UKRAINE BLUES: ZARIST AMBITIONS (Satis Shroff)

Putin has thrown the gauntlet: how dare anyone, eh?

Moscow theatricals in the heart of power in Russia where the main protagonist is the new Zar. Vladimir Putin, plays the role of a military strategist who combines martial arts philosophy with his deep desire to bring the lost glory to his broken Soviet Union through the blatant use of force and a deadly, expanding arsenal of lethal weapons, conventional, as well as, nukes. Today the Ukraine is in danger of being swallowed, tomorrow the other former and smaller Soviet states, and the day after tomorrow perhaps a piece of the European cake? The Bear’s appetite is growing.

What we are witnessing in the Ukraine is a scenario back from Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’ in which a Mungo (Russia) has to be cunning, outwit and outmanoeuvre the Cobras (Nato) and Sher Khan (USA). The Mungo made a fast move and left the Western Alliance (Nato) gasping for breath. The Cobras and Sher Khan had only one word in their lips: sanctions.

Thousands leave Kiev because of the Russian invasion. The Russian troops want to drink vodka in the Ukranian capital. Flurries of futile diplomacy with Moscow.

 With the march of Vladimir Putin’s troops into Ukranian territory the West’s politics of appeasement towards Moscow has come to an end. Elena Kovalskaya, the director of Moscow’s Vsevolod Meyerhold State Theater and Cultural Center, has announced her resignation in protest against the invasion of Ukraine. “It’s impossible to work for a murderer and collect a salary from him,” she writes.

Elena Kovalskaya, the director of Moscow’s Vsevolod Meyerhold State Theater and Cultural Center, has announced her resignation in protest against the invasion of Ukraine. “It’s impossible to work for a murderer and collect a salary from him,” she writes.

UKRAINE BLUES: prayers and sanctions against a Nation led by a deranged oligarch who calls others ‘neonazis addicted to drugs’ and shows he has no scruples and ethics. A warlord indeed.

A flood of tears flow when a daughter leaves for safety in neighbouring Poland or Romania. Martial Law in Ukraine for all able bodied men from 18 till the age of 60: to the weapons was the call of the day.

German TV Channel One- ARD. Italy agrees to ban Russia from SWIFT. Germany and Switzerland are still hesitating.

The French are worried about their elections..

Selensky’s direct appeal to the People of Russia: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made an appeal to Russian citizens not to support a major war in Europe. Zelenskyy said he attempted to call Russian President Putin but was met with silence. There is a Russian version of the developments in Ukraine meant for young Russian, and former Soviet, ears. In this version Ukraine is being misled by drug-addicted neo-Nazis. The word ‘nazi’ has a strong implication for the elderly generation of Russians who had to suffer hardships and crimes at the hands of the Nazis and the Gestapo in Stalingrad and elsewhere.

US Senator Bernie Sanders said: Putin and his oligarch friends seek a divided world and the destruction of democracy. We must stand with the Ukrainian people against this war, and with the Russian people who are demonstrating against their corrupt, reckless president who started it.

To Kiew via Chernobyl: Russian assault route because it’s shorter. Poor Kiew and Ukranian people. And he says arrogantly, and in defiance, he might even make use of his nukes if the case demands. Threats of European and US sanctions don’ t bother him. Chernobyl, the nuclear power plant was captured by Russian forces . The Ukrainian president says Russian “enemy sabotage groups” entered Kiev.

MOSCOW BLUES: a news posted on February 24, 2022 mentions more than 1,700 arrested in anti-war Russia protests in Moscow and across dozens of cities in Russia, over 400 in Saint Petersburg, according to OVD-Info, which tracks arrests at opposition rallies. Thousands gathered near Pushkin Square in central Moscow, while up to 1,000 people gathered in the former imperial capital Saint Petersburg, according to the AFP news agency. “No to war” was spray-painted on the front gate of the Russian parliament’s lower house.

“I am in shock. My relatives and loved ones live in Ukraine,” Anastasia Nestulya, 23, told AFP in Moscow.

Putin wants to control not only the Donbass but Ukraine and other former Soviet Baltic countries too. A conventional warfare with nukes? The krieg has come back to the killing fields of Europe. The massing of Russian troops was ignored, and EU countries followed a policy of appeasement. After the annexation of Crimea the Western countries did business as usual, hoping that peace would come. There were instances of protests against North Stream 2, but they were swept under the carpet because dependency on Russian oil and fluid gas meant prosperity.

And now we pretend we’re surprised about the wrath of the bear.

TRADE SANCTIONS: Ukrainians were fearing the Russians but Europe turned a deaf year. The only weapon that the USA and Europe have are belated half-hearted economic and trade sanctions. Tension is increasing in the area and sanctions are no longer a deterrent for Putin and Lukaschenko (Belarus). The Russian warlord said he had given orders to this armed forces to activate his ballistic and cruise missiles. He emphasised that his country has been facing EU sanctions since many years and is used to it. Western sources interpret this as Putin’s declaration to invade Ukraine. The Second German Channel has reported about explosions, quoting a Ukranian woman. According to van der Leyen this Invasion on the part of Putin has brought the EU and Nato closer together. Aside from threats of sanctions the West follows a policy of wait- and-see.

There’s no guarantee that the Nato and US fire brigade is going to come in the case of Ukraine. We’re following a policy of wait- and-drink-tea and watching the scenario unfurl warily and with angst. Experts warn that Putin’s order for troops to carry out what he called “peacekeeping functions” in the region, and what President Biden has now called the start of an invasion, could lay the groundwork and provide the pretext for a larger Russian military incursion into Ukraine.

