Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

That is likely part jealousy, at least in this era, because the Ukrainian government, other than earning the reputation of being the most corrupt on earth, does not seem to be notable in any aspect, and have been able to keep pace with their (once as close as cousins) Russian counterparts, in scientific, military, industrial and cultural achievements.

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

Russia and Ukraine have a very long intertwined history of being contentious neighbors.

The two countries’ shared heritage goes back more than a thousand years to a time when Kyiv, now Ukraine’s capital, was at the center of the first Slavic state, Kyivan Rus, the birthplace of both Ukraine and Russia. In A.D. 988 Volodymyr the Great, the pagan prince of Novgorod and grand prince of Kyiv, accepted the Orthodox Christian faith and was baptized in the Crimean city of Chersonesus. From that moment on, as Russian leader Vladimir Putin recently acknowledged, "Russians and Ukrainians have been one people, a single whole."

People in eastern Ukraine have stronger ties to Russia and have been more likely to support Russian-leaning leaders. Western Ukraine, by contrast, spent centuries under the shifting control of European powers such as Poland and the Austro-Hungarian Empire — one reason Ukrainians in the west have tended to support more Western - leaning politicians. The eastern population tends to be more Russian-speaking and Orthodox, while parts of the west are more Ukrainian - speaking and Catholic.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine became an independent nation. But uniting the country proved a difficult task. For one, “the sense of Ukrainian nationalism is not as deep in the east as it is in west,” says former ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer. The transition to democracy and capitalism was painful and chaotic, and many Ukrainians, especially in the east, longed for the relative stability of earlier eras when they were united with Russia.

On ecological maps you can even see the divide between the southern and eastern parts of Ukraine — known as the steppes — with their fertile farming soil and the northern and western regions, which are more forested, says Serhii Plokhii, a history professor at Harvard and director of its Ukrainian Research Institute. He says a map depicting the demarcations between the steppe and the forest, a diagonal line between east and west, bears a "striking resemblance" to political maps of Ukrainian presidential elections in 2004 and 2010.

A separatist uprising in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas in 2014 resulted in the declaration of the Russian - backed People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk. Today, the two countries are in conflict yet again, over fault lines that reflect the region's tumultuous history over many centuries.

Unfortunately, much of this conflict has been instigated and deliberately incited by our own government for nefarious reasons.

This should not involve the U.S.. We are under invasion at home because our own corrupt government has betrayed us to vicious drug cartels and the human trafficking of women, children and men being sold into both sexual slavery and hard labor.

Our military weapons, our military trainers and our billions in taxpayer's US greenbacks is needed here at home to fight for the sovereignty of our own citizens and our national borders.

Kickaha Loc: Nebraska

The Russians have been supporting an insurrection in Luhansk and Donbas oblasts. The Russians speakers I talk to there, say they do not want to be part of Russia and that the Russians are the whole problem there.

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

I am sure there are some who voted against the declaration of independence back in 2014, but it was over 90% who voted for it.

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

Totally agree. The US needs to stop interfering in the worlds affairs.

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

I have no idea how numerically extensive your contemporary conversations with Russian speaking occupants of the Donbas region of Ukraine may be, or how candid they may be with a US (presumably by telephone) inquirer, or even how you acquired a copy of their current Telephone book.

My own inquiries are primarily limited to online records.

In April, 2022, the Washington Post conducted a survey of the people in Ukraine’s contested eastern region - to see if they wanted to be liberated from Ukraine by Russia.

(Analysis by John O’Loughlin, Gerard Toal and Gwendolyn Sasse)

In part of what’s called “the Donbas,” Ukraine’s two easternmost regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, which border Russia, Ukraine has been fighting against these proxy states ever since 2014."

"Russian President Vladimir Putin declared in February, 2022, that Russia would recognize these entities — the Donetsk Peoples Republic (DNR) and the Luhansk Peoples Republic (LNR) — as independent states, including supporting their claim to all the territory of the Donbas."

"The Washington Post conducted a large, computer-assisted telephone public opinion survey of people living in the two regions on both sides of the military line of contact. To enable cross-checking of the survey data, they used three companies: the U.K.-based agency R-Research and the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology calling from Ukraine, and Levada Marketing Research calling from Russia."

"In total, 4,025 people were interviewed, with equal numbers on both sides of the line of contact dividing the Donbas. Data are weighted proportional to current population estimations separately in the Kyiv-controlled and separatist areas."

"The opinions of those forcibly displaced are thus absent. Estimates are that up to 3 million of the 6.5 million people who originally lived in the Donbas region in early 2014 had left by early 2022, with many more fleeing since February."

"Because of the fiercely contested nature of the Russian proxy “republics” in Ukraine, when asking people what status they preferred for the region, it proved impossible to use the same wording on both sides of the Donbas divide."

"In the areas controlled by the Ukrainian government, respondents were asked: “In your opinion, what should be the status of the regions of the Donbas temporarily uncontrolled by the Kyiv government?"

