Whatever the original intentions, once war has started it unleashes the worst behavior human beings are capable of, rape, pillage, maiming and murdering people on a massive scale. Inconceivable mayhem, homes, neighborhoods and cities are blown to bits. Soldiers’ limbs, feet, hands, noses, jaws, ears and genitals are destroyed. And then there are civilian casualties. The numbers are unfathomable, 40-55 million non-combatants during World War II were killed. However noble the intentions claimed, however interesting battles can seem in history books, war’s horror is so evident that it cannot be sanctioned, explained, or justified in any way. Not now. Not ever.
Thank you Vladmir Putin for the war in Ukraine.
But we can also assume that by now some of the Ukrainian soldiers have matched the Russians in performing terrible deeds. Hitler was not the sole reason for German soldiers’ brutality. Over the centuries Hessian mercenaries were prized for their fierce warrior behavior. They were hired by kings to join their armies. Not surprisingly, with or without Hitler’s blessing, they proved true to form when they were set loose. Ukrainian Cossacks were similarly prized for their vicious warrior culture . Together with the Nazis, Ukrainians slaughtered 1.5 million Jews and 100,000 Polish civilians living in the Ukraine. The Ukrainians did most of the killing. Given the Ukrainians’ horrific behavior (to be described later in this article) in the past, if we are to be involved, our news about the current war should be told with more than the simplicity of a good guys vs. bad guys narrative. Whatever evil lies dormant beneath civilized restraint, war unleashes the very worst impulses.
This article supports much of Russia’s point of view about the war. But let me be clear. Any nation that has befriended Iran, Venezuela, North Korea and other villainous regimes is no friend of mine. Moreover, Putin’s invasion brought long standing fears back into play. Throughout Europe, not just in Eastern Europe but the Scandinavian countries, Germany, Italy, in every direction the reverberations of Putin’s attack on the Ukraine sent out alarms that the nightmare is returning. It is time to rearm. For most of its neighbors, the invasion of Ukraine was seen as analogous to Hitler’s attack on Czechoslovakia. Allow aggression in the Ukraine and it will whet Putin desire for more. This point of view is understandable given Russia’s 20th century behavior. He is messing with sanctified geopolitical conclusions, a status quo that after the cold war ended, America and the West hoped would last forever.
Nevertheless there is an entirely different way of looking at it. Putin’s contends that Ukraine is not like the rest of Europe, that the Ukraine, especially Eastern Ukraine is part of Russia. From his point of view the conflict is a civil war. These claims are treated as if they are coming from a madman, a grandiose delusion based on Putin’s inability to live with Russia’s diminished place in the world. While it is extremely difficult for me to have affection for a nation that is on the side of so many unjust causes, Putin arguments are not ridiculous. Dismissing Putin as a mad man avoids this war’s particulars.
Here are simple facts. Khrushchev who led Russia from 1953-1964 was, in essence, a Ukrainian. Although ethnically Russian, he was born and raised close to the border of the Ukraine. His father worked in the Ukraine throughout his life. And Khrushchev’s early career and political successes were all in the Ukraine Communist Party. He expressed his fondness for them repeatedly. Leonid Brezhnev who followed him was a Ukrainian. He led Russia from 1964-82. Chernenko, a Ukrainian, was Brezhnev’s chief of staff. He also led the Soviet Union from 1984-85. During the Brezhnev era, the head of both the KGB and the Defense ministry were Ukrainians. In essence, for a very long time, Ukrainians ruled Russia. Gorbachev led the Soviet Union from 1985-92. His mother was Ukrainian. His wife’s father was Ukrainian. In the West, he is thought of as our hero. He ended the Cold War. He ended Communism.
Another fact: Gorbachev felt that Russia was correct to take back Crimea. Within the Soviet Union many Russian were furious, when in 1954, Ukraine aficionado, Nikita Khrushchev gave it to the Ukraine. Crimea had been a part of Russia from 1783 until Khrushchev’s gift. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city’s harbors, throughout its history Sevastopol had been an important port and naval base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. A poll of the Crimean public in Russian-annexed Crimea was taken by the Ukrainian branch of Germany’s biggest market research organization, GfK, on 16–22 January 2015. According to its results: “Eighty-two percent of those polled said they fully supported Crimea’s inclusion in Russia, and another 11 percent expressed partial support. Only 4 percent spoke out against it.”[382][383][384] It wasn’t just over Crimea that Gorbachev disagreed with our point of view. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, it was hoped there would be peaceful relations with the United States. Gorbachev was furious with the United States for going back on many of their agreements regarding the resolution of the Cold War. (see Professor Sachs video at the end of this article) Before Gorbachev died he also made clear that he thought Putin is a trustworthy leader defending Russian interests. For his support of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, despite his half Ukrainian identity, he was banned from the Ukraine.
