mr. Putin himself expanded the message of 'diplomatic action' when he stated it to be "impossible to predict" just how far he planned to probe  his military into Ukraine; his troops would enter and it would "depend on the specific situation on the ground". As though to say that if Ukraine is unreasonable and decides to defend itself irrespective of the losses -- of human life and territory -- then poor, abused Russia will have little choice but to bulldoze through all of Ukraine....

Police officers and members of the Ukrainian National Guard are seen outside the Russian Embassy in Kyiv on Wednesday. (Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

The Infinite Subconscious

The Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow this week.   Credit...Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

"[It is certain that Vladimir Putin intends to return Ukraine to Russia as a major part of the former Soviet Union.] But he also doesn't want to by accident inherit another Afghan war."

"He needs social calm at  home, so in a way it's quite possible this is a diversion. [Putin learned in 2008 a] nice little war [works wonderfully well for public opinion, shading corruption and inflation'. The problem with Ukraine is that Ukraine is not little."

"His [Putin's] problem at the moment, I think, is he effectively manufactured this crisis. Nothing has changed on the NATO side."

"One thing we don't know enough about is what makes him tick. What's the investment for? It's for mobile combined operations, therefore it is to control Russia's periphery. This is an agenda that goes well beyond Putin."

"[Staging troops on the Ukraine border was a big bet], and now he realizes that there's no jackpot. So what do you do? Do you just walk away? Or do you invade because the clock is ticking, and if you invade, what next?"

"Putin doesn't like to get humbled, and Kyiv is a recipe for that."

Neil MacFarlane, Canadian expert on Russian security and foreign policy -- Lester B.Pearson Professor of International Relations, Oxford University

 

"[What is happening in Ukraine today, is a] forced change of identity."

"And the most despicable thing is that the Russians in Ukraine are being forced not only to deny their roots, generations of their ancestors but also to believe that Russia is their enemy."

Russian President Vladimir Putin 

Celebrating the independence of Ukraine in Kyiv in 1991.   Credit...Anatoly Sapronenkov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

First came Moscow claiming that it was pulling some troops from the border after the completion of war exercises. Vladimir Putin had met in Moscow with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, informing him he has no wish to go to war, he was willing to continue negotiations. A statement that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson questioned given the "mixed signals" of the appearance of field hospitals that "can be construed as a preparation for an invasion". 

Vladimir Putin is incensed with bristling rage over the ever-closer-creeping presence of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance in Russia's near-abroad, the zeal with which former satellites of the Soviet Union have joined NATO, making him feel security-vulnerable, a feeling he detests, believing the solution is to arm-wrestle NATO into an agreement to cease and desist, reverse and retreat. The passion of his loathing for the West's incursion, and his determination to restore a semblance of the USSR motivates and drives his decisions.

Despite that Ukraine was not yet close to being accepted into NATO the promise that Putin tried to extract will never see the light of day; no outsider threatening world stability could ever convince the Alliance to withdraw its presence when its very mission is to address itself to forestalling the kind of chaos and disruption the West foresees in an expansion of the Russian Federation, all the more so its forceful and violent bullying of neighbours who shudder at the memory of the USSR that trapped them.

When the USSR collapsed it was penurious and militarily feeble. Vladimir Putin visualizes its restoration and sees himself as the vehicle to drive it back on track to its former glory and status as a world power. Much has changed in a generation, the once penniless state Russia found itself in has been transformed into an energy giant with enough disposable income to modernize its military on a scale to challenge the most modern army in the world; the U.S., with China bringing up the rear.

Putin's mind is fixated on pride and identity, history and even a special kind of spirituality. His essay On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, claiming Russia and Ukraine to be "parts of what is essentially the same historical and spiritual space", with their "spiritual unity" under attack reflected his mystical views of history. According to Mr. Putin, Belarusians, Ukrainians and Russians are one people, descendants of Kyivan Rus, a 10th century Slavic federation.

An Orthodox church service in 2018 in Chernytsia, Ukraine.  Credit...Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

Collateral Damage

"I would say this is probably so far the most direct and most immediate type threat to people's safety."

"When workers are sitting in vehicles and they are being attacked by these assailants swinging large axes, smashing the windows, hitting the vehicle when [workers'] bodies and heads are just feet away, having torches thrown at their vehicles and [in] the boxes  of their vehicles that could compromise their lives -- this has gone way too far."

