Scott
Verified User
It makes sense to all the countries next on Putin’s list. It makes sense to all who wish to put Putin’s aggression in check.I find it sad to say that despite Trump's flaws, he is -still- ahead of the establishment when it comes to Ukraine. I can agree that his motives are frequently selfish, but that doesn't change the fact that the United States' continued support of the Ukrainian regime makes no sense for anyone but the war mongers who want to "weaken" Russia while getting rich via the arms industry.
There's no evidence that Russia wants to start a war with any other country. Hell, Russia tried for 8 -years- to avoid having one with Ukraine before finally deciding that it was only way to protect its Russian speaking brethren in Ukraine. Putin said as much in the speech he gave on the day he started his war with Ukraine:
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This brings me to the situation in Donbass. We can see that the forces that staged the coup in Ukraine in 2014 have seized power, are keeping it with the help of ornamental election procedures and have abandoned the path of a peaceful conflict settlement. For eight years, for eight endless years we have been doing everything possible to settle the situation by peaceful political means. Everything was in vain.
As I said in my previous address, you cannot look without compassion at what is happening there. It became impossible to tolerate it. We had to stop that atrocity, that genocide of the millions of people who live there and who pinned their hopes on Russia, on all of us. It is their aspirations, the feelings and pain of these people that were the main motivating force behind our decision to recognise the independence of the Donbass people’s republics.
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Full speech:

Address by the President of the Russian Federation

The hidden nature of the 8 year civil war in Ukraine was well documented by a team of German journalists in the following documentary:
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel even admitted that the Minsk agreements were just agreed to in order to give time for western Ukraine to build up its army. Quoting from an article on the subject:
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[Angela Merkel:] “We all knew that this was a frozen conflict, that the problem was not solved, but this is precisely what gave Ukraine precious time.”
I would remind you that Germany was the guarantor of the Minsk agreements, and especially of their implementation by Ukraine! Clearly, from the start Angela Merkel, and therefore also François Hollande and Emmanuel Macron, knew perfectly well that not only would Ukraine not apply the Minsk agreements, but that this would leave Kiev just enough time to prepare for a resolution of the conflict by force! Moreover, the telephone conversation between Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron that took place four days before the launch of the Russian special military operation, and which was leaked by the French President, clearly showed that the latter knew that Ukraine was going to attack, since he asked the Russian President not to react to Ukrainian provocations (in other words not to intervene to defend the Donbass).
When one has this information in hand, and recalls the endless litanies of France and Germany complaining that Russia (a guarantor like them and not a party to the conflict) was not applying the Minsk agreements, one thinks that the level of hypocrisy of the German and French authorities is literally cosmic!
The Russian authorities of course reacted strongly to Angela Merkel’s statement, starting with Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, who said that this interview gave Russia proof of what she had been saying for years about the lack of will on the part of the West to push Ukraine to implement the Minsk agreements. Above all, the purpose of the agreements was to serve as a diversion while NATO countries pumped arms into Ukraine and then reignited the conflict.
“In this revelation, the main point was that, from the West’s point of view, it was all a fabrication, flirting with the use of international law for the sole purpose of supplying the Kiev regime with weapons. It was all about “distracting” the eyes of the international community from the real events on the territory of Ukraine, the humanitarian catastrophe, the endless killings, which claimed more than 13,000 victims on all sides before 2022. This had only one purpose: to supply the Kiev regime with weapons and to prepare it politically to launch the hostilities that we saw at the beginning of 2022, when the Kiev regime started to launch deadly strikes against the Donbass. This left no room for any other action than that taken by the Russian Federation: first recognizing these territories as sovereign, and then accepting them as part of the Russian Federation so that they can really defend them, to save their lives,” said Maria Zakharova.
But above all, for the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Angela Merkel’s statement proves that the West does not shy away from any lie, and sits on international law when it suits it, regardless of the consequences for innocent civilians.
“This confession by former German Chancellor A. Merkel sounds terrible. Merkel sounds terrible: forgery (as a method of Western action), machinations, manipulations, all sorts of distortions of the truth of law and law that one can only imagine. They knew even then, in 2015, when they were holding talks for several hours, that they would never implement it and that they would supply arms to the Kiev regime. They had no mercy for anyone: women, children, civilians in Donbass, and even Ukraine as a whole. They needed a conflict. They were ready to do it already in 2015,” she added.
Then it was the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, who commented on the former German Chancellor’s statement, saying that Angela Merkel’s words not only surprised but disappointed him.
“To be honest, it was a complete surprise to me. It is disappointing. Frankly, I didn’t expect to hear this from the former Federal Chancellor, because I always assumed that the leaders of the Federal Republic [of Germany] were being sincere with us. Yes, of course they were on the side of Ukraine, they supported Ukraine, but I always thought that the leaders of the Federal Republic had always sincerely sought a settlement on the principles that we had agreed and reached, including in the Minsk process,” he said by way of introduction.
He went on to point out that Angela Merkel’s words only proved that Moscow had made the right decision in launching the special operation, as the former German Chancellor made it clear that Ukraine’s aim was indeed to resume hostilities and settle the Donbass conflict by force of arms, and therefore in blood.
“What has been said now only proves that we made the right choice in launching the special military operation. Why did we do it? Because it turns out that nobody was going to implement the Minsk agreements. The Ukrainian leadership, in the words of former President Poroshenko, who also said it: he signed them, but he was not going to implement them. But I still hoped that the other participants in this process were sincere with us. It turns out that they were also deceiving us. It was only a question of showering Ukraine with weapons and preparing it for military action,” the Russian President added.
Vladimir Putin then said that in view of Angela Merkel’s statement, perhaps Russia should have intervened earlier. But what Angela Merkel failed to realize in making this thunderous statement is that she has definitely undermined any trust that Russia might have placed in Western governments, which means future diplomatic problems.
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Full article:

Angela Merkel admits that the Minsk agreements were only signed to give Ukraine time - Donbass Insider
Angela Merkel said that the Minsk agreements were not signed to be implemented but to give Ukraine time.