A simple question: If the Ukraine is unequivocally not part of Russia how did the Russians allow so many non-Russians to lead their nation? . Obviously, Putin did not dream up his perspective about the Ukraine. For many of those years Ukrainians were considered Russian. Not that there weren’t plenty of tensions and a history of bloodshed between them, just as there is between Mississippi and Massachusetts. But briefly, in 1991, the Ukraine was the third largest nuclear power in the world. Ukraine was the centre of Soviet arms industry and high-tech research. It was crowded by military bases packed with the most up-to-date weapons systems. It had 1900 of Russia’s nuclear warheads. Not something we would expect Russia to do if it considered the Ukraine a foreign nation. We have all heard of the Chernobyl disaster in Russia. Actually Chernobyl is in the Ukraine. Putin claims that for a very long time we have been trying to pry the Ukraine away from Russia. That is undeniable. Given their not always friendly interactions we have tried to encourage Ukrainians to turn against Russia. Does that mean Putin was entitled to go to war when Ukrainian leaders wanted to complete the break, become a member of NATO, part of an alliance specifically designed to oppose Russia?
Once again. Putin is not a good guy. I’m inclined to believe those stories of poisonings of his political enemies, whether he personally ordered them or not. I suspect his gang of supporters has done many other terrible things. Probably the recent air plane crash killing Prigozhin, the leader of an army who, for a while, sought to overthrow Putin, was not an accident. Like everyone else, I assume that Alexei Navalny was murdered.There is nothing to like about the political process in Russia. They are not able to rise above violence as a way to settle political differences. This is not the United States where we tar and feather political opponents, tell an incredible number of lies, try to destroy those who are hated, but by using our mighty media, not literally by killing them. For now, and probably for the foreseeable future this means Russia is less civilized than us.
We saw when the Serbs and Crimeans went to war how barbaric political battles become. Long time neighbors killed each other. Saudi Arabia’s political process is violent. We all read how a journalist opponent of the rulers was killed, his body chopped up, put in suitcases. During the Viet Nam era, nations in South East Asia had numerous killing fields. Millions were slaughtered. Again and again many Latin American nations have solved political disputes with violence. European kings and princes once regularly beheaded opponents, including family members. There was frequent violence between sons, brothers and their henchmen. Except for our Civil War we have managed to avoid that. We have good reason to consider ourselves ruled by democratic means. Still, there is a lot to dislike about the way our democracy has been functioning in recent years. The first casualty of war is truth. On that basis what has been going on within America is a war. Those on the Left are demonized by those on the Right and vice-versa. Lies pile on top of lies from both from the right and left. The Democrats, with their media allies, tried to immobilize Trump’s election with the Russian collusion lies. Trump tried to throw out the election in 2020 with his lies.
The Ukraine is presented similarly with propaganda that is inevitable in wars. Flag waving is the only acceptable attitude. Our side is heroic. The Ukrainians are venerated. They are noble, kind, brave, suffering human beings, not far from sainthood. Every time Zelenskyy speaks to legislators in the West he gets standing ovations. Presumably, the very real foul behavior of the Ukrainians in the past has long since been forgotten. Despite their ghastly history of violence and corruption, they have become very fine people, in today’s heroic parlance, victims. Their enemies, our enemies, are crazy animals. They are rapists, murderers, and beasts. We are told Russia’s soldiers are stupid to agree to the suicide demanded of them. When they bring orphaned Ukrainian children for care in Russia we claim they are kidnapping them. When the Russian people show their support for Putin, which every survey confirms, our explanation is that they have been duped. We cite Putin’s critics as evidence that he is barely holding on to the leadership of Russia.
Contradicting all of this is another unpublicized fact. Amnesty International has condemned the Ukraine for committing war crimes. Ukrainian forces have put civilians in harm’s way by establishing bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas, including in schools and hospitals. Such tactics violate international humanitarian law and endanger civilians, as they turn civilian objects into military targets. The ensuing Russian strikes in populated areas have killed civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure. “We have documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when they operate in populated areas,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
The lies of our politicians and our media are intolerable. They have completely lost our trust. But Russia’s political process is worse. Far worse. It is important to note that it has not returned to a society where the KGB once grabbed people out of their apartments at night, never to return. People were too frightened to object. Nor has an iron curtain been erected keeping its people imprisoned, shooting those trying to escape its borders. Russians can leave their country and travel freely. They have access to the West’s media. They can access You Tube, BBC News, Sky News. They tend to turn to Russian TV for the news, and that is very pro-Putin. The process is very flawed by our standards, but it is not helpful to characterize their politicians as madmen, and dismiss their claims as outrageous. If he were mistreating Russians on a massive scale they would not elect him. We explain their loyalty as due to the lies being told to them. Undoubtedly true, but if the lies were that egregious no amount of propagandizing would be successful. Modern America is routinely being told lies by our politicians and media. We are entitled to hear the whole story when we go over why the Ukraine was attacked.
