3 лютого 2025, 14:34
It is Important not to let Donald Trump repeat Neville Chamberlain's mistake
As Donald Trump claimed that his administration had already had "very serious" discussions with the aggressor country Russia, the latter launched another massive missile attack on peaceful cities in Ukraine.
Russia is destroying Ukraine in front of the whole world, committing genocide, the Holocaust, and trying to repeat the Holodomor in the 21st century, destroying existing infrastructure and creating supply problems. As for the Holocaust, this is not an exaggeration. Roman Shvartsman, an 88-year-old resident of Odesa, recently said this at a meeting in the German Bundestag in memory of the victims of National Socialism: "Hitler tried to kill me for being a Jew, and now Putin is killing me for being a Ukrainian."
I also wonder if there will ever be a trial of the Russian dictator Putin and the leaders of the Russian Federation, who created a new direction for Nazism. Which in Ukraine is called rashism.
Gratitude from Ukrainians
Of course, Ukrainians should be grateful for the assistance provided to Ukraine by its partners. And it is right to do so. The world of Western values is not really an Amazon where you can order everything you need, as the British Secretary of Defense once said. We should be grateful for everything. For six outdated F-16s, for the latest IRIS-T systems. For Caesars. For everything. At the same time, we should not mention the disarmament of Ukraine in the early 1990s in exchange for the recognition of independence. This often irritates our Western politicians, who can now quite reasonably say: "Stop talking about this Budapest Memorandum with its weak security guarantees. You signed these papers yourself." Yes, Ukraine's leaders did sign them. But they did so under strong external pressure and, in fact, in exchange for good relations with the West.
Ukraine aimed to meet the standards of the civilized world. And it divested itself not only from strategic but even tactical nuclear weapons. It also gave up its strategic stockpile of anti-personnel mines. Which would now stop Russia's advance deep into Ukrainian territory.
War of attrition
The war in Ukraine has been going on for 11 years. It is a mixture of a modern war of drones and artificial intelligence systems, along with the trench warfare of World War I. Unmanned systems are still unable to replace humans inthis meat grinder. Russia's war against Ukraine requires fresh blood and human meat. And in this dimension, there is already a war going on that is often overlooked in the West. The idea of mobilizing Ukrainians from the age of 18 is increasingly being voiced. While the Russians are attacking with the forces of mobilized criminals and the dregs of society.
This is a war between two exhausted armies (yes, the Russian army is also exhausted). This is a war in which attacks are often carried out not with heavy armored vehicles, but with whatever is found in households destroyed by the Russian invasion: scooters, motorcycles, ATVs, even electric scooters and golf carts from ruined golf clubs.
Russian "revenge" and disarmed Ukraine. How the absence of anti-personnel mines changes the pattern of war
In the Russian occupiers' own videos on social media, they capture another trend in this war: they send wounded Russian soldiers on crutches and deserters caught near the front line to attack.
So if you think that Russia can be defeated on the battlefield only with the help of high technology, this is not the full picture. Ukraine clearly lacks simple ammunition from the past. For example, anti-personnel mines to stop these "meat" assaults. And here we again return to the issue of the disarmament of Ukraine, according to the "Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction" and in pursuance of the Ottawa Convention, Ukraine has abandoned and disposed of 3 million anti-personnel mines.
But Russia did not sign the Mine Convention and retained its own arsenals of anti-personnel mines, which were used to stop the Ukrainian counteroffensive in 2023. That means that Ukrainian soldiers literally walked through territories mined by Russia. And Ukraine's own mines were destroyed after 2005 to confirm the seriousness of Ukraine's intentions to become part of the Western world. Of course, you may ask why Ukraine followed the recommendations of foreign pacifist politicians who could not even imagine the level of the Russian threat. It's very simple and to be expected: naive Ukraine was following the parameters of civilized global institutions: OSCE, PACE, and eventually the EU and NATO. For some reason, the West decided that after the Cold War, Russia would not resort to revenge. But the Russians believe they lost in a peaceful confrontation. By destroying Ukraine, Russia is not only gaining satisfaction, but also a moral victory over Europe and the United States. But it is quite possible to stop the Russian army, which is in a state of decline, frustration, and exhaustion. If Ukraine were to receive more missiles with cluster munitions from its partners, which mine large areas, the front line could be stabilized and the slow advance and pressure of the Russians deeper into Ukraine could be stopped.
The Great War – as a consequence of weak decisions and political collaboration with the aggressor
Cause and effect relationships do exist. After the agreed with Hitler and Mussolini surrender of Czechoslovakia to the occupation of the Third Reich, peace did not come to Europe. Neville Chamberlain's phrase, after returning from negotiations with the Fuhrer in Munich and addressed to the British: "I have brought you peace" turned out to be a fake. Chamberlain brought a devastating war to his country. So did French Prime Minister Daladier, who soon saw German tanks in Paris.
Donald Trump is going to talk to Vladimir Putin. The 47th President of the United States is going to announce that he has won peace for Europe and the world. And that is a good thing. Bleeding Ukraine needs peace. But it is important to remember the mistakes of the leaders of the democratic world in confronting the world of dictatorships and murderers. The peace that Trump is talking about must be real. It cannot be replaced by a list of demands for capitulation voiced by Russia.
Блог автора – матеріал, який відображає винятково точку зору автора. Текст блогу не претендує на об'єктивність та всебічність висвітлення теми, яка у ньому піднімається. Редакція "Української правди" не відповідає за достовірність та тлумачення наведеної інформації і виконує винятково роль носія. Точка зору редакції УП може не збігатися з точкою зору автора блогу.