RCMP Chief Superintendent Warren Brown

Damage caused to the Coastal GasLink construction site near Houston, B.C., on Feb. 17.-/AFP/Getty Images

"[We respect people's right to conduct peaceful protests], but intimidation of workers, impacts to the environment, and destruction of property and equipment goes far beyond protest and disagreement and is something we as British Columbians and Canadians can never condone."

LNG Canada

"Will the Trudeau government now seize the bank accounts of the foreign funded eco-terrorists responsible for this violence [referencing the Emergencies At permitting authorities to target donations made to illegal convoy activities]."

British Columbia Premier Jason Kenney

"If the Trudeau government is set on using the Emergencies Act to end blockades, then they should also use it to follow the money, seize the associated vehicles and provide all the resources necessary to ensure those illegally acting here [on the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern British Columbia] are arrested for damaging and blocking this critical export infrastructure."

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe

The damage to the construction site was allegedly caused by 20 masked and camouflaged attackers.-/AFP/Getty Images

During his career overseeing the north district of the province of British Columbia RCMP Chief Superintendent Brown has long been accustomed to encountering the work of protesters, particularly those invested in protecting the environment as they see it, from exploitation by energy producers, but this latest episode of damaged industrial equipment, booby traps, incendiary devices and blockaded roadways represent an upscaled violence he had never before seen.

The violence took place on Thursday evening at a remote drilling site close to the Morice River. Security footage is being reviewed by investigators who are interviewing some nine Coastal GasLink employees present on the site when twenty or so masked marauders entered after midnight, brandishing axes, attacking security guards and threatening workers wih flare guns in a coordinated attack.

 

A surveillance camera captures an attacker lighting off a flare during the attack on the Coastal GasLink camp near Houston, B.C, on Feb. 17. This image, taken as the attack started, was provided by the company. The attackers disabled the cameras a short time later. Photo by Coastal GasLink /PNG

 

Heavy equipment and trailers suffered millions of dollars in damage. The attackers commandeered equipment at the site and used it to damage other machinery and to demolish site buildings. Equipment's hydraulic and fuel lines were cut by the attackers, as well, causing significant leaks. The Coastal GasLink pipeline, coming in at $6.7 billion, is owned by TC Energy Corp based in Calgary for the purpose of connecting British Columbia's shale gas resources to LNG Canada's export project in Kitimat, B.C.

The project, close to 60 percent complete for the 670-kilometre pipeline, has been stricken with demonstrations and blockades from environmentalists along with some First Nations groups, since the beginning of construction in 2019. The project has government approval, along with the support of all twenty elected First Nation councils spanning the pipeline's route through northern B.C. First Nations will see employment as a result, and will share in the pipeline's profits to an agreed-upon percentage.

It is some hereditary chiefs, not the democratically elected councils of the Wet'suwet'en people who are opposed to the project, a distinct minority. No arrests have yet been made relating to Thursday's attack; the challenge has not yet been met in identifying the assailants, disguised and masked when they arrived on foot at the site. 

The public and community must understand that the police response to the incident will not equate to a crackdown of law enforcement on lawful protest, said Chief Superintendent Brown. This was a violent, criminal act that will be treated with all the severity that the law commands. Canada's Western provincial premiers have called on the federal government for a more aggressive stance in responding to the attack, amidst heightened tensions across Canada in view of the blockade of truckers around Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

There are distinct differences in how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addresses these two very different situations. The Truckers' Convoy is viewed by the prime minister as a direct assault on his orders, which it is, as well as a defiance of a mandate that was totally unnecessary and which led to people losing their livelihoods, as well as threatening the deliveries of critical food and medical supplies across the country. Added to which the Convoy protesters made it abundantly clear that they abhor this prime minister and he, ostensibly governing all the people of Canada, returned their contempt in spades.

He has called for the first time in history on the Emergencies Act to solve a problem that policing agencies and local municipalities should have well in hand, but which will commandeer banks to freeze the bank accounts of all those identified as taking part in the protests, deemed unlawful under the special provisions he has brought to bear. A protest that has certainly got out of hand, and has done so because of the prime minister's inept and contemptible treatment of people's legitimate concerns.

