Comments policy, same as always. Please stay on point. In this case, the point is the above, extended headline, and nothing else. Have fun. Please don’t insult my beautiful Rainbow Flag, you know I will take that personally. We are all a little gay, inside. The “Latin Mass” people (who give me no money), of course, much so more than others.
Ukraine redeploys forces from other sectors, commits almost all reserves, has 19 brigades (16 maneuver, 3 artillery) and parts of another, plus multiple brigades of militia—the gayest army ever assembled, and densest concentration of force since at least the 1982 Lebanon War—in place and preparing to take back Soledar, unblock and recover Artemovsk (Bakhmut.) Operation to use new weapons (incl. “Switchblade 600” kamikaze drones); to be undertaken with real-time battlefield intelligence and close operational guidance from dedicated U.S. military command center (same as east Kharkov offensive last year, but with even more complete integration of U.S. battlefield awareness software among Ukr. commanders—the largest, most intensive and realistic U.S. Army “war game” EVER.) Will America’s Frankenstein knock Russia out this time?
Posted in Your UN-fake News Source
Is this move not too risky? Even for Ukrainians?
Putting everything in one card.
Headline only? This is an OUTRAGE. I NEED more Dreizin.
Just kidding. That’s big f,uc,k,i,n,g news. Are Russians prepared for this? Could this actually defeat the Russians? Is this happening right now or in the near future?
Could be next week.
Hey Siri add more popcorn and tissues to my shopping cart.
Will this action allow Russia to attack American intel, i.e. satellites?
A lot of blood spill I grant you, remember the old song, “anything you can do, I can do better” yes I can, no you can’t, yes yes yes. I can,”
Or, it’s too late baby.
No trillion $ bring those boys home on both sides and it could all have stopped at any juncture over the past year, an historic American loss a Global eye opener , I hope it ends quickly. That’s just the start of my many hopes regarding causation & justice, timescales.
The whole world is sick to the teeth with USA.
Timescales, OK. That’s some serious beat slam poetry.
You’re almost correct. The whole world is now sick up to their eyeballs with the US. (And 99.9999% of Americans think we’re still loved! Lol…)
I myself am sick to the very tips of my split ends.
I couldn’t agree more, justice and timescales, I’m impatient to see truth and justice assert itself in the world.
Please let the spearhead be toward Kursk – the US needs the history lesson.
Maybe some of those Nato Military Command Center assets will meet with unfortunate mishaps this time.
It’s not even NATO. It’s literally just the U.S
I’ll settle for that…
The American strategy in Ukraine is “more cowbell !”
In Russia they don’t do cowbell, but they do do artillery. (do do ?)
But, how long does it take to train the Ukrainians up on cowbell?
That is a particularly beautiful Rainbow flag Jacob. Something the Forces of Globohomo can be proud to follow into battle!
Russia will prevail. Out of Russia comes the hope for the world.
Is this a NATO/US dry run?
In other words it does not matter if there is a loss, we use this to test and demonstrate…
As a future tool of “deplomacy”.
It’s like SLAPP approach… (“lawfare”) where it doesn’t matter the outcome of this specific battle.
Aren’t Ukrainians too inexperienced with offensives to pull this off? Or will US leadership be able to pick up the slack?
If this fails, is the war pretty much over? Can Ukraine continue if this doesn’t work?
I have no doubt what you’re saying is factually correct, but it reminds me of the logic that brought the Germans to fight the Battle of Kursk or the Battle of the Bulge. If Germany had retreated from Stalingrad on time, and if it had abandon undefendable territories it held in the Soviet Union, it could have maintained control over the Romanian oil fields, preserved most of its wartime industries, and kept the war going for a very long time. That would have been the smart move. What it did instead is what you are saying the Ukrainians and their American backers are planning on doing. That’s just not very smart.
Anyway…
If the Ukraine stops with the constant counteroffensive planning and attempts, its sugar daddy will lose interest. Daddy does not pay the Ukraine to just sit on the defensive. If daddy loses interest, no territory is defensible.
