Well I am sorry, but I am going to swim completely against the tide about Ukraine.
Russia has a right to feel threatened by the West, as it has been US foreign policy for years to surround them with NATO affiliated countries.
For the last 13 years Ukraine has been in NATO's or more especially the USA's sights. CIA were in the country covertly, and senior politicians such as McCain, quite openly, funding, training and instigating the unrest that led to the Maidan revolt that overthrew an elected government because it was leaning away from NATO and the EU (who have also being wooing Ukraine at America's behest).
That revolt was led by some of the most vicious right wing thugs with Nazi sympathies and was no peaceful revolution... it was brutal in its execution. And even the flashpoint moment when the West went ballistic in their support... the killing of the protesters by sniper fire... is shrouded by mystery.
A leaked conversation by the EU's Baroness Ashton and the Estonian foreign minister adds credence to the accusation that it was the leaders of the revolution who shot at their own people to discredit President Yanukovych and give the West the ammunition to take sides.
www.channel4.com/news/ukraine-catherine-ashton-phone-shoot-maidan-bugged-leakedSince then the coup was cpmpleted and we, the West have given full support to the new Kiev government, with the US and their diplomat, Victoria Nuland, telling them who they should and should not have in the new government... and when Angela Merkel for the EU thought that was a bit too much, she dismissed those objections with her famous "f**k the EU" quote.
One of the first things that the new Kiev government wanted to do was to ban Russian as a second language. Now I recently worked with a group of young men from Eastern Ukraine. I had thought they were from Russia until as friendships grew they showed me photos of their homes. "So you are Ukrainian?" I asked... "No!" they said pounding their chests... "We are Russians"
And that of course our media won't accept. Eatern Ukraine is a small part of the country, but most in that area see themselves as Russians, because just a few decades ago they were.
Since the Kiev coup, they feel threatened.
And rightly so, because this is where I have a problem.
How many homes in Western Ukraine have been destroyed by Easter Ukrainians?
The answer: zero.
How many homes on Eastern Ukraine have been destroyed by Western Ukrainians?
The answer: tens of thousands.
How many Western Ukranians have fled to other countries?
Aha... virtually zero again.
How many Eastern Ukranians have fled to other countries?
The answer: half a million.
How many Western Ukranian civilians have been killed?
Zero!
How many Eastern Ukranian civilians have been killed.
The answer: over 3,000... including some recently killed by outlawed cluster bombs from the Kiev military.
So how is it that the Western media are portraying the people who are being killed, made homeless and turned into refugees as the villains... while the perpetrators of this barbarism are somehow made the victims.
Because of course the victims look to Russia and we can't have that here in the West. Are the Russians helping them? Almost certainly. And why shouldn't they when they call for help. I would hope that if there was a British enclave within a country that is being threatened, our government would do the same.
These views are not mine; there is open and honest media all over the Net that is questioning our motives and the showing the side of the conflict that Western mainstream media rarely allows to be seen. But look and you will find it by the thousands.
And lastly.. why should we kowtow to the US on this latest piece of their foreign policy jigsaw. Ask yourself: do you really want Ukraine in the EU. A poor country, with a population far greater than Poland... if they join, forget the mass influx of Polish labour that entered the country in the last decade... bring in Ukraine, and you ain't seen nothing yet!