 

Police rushing to assist Coastal GasLink workers who had been attacked by a group of about 20 people said their way was blocked by booby traps, including several fires. PNG

 

The violent incident in northern British Columbia, on the other hand, has elicited no comment from him, and nor has it featured large in most mainstream media, by contrast to the coverage given to the Truckers' Convoy and the clean-up aftermath of police making hundreds of arrests and towing away big rigs. Matters of environmentalists indulging in wildly vicious criminal behaviour is of relatively little interest to this government.

"Their arrival seemed to be very well coordinated. The violence, the rhetoric, the threats -- their purpose seemed to be very coordinated."

"This was definitely coordinated and it was targeted and it was done at that time for a specific reason."

"This is not about enforcing a court injunction. This is not about measuring the volatility of protesters."

"This is about a specific criminal act that happened on February 17."

"This is about 20 or so people who have taken it far too far and we're going to find out who they are."

RCMP Chief Superintendent Warren Brown

Millions of dollars in damaged equipment and property was left behind by vandals who attacked a Coastal GasLink site near Houston on Thursday. PNG

The People Speak : Government is Deaf

Streets in downtown Ottawa are quieter after a massive police operation cleared protesters and convoy trucks demonstrating for weeks in the city's core. Ottawa Police Service says it would maintain a police presence and continue to identify and charge protesters. CBC

The Truckers Freedom Convoy that has paralyzed the capital city of Canada for three weeks has been dispersed.  Canadian truckers were outraged when the Trudeau Liberal government mandated that all truckers, beyond the 90 percent of Canadian truckers already vaccinated, must be inoculated against COVID-19, or their licenses would be suspended. There was already an acute shortage of truckers employed in the industry before the mandate. With delivery delays and supply lines impacted by the pandemic, the mandate would mean increasing the shortage of drivers, impacting on the reliability of deliveries even more seriously.

Truckers were outraged and vowed they would drive to Ottawa from all points of the Canadian geographic compass. As they drove to their destination, other Canadians came out to cheer the convoys on, sharing with them an anger over years of lockdowns and government control at all levels, particularly laws that seemed to make little sense. Above all, mandates that deprived people of t heir livelihoods. People were tired of being harassed, of a lack of normalcy in their lives. Many people understood what the truckers were protesting.

Police enforce an injunction against protesters, some who have been camped in their trucks near Parliament Hill for weeks, on Saturday. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

As always with any protests, they were joined by groups having nothing to do with delivering the truckers' message; nationalists, far-right groups, racist groups and provocateurs. Other, shiftless louts came along to party as the Parliamentary Precinct became locked in with semi-trailers and other large trucking rigs, alongside smaller vehicles, blocking major streets and extending blockages to nearby residential areas. No one in authority at the municipal, provincial or federal level met with the organizers to discuss their grievances.

So they stayed on, capturing the centre of the city, blaring horns, keeping their rigs running continually, fouling the atmosphere with diesel fumes and loud noise. There were alcohol-infused night street parties and during the day harassment of locals. Public statements from the prime minister characterized the truckers as a 'fringe group' of 'racists, homophobes and fascists'. He had no intention of speaking with them, of making any effort at defusing the situation. Finally, he chose to bring in the Emergency Act, designed to deal with extraordinarily dangerous situations threatening government and society.

Police continued their efforts on Saturday to clear parts of downtown Ottawa of protesters. The Ottawa Police Service tweeted Saturday that officers at the scene would be wearing helmets and carrying batons for their safety. (Blair Gable/Reuters)

He did this at a time when protest blockages at major international crossings impeding vehicular passage serving trade between Canada and the U.S. were being broken up by law enforcement and normalcy was returning, even as Canada's trucking protest had served as an example, igniting similar protests elsewhere around the world. In New Zealand, Reuters reported Police Commissioner Andrew Coster saying that negotiations and de-escalation were the only safe ways to resolve the protest there.

Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau, is on record as having criticized other world leaders dealing with protesting citizenry, urging them to 'listen to the people'. A message that fit snugly with his public persona of a crusader for justice and equality, a feminist and champion of the underdog. Indian Prime Minister Modi was chastized by Trudeau for not 'listening' to the protests launched by the farming community over new legislation being brought in that was meant to modernize the industry in India, but which farmers felt would disadvantage them. That protest was a year long in New Delhi and led to the legislation ultimately being withdrawn, the protesters returning to their farms.