Also, north Donetsk is the last line of urban barriers before wide open space to the Dniepr.
The best way to avoid a decisive battle is by not allowing yourself to get into one. The Russians are experts at this, and always have been (with a few exceptions). The Germans, on the other hand, simply loved the idea of decisive battles (just like the Swedes, which is why both countries consistently lost wars). Declaring Bakhmut a “fortress city,” which is what the Ukrainians have done, is literally them following the failed German playbook down to the last detail.
You’re right, though, it isn’t necessarily just the Ukrainians’ fault. For the Americans, this is a game of sorts, and the Ukrainians need to keep the politicians and permanent civil service in Washington satisfied and morbidly entertained.
Excellent Post
The Ukrainians will win if the bring a TLM priest with them to pray in the trenches.
Lol
I’m afraid it’s going to be a blood bath!
There is a fair bit of mud around these days (and for next few weeks). Isn’t there?
Are the Russians aware of this and prepared for it?
Well, you’ve got to figure they know because they read the Dreizin Report, LOL.
Of course, a third or so have relatives in Ukraine and like the USA they have satellites up there. They also have an intelligence service.
Russia knows this and Ukraine has no choice. The Russians knocked out a large portion of S-300 air defense through the use of AWACS and Ukraine is low on missiles for them.The long standing question of where is the Russian Air Force is now being answered. They’ve begun dropping Gravity Bombs on Ukraine Defense lines and it will continue.
Ukraine has been withdrawing their best military forces from Bakhmut for this offensive while sending the poorly trained they’ve rounded up off the streets to be used there as cannon fodder.It will be bloody battle but Russia’s prepping the ground. Air superiority and ground support is with Russia. My bet is on them.
In Russia we already are retreating for Urals!
You are little bit early for April Fool anecdote, Jacob) I would simply recommend to everyone, look up video of Ukraine forces right now retreating from Artyomovsk/Bahkmut and most carefully pay attention to roads, or what used to be roads before spring time thaw.
PS–Finnish PM Sanna Martin made appearance laying flowers at funeral for one of Ukraine’s most infamous not-Zs, Dmytro Kotsyubaylo, who literally is recorded in 20 April 2021 New York Times about feeding his pet wolf bones of Donbass childrens. I just wondering if you think such visit coordinated, or simply more evidence that she not exactly smartest person? Thank you as always for your great humor, Jacob.
You will return in due time, and prostrate yourself before me.
(I didn’t say how it will turn out, BTW. Only asked a rhetorical question, for entertainment’s sake.)
Maybe you can write a post on the Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse. Do you think the failure of SVB may be what stays the Federal Reserve’s hand and staves off a double rate hike?
It looks like Hollywood style propaganda has been slowly and steadily brought up to hysterical level.
I’m sure that all of German and French tank will make a hell of a difference on the battle field. All of 30 or 40 of them. To add to this “Swithchblade 600” kamikaze drone there is finally s game changer. With
all of the American software where do you think Jacob will this Ukraine offensive stop, Rostov?
It will probably stop not far from where it starts.
At this point of time there is no chance for us (Russia) to lose this war. The political will to end all this nightmare in a way that will be acceptable for Russia is very strong and many simple people understand that the only way to end this war is to win. Winning at least means changing the government in Ukraine, no NATO expansion eastwards ever, and keeping all the gained territories as part of Russia (maybe Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk and Kharkov as well).
As for the coming battle… Taking ground by the Ukrainian army will not change anything (even if they will be able to move forward). They have to destroy our forces to win the battle. Can they do so? I cannot imagine this happening under any realistic circumstances.
Have you seen what’s semi-openly going on in Georgia, Moldova and Poland? Until the US run out of debt and willing proxies they will not stop their attempts to own Russia. I continue to look with promise on the peace efforts in West Asia for some balance to return to our globe.
This is the right take.