Half Ukrainian, half Russian, before he died, Gorbachev grieved over the war. He saw the two people as brothers with a long historical bond. Gogol was Ukrainian. So was Trotsky. Sergei Prokofiev, the great Russian composer, was born in the Ukraine. Fiddler on the Roof, which we all assume was about a Russian shtetl took place in the Ukraine. My wife’s grandfather always described himself as Russian. It now turns out he was Ukrainian. Zelensky’s grandfather, was a colonel in the Russian army during World War II. He grew up speaking Russian as did his parents. Sholoim Aleichem was Ukrainian. There are monuments to him in Lviv and Moscow. Solzhenitsyn’s mother was Ukrainian. So were the genius Russian pianists Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels, violinists David Oistrach, Nathan Milstein. Soviet Cosmonauts Georgy Beregovoy, Leonid Kizim, Anatoly Levchenko, Anatoly Filipchenko, Anatoly Artsebarsky, Igor Volk, Pavel Popovich, Verkhovna Rada, Georgy Dobrovolsky–all were Ukrainians. Although Tchaikovsky was for the most part Russian, his father’s father was Ukrainian and over 30 of his works have Ukrainian subjects or incorporate Ukrainian songs or melodies. His sister lived in the Ukraine and he spent most summers there. He lived there from 1876-1879. He composed Swan Lake, the Sleeping Beauty and Euegene Oregin while living in Kamianka, Ukraine. It should also be noted that our great Ukrainian hero, President Volodymyr Zelensky took part in a petition to drop Tchaikovsky’s name from the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine. The government viewed the composer as a tool of the Kremlin’s imperial design. Streets honoring the Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin have been renamed as part of the attempt to derussify the Ukraine.
Yes our support of the Ukrainians is to “protect democracy.” Their leaders were elected. But the war’s origins is derived from far more complicated factors. A good many Western Ukrainians, apparently a large majority, have considered themselves European and hated Russia over the centuries. But what is and is not the Ukraine has been literally all over the map throughout its history. The Western portions of the Ukraine, Galicia and Volhynia were once part of Poland. Like Russia today, Poles didn’t think of the Ukraine as a real country. From the point of view of ordinary citizens in that part of the world, they have not been that far off. I knew this Hungarian American family who see themselves as totally Hungarian They spoke Hungarian. They were Hungarians. It now turns out they actually lived in what is now the Ukraine. Parts of today’s Ukraine were considered Czechoslovakian, other parts Rumanian. Kviv was once the capital of the earliest Russian nation. At the turn of the 20th century a majority of Kviv’s population was Russian.
Unlike the view today, during most of the past most Ukrainians didn’t think of themselves as part of a Ukraine nation. They were Hungarians Poles, Russian, Slavs, Tartars, Cossacks. It wasn’t just in the Ukraine. The borders of nations in that part of the world were constantly changing. Similarly, the endless wars that went on for centuries in Western Europe constantly redefined boundaries. But it was more than boundary disputes. The idea of what is, and is not, a nation hadn’t been clear in much of Europe until the 19th century. It was at that point that being part of a “nation” ascended as the dominant way of viewing territories. Rome, which was controlled by the Pope had many wars with neighboring Italian cities. Italian was the official language of Nice until France annexed it from the Italian kingdom of Sardinia. Venetians and the Milanese started thinking of themselves as Italians in the 19th century. Similarly, Prussians, Saxons, and Bavarians (although they had gone to war against each other at various times) began to think of themselves as German. Hitler wasn’t a German. He was an Austrian. In that spirit, Ukrainian nationalists believed they should be part of their own nation. It was an idea, a call to action rather than something that actually existed. But clearly it was a dangerous thought from Poland’s point of view. In the part of the Ukraine which they considered Polish they tried to suppress Ukrainian nationalism wherever it popped up. They closed down Ukrainian speaking schools. They tried, not always nicely, to turn the Ukrainians into Roman Catholics. Although, throughout its history, other people occupied their lands and considered the Ukraine part of their country, as in other parts of the world, Ukrainian intellectuals starting thinking of themselves as Ukrainian. They were spreading an idea, a nation of Ukrainian people. As we will see Ukrainians had their revenge.
