2022-07-08
This site (like many others) has always taken a partisan view of the war in the Ukraine.
We are not alone in this - we have been force-fed a partisan view by the mainstream media, which has trumpeted the terrible injustice of the Russian invasion since day one (whilst it totally ignored violations of the Minsk Agreement for the preceding 8 years).
It is nevertheless (reasonably) clear that the situation in the Donbas is that the population would probably vote either for independence or to join Russia - were it to be given a vote.
It appears to be a fact that there are different ethnic and political preferences in the East of the Ukraine which conflict with the those in the West.
Therefore there is a good chance that by negotiating a peace deal based upon division of the Ukraine according to the principle of self-determination, further bloodshed could be avoided and a peace based upon a strong foundation could be achieved.
So what is not to like?
Yet no western politician seems eager to even notice this option, let alone pressure Zelenskyy to pursue it.
It seems to me that what the West is really supporting is the continuation of an historic but now essentially arbitrary frontier that no longer serves the purpose of promoting peace tranquillity and prosperity.
Of course those who would lead us don't put it like that, and it's not quite that simple, but it does more or less sum it up.
Yet we in the UK, when we gave Scotland the referendum, already acknowledged the principle of self-determination to be appropriate and sufficient to decide a new frontier.
There never was (in my life-time anyway) any fighting over it, and we English(!) never even thought to shell them into submission.
We know that we are vastly stronger when we cooperate and work peacefully together (even if we disagree with each other over historical differences) and far far weaker when we fight each other.
So why are we really stoking this conflict in the Ukraine, sending ever bigger and (arguably) better means of delivering death and destruction, thereby sowing the future with the seeds of hatred into the bargain?
Aris Roussinos in Unherd gives us a relatively (by past MSM standards) sanguine report from the front line in the Ukraine.