I dunno, Russian c4isr is on par with the US, there will be no “surprise”. They see the same little green men we do. What the Russians do have is; hundreds of thousands of fresh, motivated, mobilized troops… air superiority, if not supremacy, and a huge artillery advantage. This will not end well for the Ukrainians if this is their next move. Shoot the moon and hope for the best is not a good strategy.
Methinks the endgame in the Donbass is rapidly approaching.
I had an interaction with the wife of some sort of high officer in the Ukrainian army today. The wife showed me the latest official position of the Ukrainian government. It really is where the western media gets its info from. The lady knew it was propaganda. Never-the-less… I am also having an ongoing email interaction with a Russian in Europe that is 100% “for Ukraine” – the whole nine yards. I tried to discuss propaganda with him. He did not want to waste time on that. Basically, there are plenty of Russians outside of Russia that simply want to cheer on anything that remotely looks like a win against Putin. They do not care about Ukrainian losses. I think he has just about shut down communication with me. Way too many truth bombs coming at him.
Your comment is way off topic. I’m only publishing it, because (no offense intended) it’s so uniquely pathetic. I’m guessing your “wife of some sort of high officer” (LOL), is just someone online who could be anybody. Same with your “Russian in Europe.” Is he Russian, is he Ukrainian? If Russian, did he emigrate 30 years ago? And the best question… Why are you wasting time, arguing with strangers online? Find something better to do. Sure, I argue some in the comments here (not for long, mostly to shut people up), but I have a blog to run… and now, it’s making me a lot of money. Respectfully, you should seek out more constructive activities.
I know it could be construed as off topic, but imho……………………………
Yes, it’s off topic. Had to delete.
BTW, you comment here a lot, thank you, that’s a great first step. Care to donate?
No doubt Brandon’s looking to clean his maculate, withered hands of this sordid Ukrainian tar baby by the time the election cycle begins ramping up in earnest, as it’s going to be an eminently exploitable political liability.
If the war goes badly for the US, the Republican half of the Uniparty won’t find it that easy to exploit it to their advantage. The Pubs have been as enthusiastic as the Dums on rooting for Team U and pledging their eternal devotion to the cause. They would have to be pretty deft to make a reversal work for them, and the dictionary does not have an image of the Republican Party logo next to the entry “deft”.
They best they would probably hope for is to campaign on the basis that if they had been in charge they would have made enough of a commitment of resources to ensure the Ukes would have defeated the filthy Commies. That may not work any better than their 2022 campaign strategy of “you have to vote for us because it’s our turn”.
It seems to me the USA has enticed the Ukraine into a lose-lose situation. If they don’t attack Russian forces USA aide ends. So the Ukraine loses. If they attack Russian forces, there is a small chance to delay a loss, but they will still lose in the end.
Such are the rewards of hubris and letting one’s country be a pawn of American foreign policy. It can only be hoped that Russia speeds up the pace and ends this war quickly.
“It can only be hoped that Russia speeds up the pace and ends this war quickly.”
One of the first objectives of the Russians, from the start, has been to annihilate the Ukr army. Which makes sense because they have to think about the post war. So, how do you do that if not by an attrition war, which means not a “quick” war. It’s not a strategy without risks though.
It was certainly intended.to be quick, at the beginning. Since then, any mass butchery has been a side effect of taking or successfully defending territory. There has been no consistent, overarching approach. It is all situation-specific, as with any long war. Anything else, is only in your head.
I’m guessing the Russians are going to knock the shit out of the UAF attack with a vulgar display of firepower. The HR updates will need to switch theme pictures from the empty barrel to squeezing nothing out of a stone.
Thanks for the idea, but any “frontline” update, will henceforth be headlined under the rainbow flag, in recognition of the Ukraine’s enormous contribution to GLOBOHOMO.
Riddle me this Dreizin: why does this flag induces uncontrollably laughter in me? Could it be that it reminds me of the bruised anus of a certain kind of people, as proposed by a certain language artist, cough Jacob D. cough.
I have to admit, while reading what could be the shortest report in the History of Reports, the laughter became somewhat nervous as that flag might soon represent the sphincter of globohomo’s portal to the kingdom of Hades. Many a soul will be ferried across Acheron and Styx.