Russia was hated as much as Poland for the same reason. They also tried to suppress Ukrainian nationalism. But that was not their worst sin. In the 1930’s Stalin viciously tried to impose collective farming, shooting any one opposed. This led to the greatest non-wartime famine in history. A million Russians starved to death because of these Moscow city boy ideas about the best way to farm. Four million Ukrainians starved to death. Russia grabbed what grain there was and shipped it to the Soviet Union. After Russia liberated the Polish ruled part of the Ukraine, many Ukrainians in turn greeted the Germans in World War II as liberators from the Russians. Their fury was part of their joy. At first, the Jews and the Russian Bolsheviks were linked as the enemy. But rapidly it became all Jews. Local Ukrainians joined the Germans 10 days after they took over Kviv, at a nearby ravine, Babi Yar, slaughtering 33,771 Jews and any Russians still lingering in Kviv. Subsequently, 1.5 million Jews were killed throughout the Ukraine, according to historian, Erich Haberer, mostly by Ukrainians rather than Germans themselves. Not just Jews. The hatred of foreigners was far more passionate than what we now call “racism” In 1943, Ukrainian nationalists, with the Nazi’s help, also slaughtered 60,000 to 100,000 men, women and children of Polish origin who were living peacefully in villages in the Ukraine. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) with the support of parts of the local Ukrainian population turned against the Polish minority in Volhynia, Eastern Galicia, parts of Polesia and the Lublin region from 1943 to 1945. The idea, at first, was to kill Polish leaders so that after the war, Poland could not claim ownership of these territories. But when there was resistance it turned into something more. Unlike current media propaganda, which uses the term loosely (for instance against Israel) actual genocide was practiced not only by Hitler, but also by Ukrainians. Indeed, UPA commander in Volhynia Dmytro Klyachkivsky “Klym Savur” issued an order in June 1943 for the “general physical liquidation of the entire Polish population”.[18]
Putin often speaks of the Ukrainians as Nazis, seemingly a ludicrous accusation considering that their leader is Jewish. Yes, a charmer from show business, a television personality is the public persona of the Ukrainians nation’s cause. He was elected by a majority of the Ukrainian people. But an appreciable number of Ukrainians with power, were Nazi affiliated. They still occupy a prominent role in their society. The 1943 killing of Poles was initiated and directed by a radical Ukrainian nationalist Stephen Bandera and his Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its military arm, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. As was the case throughout the war (and in many wartime massacres) the loosening of civilized restraints let loose cruelty and barbarism among many members of society that is hard to imagine.
Readers should be warned that the following description may be unpalatable It is copied from Wikepedia:
Attacks on Poles during the massacres in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia were marked with extreme sadism and brutality. Rape, torture and mutilation were commonplace, with entire villages wiped out as a result. Poles were burned alive, flayed, impaled, crucified, disembowelled, dismembered and beheaded. Women were gang raped and had their breasts sliced off, children were hacked to pieces with axes, babies were impaled on bayonets and pitchforks or bashed against trees.[152][153]
According to a document by the Polish underground, the crimes were atrocious:[153]
In all villages, settlements and colonies, without exception, the Ukrainians carried out the operation of murdering Poles with monstrous cruelty. Women – even pregnant ones – were nailed to the ground with bayonets, children were ripped apart by their legs, others were impaled on pitchforks and thrown over fences, members of intelligentsia were tied with barbed wire and thrown into wells, arms, legs and heads were chopped off with axes, tongues were cut out, ears and noses were cut off, eyes were gouged, genitals were butchered, bellies ripped open and entrails pulled out, heads were smashed with hammers, living children were thrown inside burning houses. The barbaric frenzy reached a point that people were sawed apart alive, women had their breasts severed; others were impaled or beaten to death with sticks. Many people were killed – after a death sentence – by having their hands and feet chopped off, and only then their heads.
According to eyewitness Tadeusz Piotrowski about the fate of his friend’s family:[152]
First, they raped his wife. Then, they proceeded to execute her by tying her up to a nearby tree and cutting off her breasts. As she hung there bleeding to death, they began to hurl her two-year-old son against the house wall repeatedly until his spirit left his body. Finally, they shot her two daughters. When their bloody deeds were done and all had perished, they threw the bodies into a deep well in front of the house. Then, they set the house ablaze.
