Russia's War On Ukraine.

• Author: DeAtkine, Norvell

Russia's War On Ukraine

By Victor Rud, former Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Ukrainian American Bar Association

http://www.aim.org/special-report/russias-war-on-ukraine/

The author begins with a recitation of statements such as "Ukraine and Russia share deep historical and cultural roots," "Ukraine is part of Russia," and an assortment of others implying that Ukraine and Russia were inseparable entities. Listing a series of statements about the two countries, he challenges the reader to ascertain which were made by Russian officials and which by Western academics and politicians.

Rud then reveals that there is no distinction between those made by Western officials and intellectuals and those made by Russians. Many of the speeches and articles emanating from the West are in conformance with those of Russian officials. His point being that a considerable segment of the Western political and academic community is busily creating an image of Crimea's seizure as a rather insignificant event--a correction of an artificial creation (Ukraine), incompatible with historical facts.

Writing from an admittedly a pro-Ukrainian slant, Rud presents a forceful counter to Western soft-pedaling of recent Russian actions. He equates this with a historical mythology that seems to have become imbedded in academic circles. The author goes into a long exposition of Ukrainian history designed to paint a picture of a Ukrainian nation that existed before a Russian one. According to Rud, for some 500 years following the Mongol conquest of Russia, Ukraine and Russia "existed in separate religious, cultural, and political worlds."

Ukraine was reborn as an independent nation after WWI but this...