This is going to be a slaughter WHAT THE FUCK!!!
Educated guess
the following s/w will play a rôle …
https://systematic.com/en-gb/industries/defence/products/sitaware-suite/
It does seem like Russia has the advantage here but the word on the street is that Zelensky might lead the offensive to tip that scales.
Yeah, he us already preparing the leather stuff from his dancing videos. The situation must be quite serious now…
Don’t underestimate the power of booger sugar. Look what it did for Tony!
A couple of serious observations.
The weather makes this a horrible time for an offensive.
Wagner complaining about lack of artillery ammunition seems like theatre. If Wagner has been wanting ammunition it’s probably because many of Russia’s new formations have been supplied and stockpiling ammunition for just such a contingency. Perhaps Ukraine has a few tricks up their sleeve like the drones, but overall this looks like it could be a huge disaster for the Ukraine.
Is this going to be Ukraine’s version of the Battle of the Bulge and they are going to be playing the Germans????
Wagners will beat them to death with entrenching tools, box them up in wooden coffins then play the funeral march on a fiddle.
Get ready for the Russians to fall back, then encircle the ukronazis.
I guess Ukraine’s leaders have to “do something” to keep their bosses happy.
Need to keep them interested too given the distractions of tension with China, intended colour revolution in Georgia and the Chinese brokered Saudi-Iran rapprochement. Only so many wars and colour revolutions that they can cope with at one time.
Ukraine clearly needs to create some excitement. Been nearly six months now since they could last claim they had “won” something but a lot of money has gone their way in the meantime. The clock is ticking.
Make or break moment. If Ukrainians defeat Russians, we will see a new mobilization in Russia and the war will just go on. Now if Ukrainians lose, there will be no coming back for them, it’s game over.
How can the Ukies “defeat the Russians” at this point? They might make it to Soledar and beyond but even then it’s just back to square one. Then what, on to Sevastopol and Rostov? Cool, then Moscow and beyond dictating terms to a disheveled Putin and Lavrov in the Urals?
Check the demographics of this war: which is, like all wars, a numbers game. Ukraine cannot win this war and never could. It was always based on the lie that Ukraine and Russia were somehow military peers. (Hint: Ukraine now relies 100% on the West for all weapons and ammo).
Interesting. I would imagine it should hasten the end considerably. AM, in his latest daily granular commentary on Bakhmut, thinks the mass of forces is defensive, this didn’t ring true at all.
I was just reading about the pro war rally, organised by beltway umbrella funding groups of the Ukr nazi organisations, in DC on 25 Feb. Appropriately addressed by, among others, harpy Samantha Power, and other senior Biden admin officials. What a time to be alive!
Hello. Who cares what Mercouris thinks? He doesn’t have any idea. He spends 5 minutes per day, reading the English version of Rybar. That’s his only war source, or so I’ve heard. He should avoid the topic, and just stick to trashing UK and Euro politicians.
Every possible turn, every offensive, every move of troops gets game planned in Pentagon, and then in anticipation of Russian defeat US makes a stink about Putin using tactical nuclear weapons. This time no nuclear talk, which means even crooked NATO computers don’t think this counter offensive will change much.
“densest concentration of force since at least the 1982 Lebanon War” — I guess that’s what tactical nukes were designed for.
On September 9, 2022 you had a post “Prepare for Nukes”. Maybe now will see nukes used in Ukraine.
That would be a blast!
I hope the Ukrainians, and their American masters, fail miserably if this happens.
America needs a huge, embarrassing defeat now more than ever. The sooner we are knocked down a few notches, the better.
I hope history books point out the tragedy of them using 16/17 year old kids and likely younger soon as cannon fodder. It’s very sad to see thousands of children being murdered indirectly by there own government. Likely we will never read the truth here in US as over the years no matter how many people I’ve talked to would not believe how many kids we killed in both Iraq wars. Even recently no matter how I explained it about thousands of afghan kids dying after we pulled out(ran away) I think any offensive at this point is just slightly delaying the defeat as the Russians view this as a threat to there very existence.