The atrocities were carried out indiscriminately and without restraint. The victims, regardless of their age or gender, were routinely tortured to death. Norman Davies in No Simple Victory gives a short but shocking description of the massacres:
Villages were torched. Roman Catholic priests were axed or crucified. Churches were burned with all their parishioners. Isolated farms were attacked by gangs carrying pitchforks and kitchen knives. Throats were cut. Pregnant women were bayoneted. Children were cut in two. Men were ambushed in the field and led away. The perpetrators could not determine the province’s future. But at least they could determine that it would be a future without Poles.[154]
An OUN order from early 1944 stated:
Liquidate all Polish traces. Destroy all walls in the Catholic Church and other Polish prayer houses. Destroy orchards and trees in the courtyards so that there will be no trace that someone lived there…. Pay attention to the fact that when something remains that is Polish, then the Poles will have pretensions to our land”.[155]
UPA commander’s order of 6 April 1944 stated: “Fight them [the Poles] unmercifully. No one is to be spared, even in case of mixed marriages”.[156]
Timothy Snyder describes the murders: “Ukrainian partisans burned homes, shot or forced back inside those who tried to flee, and used sickles and pitchforks to kill those they captured outside. In some cases, beheaded, crucified, dismembered, or disemboweled bodies were displayed, in order to encourage remaining Poles to flee”.[51] The Ukrainian historian Yuryi Kirichuk described the conflict as similar to medieval peasant uprisings.[157]
According to the Polish historian Piotr Łossowski, the method used in most of the attacks was the same. At first, local Poles were assured that nothing would happen to them. Then, at dawn, a village was surrounded by armed members of the UPA, behind whom were peasants with axes, knives, hatchets, hammers, pitchforks, shovels, sickles, scythes, hoes and various other farming tools. All of the Poles who were encountered were murdered; most were killed in their homes but sometimes they were herded into churches or barns which were then set on fire. Many Poles were thrown down wells or killed and then buried in shallow mass graves as well. After a massacre, all goods were looted, including clothes, grain and furniture. The final part of an attack was setting fire to the entire village.[158] All vestiges of Polish existence were eradicated, even abandoned Polish settlements were burned to the ground.[52]
Stephen Bandera was the head of the UPA. In 2016 the Polish parliament instituted the National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists against citizens of the Second Republic of Poland, at the same time labelling the massacres an act of genocide. But there has been no public apology. Indeed, Bandera is seen as a national hero. A Ukrainian stamp commemorates his heroism. There is a 22 ft statue of him in Lviv in front of the Stele of the Ukrainian Statehood a towering monument to Ukrainian identity. Although their common fear of Russia has, for now, united them, the issues between the Poles and Ukrainians is far from over. In 2015, the Ukrainian parliament passed a law allowing people who denied the heroism of Ukrainian national resistance fighters to be punished. The Poles passed a bill making it a criminal offense to deny the “crimes of Ukrainian nationalists”. Zelenskyy has gone to a Polish Church, supposedly as an act of contrition for what the Nazi Ukrainians did to the Poles. But the towering statue remains. Bandera remains a hero.
It should also be noted that these wonderful people were the mainstay of the Nazi’s death camps. Ukrainians guards were said to outnumber the Germans 10 to 1 at Sorbitol, according to David Blatt, an inmate, who testified at the trial of the very vicious Ukrainian guard John Demjanjuk (who had escaped to America) Not every nationality would have been able to supply so many guards equal in cruelty to the Ukrainians that herded the Jews. And while Zelenskyy, during his election campaign, intended to clean up Ukrainian’s notorious corruption with his dream team of reformers, the dream team was gone after a few months in office. He made peace with a rotten bunch of people. The continued corruption, American money disappearing, has played a part in Congressional reluctance to further fund the war, including Ukrainian born representative,Victoria Sparks.
As to my objectivity on these issue I don’t completely trust myself. On the one hand, I am American and I want to side with my country, propaganda or not. But as a Jew, hearing of their violence towards the Jews, not just the Ukrainian Cossacks throughout the centuries, but many other Ukrainians during the Nazi era, I may not be the most objective writer. To be fair, the Ukrainians could not have been all bad. Yes the animals among them, as they always do everywhere when the chaos and lawlessness of war sets them free, flew into an orgiastic murderous rage. The psychiatrist in me can half understand the pleasure that comes from getting even. Hollywood writers know their audience is in need of a good, often violent “getting even” release. The pleasure in the movies comes from chasing down the bad guys and giving them what they deserve.
That is in the movies. In reality, rightfully or not, the hate can easily get out of control in the lawlessness of war. The victims aren’t always deserving as it would happen in a movie when the villain receives his just reward. The joy taken when free to kill, letting the hate fly out to even the score, the lawlessness that takes place in areas consumed by war allows the ghastliness, described above, to be turned against the weakest. It didn’t take that much propaganda to turn the Poles and Jews into villains. Perhaps, even without labeling them villainous, the satisfaction was similar, a catharsis spilling over from the killers mistreatment by whomever and whatever in the past (perhaps even the weather)“Take this you son of a bitch. Take that.” The pleasure and satisfaction felt by the killers-it happens again and again. Hate overpowers the mind. Shuts off any interest in truth. Again and again Jews have been the easiest targets. And as we saw when the Polish could be labeled evil, their women and children.