In May 2021 there was conflict in Israel with Gaza, where rockets were being launched by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad at civilian enclaves in Israel. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saw fit to issue a statement urging Israel to practise "restraint", "to act in accordance with international law". This, at a time when 3,500 rockets were being shot off into Israel and the Israel Defense Forces were engaged in self-defence. Trudeau added a week later that "peace-building initiatives" to "support dialogue and co-operation between Israelis and Palestinians" had his ongoing support. Whose support would those expedients not have? Terrorists.

A truck is towed from in front of Parliament Hill as police work to restore normality to the capital after trucks and demonstrators occupied the downtown core for more than three weeks to protest against pandemic restrictions. Photo by Patrick Doyle / Reuters

Canadian truckers are not terrorists. Trudeau steadfastly expressed his contempt for the protesters. And instead of acknowledging the complaints of people protesting in Ottawa and elsewhere across Canada, he continued to use pejorative language in referring to them. Portraying the protesters as despicable misfits and dangerous fascists and racists, the prime minister of Canada accelerated the momentum of the protest, convincing other Canadians to join in a raucous disavowal of their trust in government.

What was a deplorable situation in Belarus when citizens mounted large protests against their dictator's faux re-election and the violence unleashed by government security forces against the populace, was a sight commonly seen in dictatorships when people rebel and they're pushed back harshly with maximum penalties involved for those who challenge such governments, but unusual-to-rare in democratic societies. Canada's example has inspired similar protests elsewhere in democratic societies. We can only hope that other countries handle their peoples' dissatisfaction in a manner befitting democracies.

 Canada's government did not.

Demonstrators continue their protest as police deploy to remove them on Feb. 19, 2022. Photo by ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP via Getty Images

 

Russia, Pulling Out All The Stops

Soldiers inspect the remains of a car that the Russian-backed separatists claim was blown up outside their headquarters in Donetsk. Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

 

"[NATO and European leaders shared a call with me to discuss] Russia’s buildup of military troops on the border of Ukraine and our continued efforts to pursue deterrence and diplomacy."

"The bottom line is this: The United States and our allies and partners will support the Ukrainian people."

"We will hold Russia accountable for its actions. The West is united and resolved. We’re ready to impose severe sanctions on Russia if it further invades Ukraine."

U.S. President Joe Biden

 

"While of limited impact, this recent spate of cyber attacks in Ukraine are consistent with what a Russian effort could look like, and laying the groundwork for more disruptive cyberattacks accompanying a potential further invasion of Ukraine sovereign territory."

Deputy U.S. National Security adviser for cyber and emerging technology Anne Neuberger 

"[Moscow-backed separatists were] placing its artillery systems near residential buildings [in the hope Kyiv's forces would return fire."

"A day earlier, the Russian-backed separatists were responsible for] a big provocation [after the shelling of a kindergarten in territory controlled by the Ukrainian government."

"We are constantly faced with provocations, shelling, cyberattacks, dangerous maneuvers of aviation, disabling of mobile communications."

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov

Several hundred thousand citizens in the breakaway republics have been issued Russian passports in recent years. Nikolai Trishin / TASS

"The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will soon order the military to go on the offensive, implement a plan to invade the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics."

"Their weapons are pointed at civilians today."

"Women, children and the elderly are to be evacuated first."

"[Evacuation into the neighboring Rostov region has been coordinated with] Russian leadership."

Denis Pushilin, leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic

 

"All Kyiv has to do is sit down at the negotiation table with representatives of the Donbas and agree on political, military, economic and humanitarian measures to end the conflict."

Russian President Vladimir Putin   

People inside a bus arranged to evacuate local residents from the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk. Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

"Unfortunately, we don’t have a cellar, but we heard the first noises, the teachers quickly took all the children and rushed them into the corridor where there are no windows, and got them all to lie on the floor."

"Then we felt the close-up hit, the building shook and we could hear smashed glass. There was real hysteria, the children were all screaming."