The only thing that might save Ukraine at this point is nukes but what would save us? the Russians would go after the US or Israel directly instead of the Ukraine.
Hello Jacob. What are your sources for this? Thanks.
This might be fun to watch from a safe distance…SAD, but fun
So this is the part of the play where Russia can’t afford to do the gradual grind it seems. But maybe it’s all bluster. The Russians seem pretty good at deciding on appropriate tempo. And they’re also a lot better at the intelligence game than they’re given credit IMO. Well, they’re broadcasting their intentions anyway. But what they broadcast is often the feint. Looks like Russia not taking the bait to go for a huge Winter offensive will allow them to be in a good position for all this. Ukraine’s army is beaten to shit. We’ll see.
Off topic and unrelated … Please leave your buy me a coffee link in a standard visible place so I don’t have to scroll to find it every month/you appear to like bold print except for that link. I am lazy/ I enjoy being lazy / I enjoy drinking my coffee being lazy — don’t make me work 😉
No Frankenstein offensive can ‘knock Russia out’, it can keep the show on the road and the money flowing here and there – very important to some people. It might persuade Russia to accept some sort of unfavorable peace but I doubt it.
Obama said it all in 2016. Russia will always have escalation dominance in Ukraine but he also said the US has to decide what it is worth starting a war over and ‘doubt’. This is ‘doubt’ – a NATO version of the Israeli crazy-man tactic.
Russia seeks de-militarization and de-something or other. They are very pragmatic militarily and the US and Ukraine are run by corrupt gangsters, so expect the unexpected.
Finally I don’t believe Ukraine has committed all its reserves. What matters to their US masters is Odessa and access to the sea, so there will be troops held back to protect that. They may of course be Polish.
Ah. Impelled by its own inner logic, the death cult has no option than to double down.
The right analogy here is not King Darius and the writing on the wall.
It is the Baal priests, incited to further fury and sacrifice by Elijah’s taunts on Mt Carmel.
‘We will die on the field of glory and go to Walhalla’, or die trying.
Let’s pray it ends before the fire from heaven part.
Wow it seems the Ukrainians are throwing almost everything including the kitchen sink into the Bakhmut-Soledar axis.Could it end up being like the Hitler last throw of the dice in summer 1943 in the Battle of Kursk his last major offensive to regain the initiative only for the Red Army to defeat the Germans in this Battle thus Germany became too weak to launch any new major offensives in the Eastern Front?Lets see if history repeats itself
It appears Putin is still reluctant (or scared) to hit the US/Nato command and control centers in Kiev and Poland and to boot “allowing” US AWACS planes to fly freely near Crimea relaying live battlefield targeting data to the Ukies. WTF must be missing something.
One thing I never see mentioned on this point is that Russia and Crimea are also considered off limits for the other side, so the Russians can stage and conduct surveillance unmolested from their territory, too. If Russia hits targets outside the war zone, which is the territory called the Ukraine, it essentially escalates to make attacks into its territory fair game.
(Now I know there has been some targeting in Russian territory, but this is met with rebukes from Ukraine’s American masters–and I think this is why. Same for some apparent reluctance by the masters to give the Ukrainians weapons with longer-range striking capacity. They, sensibly, don’t trust the Ukrainians to understand the rules of the game, or even to abide by them if they did.)
Ukraine is throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at RU because it has to in order to keep US/EU $$$ coming, (especially after Zelensky got snubbed by the Oscars). If they are really counter attacking, they have chosen heroic loss and failure (with all their soldiers dead) over a measured retreat (Opinion: a measured retreat would turn into a rout but it wouldn’t look as good as a heroic loss in a counter offensive).
Agreed.
Fascist leaders seem to fear their own people and know that without continuous glorious victories, they are finished. (Contrast with Mao or the Taliban) So the self-preservation logic leads to one more throw of the dice and then, hopefully, exile (and a comfy retirement in Florida).
I have been thinking for some time now the Wagner Bakhmut pincers were vulnerable and a prime target for a Ukrainian counter offensive. It it went well enough it would be a significant PR boost… which they badly need to keep Western populations on side.
It’ll be a replay of Kursk, the final offensive action before endless retreat.
They are trying to change a bad strategic situation (you nailed it with the demographic data) with a tactical victory. Russia will just trade space for time keeping up the kill ratio until it is ready for a Bagration-style counter-attack in the summer or fall.
Only question, is it deliberate to bring down NATO and the EU on purpose or is it just stupid pet tricks? I.e. are there real patriots running the show that know this is the only way to end the Globo-Homo empire or do they actually think this will work?) I can never make up my mind on that one…
If RF has shown us anything is how slow they are to react. They knew the Kharkov counter-offensive was coming and they just let it happen.
It’s like the generals are probing Putin to act more harshly in the face of defeat. The position they created. They want more soldiers, more bombs and more targets they can drop that stuff on. Does this make any sense?
What will Putin do if generals fumble once again (deliberately or not) and Donetsk itself becomes endangered?
Because it worked for ze Germans at Stalingrad or Kursk too… Trying to break up the cauldron at Bakhmut while Russia prodding UA (N)West, in the Sumy Oblast. What can go wrong?
Pouring even more men and materiel into the place where they’ve already been getting slaughtered for months now, while also weakening your defences everywhere else, against an enemy with control of the skies, far more ammunition, and hundreds of thousands of fresh men waiting just across the border, doesn’t seem like a good plan to me. I’m not a military history scholar, but I don’t think it’s going to work. Especially in Ukraines mud. It just seems dumb.
Nice to know you have a little gay inside you; sounds charming 🌷
Someone made an important point here, the problem for Russia is that the US has numerous sock-puppet nations under it’s boot with the relevant controlled Politicians/ media in those countries to feed whatever lies are necessary to keep the war-mongering going. They can direct operations using the blood of these country’s soldiers while keeping their own power dry. Once they feel the Russian military is sufficiently degraded they may move with their own forces. The same can be applied to China, with Japan, S Korea, Australia as the American’s stooges in that particular theatre.
Alexander of Duran, the one who is a former Barrister gave a long monologue on this on the 9th March the day before you posted.
I feel that Zelenskyy has not choice, the defences of Bakhmut are superior to that of Karamastrok & Slavank.
It’s better to make the last stand at Bakmuth, as fortification here will hold the enemy off for longer rather the falling back to weaker defence. If the aim is to prolong the agony as much as possible.
The Ukrainian counter attack will fail as massive preparations are being made by the Russians
No, something else needs to come in, else the Ukrainian army is doomed.
Hello. If Mercouris described it as you relate, he’s totally wrong, doesn’t have a goddamn clue. The offensive would not be in the city itself, it would be on the flanks of the entire Russian grouping in the region.
Right now? In the middle of the mud season? Doesn’t seem likely. It will be 50s and raining for the next two weeks in Bakhmut. Even at nighttime it will stay above freezing. And come April it will be in the 60s.
At this point, the winter campaign should be pretty much over and the spring/summer campaign would not start until, at the earliest, end of April/beginning of May.
I didn’t say when, did I? And, no, it is not forecasted to rain for 2 weeks straight.
Also, what the hell weather has the Wagner been advancing in??? Somehow, they’ve managed. The Soviet hardware can handle it, the Ukros still have some left. Again, I’m not saying when.
Jacob, can you see if there is any truth in this. https://warnewsupdates.blogspot.com/2023/03/did-russia-srike-nato-command-center-in.html
It’s bullshit.
Could the practice bombing run by USSA be a response to a supposed bombing with hypersonic Kinzhal missiles of a NATO Command HQ east of the ukraine 80m underground that, if true, supposedly killed 40?
What have you heard on that?
“The gayest army ever assembled”
That got me good. What is the deal with Nazism and (closeted/) homosexuality? Is the marginality of these characters, third reich or kiev leadership, with their heroic drug use and off-piste sexual preferences, causal via a maladaptive response to internal psychiatric turmoil/ formative romantic and or social rejection? Or is it they’re blackmailed strategically by influences we only get glimpses of? Both?
Great question. The 3rd Reich was very gay, but as for the Ukraine, it’s neither of your options. The Ukraine and its leadership are probably no gayer than any other “white” country.
As for the Nazism, they can’t avoid it.
The Ukraine is a historically new construction. Until the late 19th century, the Ukraine was merely a region, and 100% of its inhabitants, the Ukrainians, or Rusyns (Ruthenians) as they were called in areas under Austria at that time, considered that their language, or whatever regional dialect they spoke, was Russian (“Russka mova”), and they had zero political awareness or identity separate from Russia (with the exception of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, who were Cossacks, not as presently described, “Ukrainian Cossacks”, LOL.)
The concept of a “Ukrainian language” and the associated identity was constructed in areas under Austrian rule (parts of Galicia and Volhynia), with Austrian support and state financing, immediately after the local iteration of the 1848 revolutions, as a way to quell pro-Russian irredentism among landowners and the Russian Orthodox church in the region. From here on, the Galician literary dialect was also set as the “one and only” Ukrainian language, similar to how the dialect of Florence became “standard Italian.”
Due to Russia’s backwardness, the Russian Empire was unable to standardize its linguistic landscape in the same manner as the Germans and French had largely done by prior to World War 1, or World War 2 at the latest. That process requires compulsory schooling and mass literacy, which Russia did not have until Soviet days. Hence, by the time of the Russian Revolution, the Galician Ukrainist movement had been able to gain some marginal but elite following throughout all territories that spoke Ukrainian dialects rather than “Great Russian.”
This was subsequently channeled, with the Russian collapse of 1917-1918, into the formation of the Ukrainian breakaway state. After this was put down by the Bolsheviks (first and foremost, Ukrainian urban Bolsheviks from Kharkov and what’s today called Donetsk), it again came to life under German rule with the Galician-based Banderist movement.
Most Ukrainians did not vote for independence from the USSR in 1991, but the republic was abandoned by Yeltsin, and thus, had independence thrust upon it. There was a general lack of enthusiasm for the state, a lack of understanding as to its purpose, especially as by this time, almost all Ukrainian citizens spoke Russian as their language of work, at least, and among well over half of the population, of the home as well. In short, there was a near-total ideological vacuum.
The only people who had an ideology… were, well, guess who.
Today, excepting the far northwest, with its dominant Greek Catholic church, the Ukraine is still so similar to Russia (culturally there is ZERO difference)…..
…..that the ONLY way any Ukrainian leadership can aim to make its state distinct, to justify its own rule, is to invent a completely fictitious, phony history of some coherent, historical “Ukraine” that never existed (their school history textbooks are a RIOT)…..
…..and to adopt a “supremacist”, Russian-exclusionist approach and ideology. Like, “We’re not Russian goddamn it, we were never Russian, we will cut the Russian out of us, perhaps slowly, perhaps quickly if we can, but we’ll get rid of it, because the Ukraine isn’t big enough for minorities or two nationalities, so, someone needs to get steamrolled.”
In short, fascism.
The Ukrainian state (under German protection) of 1918, and then again with the Banderist movement (again under German protection, or benign neglect at least) during WW2 and then in exile… were explicitly fascistic. The former, even before the term existed.
I wrote last summer or so, that any independent Ukrainian entity will ALWAYS arrive at fascism as its governing ideology. It just took much longer this time (since 1991), in part because of the dominance of Russian cultural and professional media (and the difficulty in re-Ukrainizing in the absence of a sufficient written base and professional need) and the enormous cross-border family bonds left over from Soviet days.
But, it happened.
Obviously, Uncle Sam has taken advantage of this to establish his 51st state on the territory of the former Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Obviously, the majority of Ukrainian officials, educators, etc., are just there to get paid. Like people everywhere, they go along and are not driving the ideology.
Nonetheless, no fascists… no 51st state.