As to my objectivity on these issue I don’t completely trust myself. On the one hand, I am American and I want to side with my country, propaganda or not. Also as a Jew, hearing of their violence towards the Jews, not just the Ukrainian Cossacks, but many other Ukrainians, I may not be the most objective writer. But to be fair, the Ukrainians could not have been all bad. Should all of the Ukrainians be blamed for the killing they did? Should all germans be blamed for Nazism. Obviously, not every Ukrainian turned into an animal. Probably most didn’t. They were powerless to restrain the cruelest among them. Indeed description of those who tried to stop the violence, the way they too were tortured, makes it clear that nothing could be done. Many of the French guillotined during the revolution were not nobleman at all, but those who tried to intervene on behalf of innocent people. After the war, the Germans became one of Israel’s best friends. Perhaps, similarly, out of guilt, the Ukrainians elected a Jewish leader. The good among them, like the good among the Germans want to make it up to the Jews because, while they are ashamed of past behavior, they were not the ones doing the killing and stealing. If there is shame it is over their cowardice, an accusation most likely applied by the innocent to themselves in not standing up to the cruel among them. 2,673 Ukrainians have been recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous among nations for their efforts to save Jews. But what about the rest? Should they be condemned for not risking their lives to save the innocent? Would you, would I necessarily have been a hero.
But innocent or not I can’t personally whoop it up for Ukrainians. I didn’t buy a German car until I was sure every last one of the Nazis was dead. The idea of me adding to their wealth, even a smidgeon turned me off. Although I still can’t bring myself to visit there, I did eventually buyan Audi. And when I meet a German who seems a bit arrogant I am much quicker to blame German ways for the person’s personality. I know there are many fine Ukrainians, and perhaps, yes a majority had nothing to do with killing the Jews. But when I see them being presented as angels, a quality in America right now assigned to any and all victims, it drives me crazy, the deification of victims, absolving them of any and all vices. I feel for victims as much and as often as any decent person, but enough is enough. The fact that the Ukraine has been able to claim victimhood, rightly or not, should not shut off the rest of the brain. There is more to them, more in their history and their culture than being the beautiful damsel in distress that the world must rescue
As a psychiatrist I can’t help wondering about the psychology of the players in the news. But let me put this side of my thinking aside and return to the Ukraine today. Putin says he is not fighting to conquer the Ukraine. He can live with it being a neutral nation. It’s the Eastern Ukraine he feels should be a part of Russia, or at the very least, be independent of the Ukraine. In complete contrast to the Western Ukrainians, who far more have seen themselves as Europeans, in the Russian speaking Eastern Ukraine, despite being under Nazi control, many Communists cells continued to exist. They were never completely subdued by Germany. They were the mainstay of the Ukrainian underground fighting the Nazis. As a Jew I can’t help sympathizing with them since, together with the Russians, they eventually protected the Jews and freed them from the concentration camps. There has always been plenty of Anti-Semitism in Russia, but facts are facts. The Russians saved the remaining Jews. Were fewer Jews slaughtered by Eastern Ukrainians? I don’t know. But I do know who has been our better friend. Russia, Russian speaking people. And if Eastern Ukrainians believe they should be part of Russia, without knowing all of the details I am inclined to believe their cause is just. Not just because they have been victims of Western Ukrainian armies. Whether this was because of affection for its Jews or simply part of Russian resistance to Germany is not irrelevant.There was and is plenty of anti-Semitism in Russia but nothing like Germany. They didn’t kill their Jews.
Clearly I am not a long time scholar of the Ukraine. I am using Google and Wikipedia, and news articles, so some of my information may be tainted by the sites. I am new to the subject and find it difficult to separate fact from fiction. And I will admit the contrary streak in me has caused me to find information tarnishing the current angelic presentation of Ukrainians. I welcome factual corrections from readers of this piece. However, regardless of my iconoclasm, and probably some mistaken facts, my main purpose is to emphasize how complicated the situation is. And that hasn’t been done by our media. Even in educated quarters there has been little attempt to move beyond official attitudes. The truth is the usual, war time propaganda. What to believe has been been made even more sacred than global warming. So as the rebel I can’t stop myself from emphasizing Ukrainian evil to level the playing field. The reader be warned. But I will not apologize from my main point, wanting readers to take a better look at official attitudes. Yes the first thing to disappear with war is truth, but we are not at war, so this is the time to have a lusty debate. Important decisions my be ahead.
Perhaps the complex issues are best illustrated by Russian Olympic champion ice skater, Victor Petrenko. Born in the Ukraine to Ukrainian engineers, only Russian was spoken at home. He was sent to a Russian speaking school in the Ukraine. Despite being born and educated in the Ukraine he never learned to speak Ukrainian fluently. As a Russian Olympic champion, as an adult he organized many charitable events for Ukrainian children including a campaign to help those effected by Chernobyl (once more, in the Ukraine not Russia.)
