The Ukraine War: There Is More Than Meets The Eye

In our polarized world, we often view individuals and countries through the prism of good-bad, evil-virtuous, and self-righteous-humbleness. Sometimes, certain people or countries are the flavour of the month, while at other times, the same are demonized.

For several years now, there has been an obsession with anti-Russian sentiment. It took off with the Trump-Russia collusion fiction and has now morphed into the stratosphere with the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine. At the same time, Ukraine has been put on a pedestal as some poor, innocent neighbour of Russia. 

We could say that America has been lauded as a benevolent, democratic force of good in the world. At the same time, Russia is an evil force that needs to be taken out or at least its leadership––Vladimir Putin needs to be taken out. This is an illusion because America is no longer what it was before the 1960s. Like all countries, America has its two sides. 

Unfortunately, the U.S. has gotten itself intertwined with Ukraine. While many in the West wouldn't know where Ukraine is on the map or don't care, it is a country that has been beset with corruption and a sordid history.

Some of this was strangely exposed with the honouring of an ex-Nazi Ukrainian, Yaroslav Hunka, with a standing ovation in the Canadian Parliament. At age 98, he has been living the good life in Canada. 

Simon Wiesenthal was a holocaust survivor who pursued escaped Nazis for many years and had them brought to justice. The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) is a legacy of his pursuits, and they stated the following:

"The fact that a veteran who served in a Nazi military unit was invited to and given a standing ovation in Parliament is shocking. At a time of rising antisemitism and Holocaust distortion, it is incredibly disturbing to see Canada's Parliament rise to applaud an individual who was a member of a unit in the Waffen-SS, a Nazi military branch responsible for the murder of Jews and others and that was declared a criminal organization during the Nuremberg Trials. There should be no confusion that this unit was responsible for the mass murder of innocent civilians with a level of brutality and malice that is unimaginable."

However, to those who have followed Ukraine and some other Eastern European countries, the checkered history of Eastern Europe should come as no surprise. I am currently reading a book, Goodbye, Eastern Europe: An Intimate History of a Divided Land by Jacob Mikanowski, which describes how chaotic this part of the world has been for hundreds of years, with territories switched, overrun and annexed at various stages. If Eastern Europe was a person, we would probably describe it as schizophrenic.

In 2014, Ukraine turned away from Russia following the ouster of Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych––aided by the U.S.––in what was called the Maidan Revolution. The problem was that neo-Nazi paramilitary groups were allowed to be a fixture of Ukrainian life, with terror committed against minority groups and attacks on the pro-Russian eastern region of Ukraine, who then took up arms in response. The east Donbas region wanted to secede and join Russia.

The was well-reported in the Western press, like The Nation.

Five years after the Maidan uprising, anti-Semitism and fascist-inflected ultranationalism are rampant.

But of course, America did nothing because the new government was anti-Russian.

As recently as 2021, hundreds marched in a tribute to Stepan Bandera.

Who was Bandera? He was a Nazi collaborator during the Second World War and helped Hitler by killing several thousand Ukrainian Jews. In his book Erased, Omer Bartov talks about the giant bronze statue of Bandera in the Galician town of Drohobych, where 15,000 Jews were murdered. 

The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialization

This book documents how, before World War 2, Ukraine was home to the largest Jewish community in Europe. Between 1941 and 1944, 1.4 million Jews were killed, and one of the most important centres of Jewish life was destroyed. Much of this has been hidden away. The Jewish population in Ukraine as of 2020 was 45,000. This makes the incident in the Canadian Parliament even more egregious, with Trudeau's lame excuse.

Let's remember that Ukraine was on the Nazi side during the war. Meanwhile, who did Russia side with? That's right, the Western allies. In fact, the war was won, with Russia having Hitler bogged down during his campaign in the east. At the war's end, there was the famous photo of the

Was Stalin a nice guy? Of course not; he was one of the biggest killers of the 20th century. Yet, Russia today is vilified as the worst of the worst by America, even though Putin is nothing compared to Stalin. Russia looks after its interests in its own sphere of influence as does America. 

The problem for Ukraine is that while countries like Germany have totally disavowed any association with the Nazi past, many people in Ukraine have not. Yet, the U.S. administration, having meddled in Ukrainian affairs for many years, closes its eyes to this problem because it's not about Ukraine; it's about trying to diminish Russia. It's actually had the opposite of its intended effect. The result is that many innocent civilians have been caught up in a war that could have been prevented long ago.

Here is an interview with Professor John J. Mearsheimer: 

Who Really Started the Ukraine War?