"In the separatist-held areas, the question ended, “…of the Donetsk Peoples Republic (DNR)/Luhansk Peoples Republic (LNR).”

What do the people of Donbas want?

"In the Ukrainian government-controlled areas, almost 3 in 4 respondents (72 percent) wanted the breakaway territories back within Ukraine. These residents were twice as likely to say the Donbas should not have any special status as to say it should have special autonomous status within Ukraine."

"In the separatist-held areas, forty-nine percent said they wanted to be part of the Russian Federation, with a roughly equal (49%) saying they wanted to be a special autonomous region or just an ordinary part of Russia."

"But the figure in which we averaged data from all the survey firms summary data hides some big differences."

"While the Ukrainian and Russian pollsters found similar opinions in areas controlled by the Ukrainian government, in the breakaway area, pollsters calling from Russia found higher support (70 percent) for joining Donbas with Russia than did the pollsters calling from Ukraine (16 percent)."

Note: "(Some respondents may have decided whether to answer the call or participate in the survey according to whether it originated in Kyiv or Moscow, or may have replied with answers that they thought the interviewers wanted to hear.)"

"For this sensitive question with a high degree of uncertainty about Kyiv’s and Moscow’s actions, the "don’t know" ratio is high at 18 percent."

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

Whatever remnant of a functioning, rational government remains in Washington D.C. would do well to remember from which sovereign nation's citizenry it obtains it's authority and begin responsibly, soberly, legally and humanely abiding by the laws and the Constitution of this nation.

Of first priority is securing our national borders, and the safety and well being of legal United States citizens.

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

Interesting.

vernon

Just what generals are saying this? I'll sure contact them an ask for proof.

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

LOL! Sure you will.

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

I found the Washington Post summary worth quoting (but certainly not unbiased) - always keeping in mind their known liberal bias, - related to its ownership by Amazon's Jeff Bezos.

https://www.businessinsider.com/most-biased-news-outlets-in-america-cnn-fox-nytimes-2018-8?op=1

"The Washington Post shares the quality of being perceived as trustworthy by Democrats and untrustworthy by Republicans. Democrats and those who lean Democratic gave The Post a +40 rating, while Republicans and those who lean Republican gave it a -65."

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

Whose "propagandist," pray tell, are you?

Vladimir Putin is worth 1,000 Bidens, and 10,000 Obamas (whose policies still drive Biden).

Russia could have been our friend after 1991. The US has deceitfully used them like a boogie man, Russia, Russia, Russia.

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

And that, is some truth!!

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

Our current administration is so insane we committed an act of war against Russia by blowing up their pipeline, - depriving their entire nation of a major source of revenue.

We also left our supposed great friends and allies in Europe frantically grasping for a source of heat this winter, - a winter that has turned out somewhat mild only through the grace of God.

Nuclear weapons have existed for almost 80 years and many countries see them as a deterrent that continues to guarantee their national security.

Russia has built public bomb shelters for their citizenry that accommodate millions of people. This country has not.

Apparently, they have a better understanding of just what all out war on their own land means, when power mad dictators like Napolean and Hitler come calling, and the wannabee tyrants currently in charge of our own nation do not.

All figures for nuclear weapons are estimates but, according to the Federation of American Scientists, Russia has 5,977 nuclear warheads - the devices that trigger a nuclear explosion - though this includes about 1,500 that are retired and set to to be dismantled.

Of the remaining 4,500 or so, most are considered strategic nuclear weapons - ballistic missiles, or rockets, which can be targeted over long distances. These are the weapons usually associated with nuclear war.

Experts estimate around 1,500 Russian warheads are currently "deployed", meaning sited at missile and bomber bases or on submarines at sea.

The bomb that killed up to 146,000 people in Hiroshima, Japan, during World War Two, was 15 kilotons.

And nuclear warheads today can be more than 1,000 kilotons.

Published on Tue, April 12, 2022 8:14PM PDT: As of September 2020, the US had 3,750 nuclear warheads. That's 88% lower than the US's peak of 31,255 nuclear warheads in 1967. The current inventory includes active and inactive warheads. It does not include about 2,000 "retired" nuclear warheads scheduled for dismantling.

The US reduced its nuclear weapon inventory after the end of the Cold War with the then-USSR in 1989. The US dismantled 11,683 nuclear warheads from fiscal years 1994 through 2020.

The US hasn't tested a nuclear weapon since 1992... so why is the completely insane Biden administration doing everything within their power to insult, provoke and in every seeming way possible put Vladimir Putin in a position where he will release hell upon us?

I'm completely amazed he didn't rain fire upon us within a few hours of the demolition of the Nord Stream Pipelines. An act of war is an act of war.

Vladimir Putin has shown great restraint.

Kickaha Loc: Nebraska

I have acquaintances in Kharkiv, Kyiv, Zaporozhe and Dnipropetrovsk that I talk with few times a week.