In June 2008, he was elected to the Presidium of the Ukrainian Figure Skating Federation. In 2022, amidst Ukraine’s ongoing war against Russia, Petrenko was fired from his post as vice president of the Ukrainian Figure Skating Federation (UFFK) and expelled from the organization for taking part in an event in Russia that was organized by Tatiana Navka a Ukrainian ice dancer who won gold for Russia in 2006. She is the wife of Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov.
One other relevant read of the situation. At the beginning of the war Thomas Friedman wrote an article in the New York Times, “This Is Putin’s War. But America and NATO Aren’t Innocent Bystanders” (Please use the link) He described the anger of George Kennan (the person often credited with our anti-Soviet policies during the cold war). Kennan, like Gorbachev, felt we were extremely (and unnecessarily) aggressive surrounding the Soviet Union with armed NATO allies. Friedman quoted Kennan in the 90’s: “I think it is the beginning of a new cold war. I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else. This expansion would make the founding fathers of this country turn over in their graves.” (also please see at the end of this article a video from Professor Jeffrey Sachs with other facts about provoking Russia’s attack)
Russia has repeatedly said it will end the war if its conditions are met by the Ukraine. They are: 1) Change its constitution to enshrine neutrality 2) acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory. 3) recognize the separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent states (now part of Eastern Ukraine). Despite the clarity of their demands, The New York Times’ Steven Erlanger wrote September 2 2023 “Putin has said a lot of times he won’t negotiate except on his own terms, which are Ukraine’s obliteration.” Not exactly an accurate description. They have repeatedly had referendums in Eastern Ukraine, demonstrating that they are supported by the population. Perhaps, as we claim, their referendums are phony. There has been a movement of whole populations, so that many pro-Ukrainians have decided they want out, or don’t feel welcome and have left. Still I am willing to consider the possibility that a majority of eastern Ukrainians want to be Russians. If not, there were a certainly lot of Eastern Ukrainians willing to fight and die for their cause. Russia supplied the arms but not the soldiers. Sure, Russia has been trying to tip the scale, gain the independence of Eastern Ukraine.
Back to a previous issue–it should be noted that the declared boundaries of the Ukraine, which I have noted have previously gone in all kinds of directions were made official in 1991 and agreed upon by Russia. But I am not sure how meaningful that was. Russia’s nationhood was far from secure. In that very year, during a coup attempt, their Parliament was surrounded by troops. Gorbachev, the ruler of Russia, was placed under house arrest. So, one may question what it meant for Russia to agree to the present boundaries. And as noted above, Gorbachev was furious with the United States for not living up to understandings we supposedly agreed to when he agreed to end the Soviet Union. It also should be noted that the leaders of the Ukraine, at the time, were basically loyal to Russia. It was inconceivable that they would want to join NATO as the current government has sometimes stated it desires.
The mention of Trump often goes off in wild directions. But it is not coincidence that Trump’s first National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, was a strong advocate of better relations with Russia. So was Trump. And we know how Russia’s enemies in Washington were horrified. Indeed, with their false Russian collusion accusations they succeeded in demonizing Russia even before the Ukraine invasion.
To continue along this line–– the other current alliances should be noted. Biden has had a special relationship with the Ukraine. His son cashed in on absurd rewards while his father was Vice-president. Without any qualifications he was paid a million dollar a year for board seat on Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company. Burisma was being investigated by Victor Shokin their top prosecutor. Shokin seized four large houses and a Rolls-Royce Phantom belonging to the company’s owner Mykola Zlochevsky. Biden insisted that this prosecutor be terminated. In a 2018 speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, VP Biden bragged that he had threatened to withhold $1 billion in US loan guarantees for Ukraine unless Shokin was sacked. It also should be noted that Trump pushed in the other direction. He intended to withhold military assistance unless the Ukrainians proceed with their Biden corruption investigation. For this Trump was rewarded with another impeachment drama.
Perhaps the slimy everyday corruption of politicians shouldn’t tarnish the issues often cited in the Ukrainian war. Or perhaps they should for any perspective that might clarify how much of the lofty current war is related to these shenanigans and loyalties. It is worth considering.
To return to the war’s rhetoric, to reiterate, Putin’s demands don’t sound like the ravings of a mad man. Perhaps, if unopposed, he would try to conquer other former Soviet territories. He was very aggressive with Georgia, but here too, the situation is ambiguous. Stalin was a Georgian. Still it doesn’t matter. Reasons can always be found for any strategy. Certainly, as I noted, the alarmed reaction of Russia’s former occupied nations in Eastern Europe (including Poland!) is understandable. The Ukraine’s relationship with Russia is different than theirs, but if history is our guide they have reason for their concern. As I noted earlier the post-1991 relative peacefulness was put in danger with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
If the reader is becoming confused by my support for, and sympathy for the alarm their former satellites have shown about Russia, it is because I am somewhere in the middle. I am suspicious of our motives, their motives, everyone’s motives. There is reason to be suspicious, to weigh many points of view, to be especially suspicious that right and wrong isn’t the real issue as far as our foreign policy is concerned. From that perspective, let me be clear. Russia’s attack on the Ukraine is dangerous.