Putin has revealed how vulnerable Europe and the Nato is. A lot has to be done in terms of defending and investing in Fortress Europe against aggressors like Putin, and changing existing policies of appeasement towards oligarchs who mean business and are extremely determined.

We in Europe suffer with you, Ukraine:  air attacks, bombs, intimidation, people hiding in the Underground, hallways, bunkers as Warlord Putin marches into sovereign, defenceless Ukraine. The target is Kiev, via the Chernobyl route. And he says arrogantly, and in defiance, he might even make use of his nukes if the case demands. Threats of European and US sanctions don’t bother him.

Putin wants to control not only the Donbass but Ukraine and other former Soviet Baltic countries too. A conventional warfare with nukes? The krieg has come back to the killing fields of Europe. The massing of Russian troops was ignored, and EU countries followed a policy of appeasement. And now we pretent we’re surprised about the wrath of the bear.

After the annexation of Crimea the Western countries did business as usual, hoping that peace would come. There were instances of protests against North Stream 2, but they were swept under the carpet because depedency on Russian oil and fluid gas meant prosperity.

Ukrainians were fearing the Russians but Europe turned a deaf year. The only weapon that the USA and Europe have are belated half-hearted economic and trade sanctions.

Putin has revealed how vulnerable Europe and the Nato is. A lot has to be done in terms of defending and investing in Fortress Europe against aggressors like Putin, and changing existing policies of appeasement towards oligarchs who mean business and are extremely determined.

Dreams of a past Soviet and Imperial glory: are being realised with military brutality, disinformation and Gewalt. Aggression. Colonial nostalgia on the part of oligarch Putin who is out to restore the old Soviet Union into a new Russian Federation.

Dr Finnin, University of Cambridge, explained why, in the realm of political values, Ukraine is not Russia’s cousin but her competitor; and why the West needs to work harder to recognise the complexity and importance of the Black Sea region.

Russian forces have launched a military assault on neighbouring Ukraine, crossing its borders and bombing military targets near big cities. A missile sparked a fireball as it hit Ivano-Frankivsk International Airport in western Ukraine. Russia’s military breached the border in a number of places, in the north, south and east, including from Belarus, a long-time Russian ally. There are reports of fighting in some parts of eastern Ukraine.

President Macron’s reset-Russia politics has miserably backfired. He has underestimated Putin’s determination to control the Donbass. Germany’s policy of promoting North Stream 2 under former Chancellors Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel, followed by an attitude of appeasement towards Moscow, wasn’t right too under the new circumstances created by the Russian warlord.

Democracy and freedom: The outcome of this inferno is that the EU, Nato and USA are working closer, thanks to Putin’s aggressive, thickheaded attitude. Long live democracy and freedom in Europe and the world. These are two treasures that have to be fought for again and again, all over the world against dictators, oligarchs, rulers that follow a policy of intimidation and injury of human rights.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he plans to conduct a “special military operation” in eastern Ukraine, confirming fears why he was massing troops along the border ahead of a strategic offensive. Shortly after his announcement, explosions were reported in the cities of Kyiv and Kramatorsk.

Ukraine battles Russian attack on multiple fronts. At least 40 Ukrainian soldiers killed, official says President Biden: “The world will hold Russia accountable.”

This is the end of the world order as we know it.

Russia will “not stop at Ukraine”, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba told the United Nations, as he warns of “a grim scenario which will throw us back to the darkest times of the 20th century.”

The Pariah on the World Stage? President Biden levied crippling sanctions against Russia for its Ukraine attack and said the U.S. and allies will make sure Putin will be a “pariah on the international stage.”

Experts warn that Putin’s order for troops to carry out what he called “peacekeeping functions” in the region — and what President Biden has now called the start of an invasion — could lay the groundwork and provide the pretext for a larger Russian military incursion into Ukraine.

Even seasoned Kremlinologists were alarmed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s belligerent tone as he offered a monologue on why Ukraine has no right to exist.In a lengthy televised speech Monday, Putin formally recognized the independence of two regions in eastern Ukraine — the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” and “Luhansk People’s Republic.” He later ordered troops to roll over the border under the guise of being “peacekeepers.”

Niinistö on Tuesday viewed that Russia recognising the independence of the self-styled people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, located in south-eastern Ukraine, signifies the end of the path laid out in the Minsk agreements, a series of international agreements signed to end the war in Donbas, Ukraine, in 2014–2015.

Newsweek quoted President Joe Biden, on Tuesday, saying Russia’s actions in Ukraine will trigger massive sanctions, a response he has been threatening for weeks as President Vladimir Putin built up troops along Ukraine’s borders. In a speech from the White House, Biden said the Russian leader has committed “a flagrant violation of international law.”

A big ‘IF’: speaking to journalists Tuesday evening, Putin set out a number of stringent conditions if the West wanted to de-escalate the crisis, saying pro-Western Ukraine should drop its Nato membership ambitions and maintain neutrality.

It might be noted that on Tuesday President Vladimir Putin received authorization from lawmakers to use Russian troops outside of the country, a move he said was necessary to formalize the military’s deployment in two rebel regions of eastern Ukraine. Russia recognized those provinces as independent on Monday. Things are moving fast. Putin ordered troops there to “maintain peace” which is highly doubtful because he ordered Kiev and others cities to be bombarded by his MiGs and Sukhoi jets. It is plainly evident that he is not on a ‘peace keeping mission.’