Elena Yaryna, School head teacher, Vrubivka, Eastern Ukraine

Russia is fully engaged in exploring all possible scenarios where it can cast blame on Ukraine for provoking Russia into a conflict that Russia itself purportedly has ostensibly no wish to pursue. But, should Kyiv continue to tax Russia's patience and goodwill to force its neighbour into a war situation, Russia will not flinch, but will enter battle to protect its interests; namely its territory in Crimea, and the lives and future of ethnic Russian Ukrainians in the Donbass region of Ukraine.

Ukraine continues to push Russia into this impossible situation where it must engage militarily for its own security and that of its people and its territories. The Ukrainian military given orders to continue shelling positions in Donetsk and Luhansk, endangering the lives of residents there and pushing the leaders of those territories, now separate from Ukraine, to defend themselves. Ukraine forces bombing an elementary school. These scurrilous attacks on innocent people by Kyiv-ordered military are quite simply intolerable.

Or they would be, if they weren't set-ups, like the bombing of a vehicle supposedly belonging to one of the separatist leaders, all leading to incredible  reasons why Moscow has been pushed to its limits to respond to Ukrainian aggression. An aggression meant to drive out the leaders of Luhanks and Donetsk, meant to drive Russia away from the Crimean Peninsula so critical to Russia's interests. Fierce aggression on the part of Ukraine has driven the leaders of the People's Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk to consider the safety of civilians, two million people who now must be evacuated.

That's the perspective of the Russian propaganda published in Russia for the edification of Russians who have no wish to engage in a war with their neighbour but whom their government thinks of as being credulous enough to believe what it claims. For they are either patriotic, loyal to the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin, or they are traitors to the Russian Federation. Moscow claims the move to evacuate Russian Ukrainians to feed a sense of panic meant to lead to 'defensive' moves against Ukrainian aggression, was not discussed beforehand with their leadership.

A big surprise, although Moscow has offered to each of the evacuees, a bonus gift of 10,000 rubles (equivalent to US$130), food, lodging and medical care. Uprooting two million people to 'prove' that the situation is so dangerously dire as a result of Ukrainian aggression that such a desperate action is needed and justifiable. There was a response from the U.S., the administration characterizing the evacuation as a "cynical" move by Moscow.

"Announcements like these are further attempts to obscure through lies and disinformation that Russia is the aggressor in this conflict", clarified a State Department spokesperson. "It is also cynical and cruel to use human beings as pawns to distract the world from the fact that Russia is building up its forces in preparation for an attack."

But there it is; civilians packed onto buses in eastern Ukraine, headed for Russia. Russia took measures years ago to issue Russian passports to ethnic Russian Ukrainians in the Donbass. Manipulating people on such a large-scale basis to further Mr. Putin's plan of manoeuvring Ukraine into a response that would ignite the conflict he is so determined to launch is, in very fact, not only cynical but cruel. A testament to his incorrigible aspirations to absorb Ukraine once again into the Russian Federation.

"There are no orders to liberate our territories by force", responded Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine's top security authority. Families were ordered to assemble to board buses at an evacuation point in Donetsk where the intention is to have 700,000 people transported to Russia. Some refuse to go; male civilians are urged to join the separatists to fight for their country, and the country they're urged to fight for is not Ukraine. "This is my motherland and the land is ours, I will stay and put out the fires", said 62-year-old Konstantin Lysanov.

Intense artillery bombardment has unsettled residents. Ukraine states that the separatist rebel militias initiated the violence, and Ukraine is accused by the militia leaders of Donetsk and Luhansk of launching the original volleys. As far as the West is concerned, the shelling which intensified in recent days would be just another attempt by Vladimir Putin's government for a pretext to justify an attack on Ukraine. 

Of the former 14 republics under Russian control during the days of the USSR, Ukraine's decision to leave Russia for independence was Russia's most painful loss, one that Mr. Putin refers to as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the last century when the Soviet Union dissolved. He has set his legacy aspiration on restoring Russia's global power standing through defiance of the West. As a result, fear of a wider war in Europe has affected markets and produced a diplomatic crisis. 

"We see additional forces going to the border including leading edge forces", U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed the Munich Security Conference, noting that American intelligence assesses that Russia now has about 50 percent of its total forces assembled to confront Ukraine on all fronts across its vast territory bordering Russia and Belarus and the separatist territories. "This is the most significant military mobilization in Europe since the Second World War", U.S. ambassador Michael Carpenter noted.