I was in Ukraine in 2006,. I attended a business conference in Yalta and visited relatives in Chernivistsi.

At that time, the Ukrainian government was making cultural changes to make Russian a secondary language in Ukraine. The Russian speakers were not happy with this move. The few people I was able to converse with in Crimea did not like being part of Ukraine. I believe the same feeling was in the Donbass. Both regions are majority Russian speakers.

The Russian minority in other parts of the country were not happy with these changes. They were agitating for protection of the their rights. Sixteen years later, they are the reason for Moscow to conquer all of Ukraine. If the Russian army was not so incompetent, the Ukrainian language would again be the secondary language of Ukraine.

I also believe that Russia, if not challenged by the west, would take control of the Baltic countries, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Moldava, and Romania. And maybe Finland, too. The NATO alliance is stronger than most western analysts predicted.

The separtists in the Donbass were funded and supplied by the Russian army. They did not raise their separtist army from their own economic efforts. From 2014 to 2021, Donbass was only a small war, with both sides holding to some kind of ceasefire line. Had either side not put up the resistance, the other side would have take over. There are several other places in the world in this situation.

If you say Ukraine shelling was trying to encourage Russian speakers in the Donbass to move to Russia, I would agree with you. But the shelling was also keeping the Russians from advancing further.

But now we are in a big war. At best, Russia might get its corridor to Transdinistri. But the Ukrainian people feel if the Donbass is surrendered, it will only be a matter of time for the Russia attacks Ukraine again.

THere is much drama to unfold yet. Nuclear war is a possibility.

Our world politics is very corrupt. The Russians attacking Ukraine is really not that much different than the Americans attacking Iraq.

We have to think of different ways than picking one side or another.