So, let me turn to that, indeed reverse where I was heading. Many have wondered if we have to win this war to counterbalance the humiliation of our retreat from Afghanistan. In the beginning the war demonstrated the superiority of our weapons. Regardless of Putin’s character, or the lack of democracy in Russia and China, we are entering a phase in history where war with them may be inevitable. It wouldn’t matter if they were true democracies or led by a king, or Communists, or whatever their government is. Our focus has shifted. Until Hamas’ attack on Israel we had grown tired of our war on terrorism. The danger seemed to have faded. Our focus had shifted to Russia and China. History brings powerful nations into wars of dominance. So now we have to win this war. From that vantage point I am all in for this war. Indeed, from a strictly realpolitik perspective I am unhappy with our wavering support both here and Israel. It is part of our pattern of not staying true to policy
After our humiliating retreat from Afghanistan many leaders of other nations were weighing if we can be relied on. Not only can our influence be eradicated by our defeat, but our reliability as a friend must be questioned. Meaning we have to duke it out with Russia. We can’t lose still again. If this is our motive for strongly supporting Zelenskyy I am totally on the side of our leaders. A world where we are seen as a paper tiger is a far more dangerous world. We are already seeing the consequences of Biden’s America being seen as weak. Iran would have never dared to let Hamas attack Israel, nor supported the Houthis attacks on ships and Hezbollah increasing their missile attacks if Trump were president. Biden like Jimmy Carter has been rewarded with his softness by again facing hostages to be freed. Having so vociferously proclaimed the freedom of the Ukraine as a moral absolute we can’t back down. We may question whether that absolute commitment was necessary but once done, it is done. Certainly, greater honesty about how complicated the war is, might have brought more flexible options. It still might not be too late to broaden the debate.
But let me still again to the moral dimensions of the war in the Ukraine. Leaving aside realpolitik, I believe the most important issue to note is that a lot more Ukrainians and Russians will be dying if the war goes on and on. We must quit presenting this war as a moral necessity, a fight against outrageous villains. Granted, if it isn’t presented that way no soldiers would be willing to die for their cause. And we wouldn’t be giving them billions of dollars, if the war was presented as simply a territorial dispute. But if we saw it that way maybe better solutions could be found. And frankly, the cynic in me can’t help commenting that once again we are having others fight our war.
No one considered Eastern Ukraine’s war with Ukraine worthy of a major effort on our part. We accused the Russians of meddling. They lodged similar complaints about us. Russia’s invasion changed the public’s perception and perhaps it is true that Putin’s invasion is analogous to Hitler’s early aggressions. But the fact is, this war would not be continuing if it were not for the principles we are holding sacred (i.e. fighting for a democratic nation’s integrity) It has never been presented as our policy but minimizing our own war dead, getting others to do the fighting has been our strategy for a long time now. It was basically true in Iraq where only 4550 American soldiers died in the 15 years we were there. 2400 Americans lost their life in Afghanistan during a 22-year war. By comparison, when we were actually doing the fighting 33,000 Americans died in Korea, 58,000 in Viet Nam and 407,000 in World War II. And now our vehemence that we are fighting a righteous war, risks no American soldiers at all. To achieve our strategic objectives, I am not against it if this must be our marketing tool. But I hope our decision makers are not deluded by their own propaganda.
Moreover, I wonder how Ukrainians will view their many deaths to come, whether they would be this steadfast if there weren’t American propagandists and money running the show, promising, expecting victory. Increasingly, there are stories of Ukrainians, who don’t want to fight, being unable to get out of the Ukraine. Is this another example of how American wealth gives us temporary illusions of our wisdom? We rolled into Afghanistan and routed the Taliban. They fled to Pakistan, but they knew what I fear the Russians already know. Our reliability is questionable. Our persistence evaporates. We eventually forget why we have gone to war. I hope we will not have a twenty year war in the Ukraine, but unfortunately that might be ahead for us. Our hands will be dirtied by the bloodshed to come even if American soldiers are not dying. Our good guy/bad guy polarization is destructive enough in our own domestic politics but extending it to a war is a worse sin. It may entangle us in a long war, a holy war that is non-negotiable, one that will bring many more deaths, rather than a truce, where concessions are made on the basis of both sides understanding the other’s grievances and legitimate desires.
Addendum: In this video Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia takes the position discussed earlier, that the US provoked Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine