In the melee, the outnumbered separatist were trapped in a building where a fire broke out and 48 separatists died. This was clearly a tragedy but not an indication that the separatists were innocents or that Naziism was involved. Perhaps Putin made the link to Naziism because the event was one week before Russia's annual Victory Day, a celebration of the German defeat in 1945. (see here)

Der Verfasser erzählt und erklärt mit Herzblut. Er macht deutlich, dass sich die Welt verändert hat und Moskau sich nicht mehr alles erlauben kann. Er sagt aber auch, dass es ein Fehler der freien Welt war, auf die Annexion der Krim bloß mit lauwarmen Worten zu reagieren, nur um Russland nicht zu erzürnen, denn, „mit der Annexion der Krim wurden Imperialismus und Nationalismus zu zentralen Elementen und Triebkräften der russischen Außenpolitik“. Ebenso war es ein krasser Fehler, der Ukraine auf dem Bukarest-Gipfel 2008 den Weg in die Nato zu verweigern, denn dadurch war die Ukraine, die zuvor auf ihr Atomwaffenarsenal verzichtet hatte, schutzlos. Doch die Souveränität der Ukraine ist wichtig für Europa und für den Frieden in der ganzen Welt. Plokhy stellt natürlich auch dar, wie sich China positioniert, wie die USA, wie Indien, der ferne Osten, die europäischen Länder - und erklärt auch warum. In 2014, using a trove of newly declassified documents, Plokhy published a book called The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union. In it, he countered the usual triumphalist American interpretation of the Soviet collapse. What doomed the superpower wasn’t U.S. foreign policy, Plokhy argued, but its own political structures and ethnic fractures, its imperial weaknesses. It “died the death of an empire,” he wrote, “splitting along lines roughly defined by ethnic and linguistic territories.” As Ukraine and then the other republics broke away, Soviet (and American) leaders were reacting to events, not steering them. At the time of writing this review, we still await the big Ukrainian counter-offensive. On its success or failure will depend the future course of the war. In February, when the detailed planning for the Big Push was already starting, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told me how nervous he was about it. Such frankness is typical of him. A charming, natural-seeming former actor, he has brought his professional abilities to the job of representing Ukraine at the highest level: providing the roar, he says, channelling Winston Churchill. West and Russia—which vehemently opposed the action—demonstrating how little Russia’s views and declaredI've wanted to read Serhii Plokhy's history of Ukraine, 'The Gates of Europe', for a while now. But when I discovered that he has written a book about the current war in Ukraine, I decided to read that first. In 1240AD Batu Khan's Mongolian "Golden Horde" invaded the Byzantine Empire centered at Constantinople. The disruption Constantinople's ability to serve as the Kyivan Rus' protector and regional power shifted toward the Duchy of Muscovy, which would expand to incorporate much of the Kievan 'Rus territory. While journalists present at the time depict a complex interaction between the Russian state, nationalist freelancers and local actors (in particular in Donbas), Plokhy tells the story as completely determined by the puppetmasters in Moscow: “the Russian intelligence services organized a push for independence from below.” Future historians will have to sort out the evidence here, once more sources become available. Well a barrier is one thing, but a springboard is a whole other thing. Putin might not mind a barrier but when the Ukrainian constitution was changed on 7 February 2019 to include the strategic objectives of joining the EU and NATO, then for Putin the barrier was now very clearly becoming a springboard.

Based on decades of research and his unique insight into the region, he argues that Ukraine's defiance of Russia, and the West's demonstration of unity and strength, has presented a profound challenge to Putin's Great Power ambition, and further polarized the world along a new axis. A riveting, enlightening account, this is present-minded history at its best.Nach Gorbatschow musste sich die Sowjetunion neu ordnen, oder das, was von ihr übrig war. „Im November 1988 erklärte Estland als erste Sowjetrepublk seine Souveränität.“ 1991 stimmte die Mehrheit der Ukrainer für die Unabhängigkeit. Selbst in Russlands Herzen gab es Bestrebungen nach mehr Demokratie, bevor Jelzin 1993 sein eigenes Parlament unter Beschuss nehmen ließ. In Russland geht es nie ohne Gewalt ab. Und Moskau will nicht begreifen oder einsehen, dass niemand freiwillig auf seinem Schoß sitzt. Wen es nicht mit Waffengewalt in Schach hält, der läuft davon und das so schnell wie möglich.