Death by Russia

In December 2021 the Russian government, as represented by its president Vladimir Putin, presented the west with two documents, one to the United States and one to the European Union. They were draft treaties outlining a new security arrangement for Europe and inviting discussion, negotiation, and eventual implementation. In these documents the security of every nation in Europe, including Russia, would be guaranteed a framework of peace and stability, trade and cultural exchange, with every nation participating. Call it a military Marshal plan.

It was rejected. Worse. It was ignored. Rejected items can be picked back up and reconsidered. Ignored ones cease to exist.

Instead, the Ukrainian army, heavily trained and provisioned by NATO, was poised to overrun the Donbas in March of the next year. Two months later Russia ‘invaded’ Ukraine before they could visit genocide on the Russians living there. According to the west, history began on February 22, 2022. There was forced amnesia of everything that led to that terrible necessity. 

At every corner, staring down every dark alley, ominous at the head of every rapids, before every soul-sucking, festering swamp and at the beckoning edge of every snake pit, Russia has attempted to avert a catastrophe by inviting the collective west to participate in a dialog of peace, equality, and mutual respect. 

Two Minsk agreements. A voluntary withdrawal from the gates of Kiev. The Astana Accord. Immediate cease firing at even the hint of a willingness to negotiate. All intended to peacefully end the conflict and begin the process of peace. Instead, we got Angela Merkel admitting that the Minsk agreement was a ruse intended to allow NATO to rearm Ukraine. The death must flow. 

Russia wanted Pushkin, we wanted Pershings. Russia wanted cooperation, we wanted conquest.

It failed.

 Since then, almost two million Ukrainian soldiers are dead. The kill ratio of Ukrainians to Russians now stands at 30 to 1. The Ukraine, the place where my grandfather was born and that I grew up respecting, is experiencing death by Russia. And they are about to collapse. WWIII looms beyond. You made your bed. Now die in it. Is it worth it?

We are getting the consequences of our choices.