Ukraine – Three Years
Please see POSTNOTE at end of today’s post. Overnight Heather Cox Richardson summarizes Feb. 24, here.
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Today [Feb 24] marks three years since Russia invaded Ukraine. I did a post about this Feb 16, 2022 – a Wednesday. Friday of that week I was in surgery at UofM Hospital (colon) and on the day of the actual invasion by Russia I watched some of the unfolding events in my hospital room.
(The surgery was successful, and I just had my three year post-op and all continues to be okay.)
I have had subsequent posts about Ukraine (enter search word “Ukraine” at the magnifying glass icon at right.) I notice I had two earlier and directly pertinent posts about Ukraine: Nov. 21, 2014, Oct 19, 2019. And for the person with lots of time on their hands, “Ukraine” appears in over 80 other posts.
Each year since the invasion, I have been honored to be able to be in the same place with young visitors from Ukraine in the summers of 2022, 2023 and 2024.
The inclination is to stop here, and suggest ‘browse away’. I strongly support the U.S. continuing support of Ukraine’s fight against uninvited invaders from Russia.
About a year into the war, I was sitting at my coffee shop and noticed a woman carefully drawing a flag of Ukraine on the blackboard. It is presented here as a sign of solidarity with the Ukrainian people.
Here’s Frontline’s report on Ukraine conflict, received today.
The United States and Canada together have near 2 1/2. million citizens with Ukrainian descent. More than half of these are in Canada, making Ukrainian Canadian the largest diaspora in the western world; U.S. is second. There is an interesting article in Wikipedia identifying the significance of the name “Ukraine”
late August 2022 Ukrainian young people visit Minnesota
POSTNOTE: A few days ago I noted: “I heard about a just-released series on Netflix entitled Zero Day“. At the time, I hadn’t actually watched the six episode series. I now have watched all six, and I highly recommend it. I asked my spouse how she would rank it, and she gave it a “10” (best). Yes, it is fiction, and political, but it is very educational. I watched it from the perspective of just being a citizen. Don’t pass it by. Initiatives like this deserve and depend on support from people like ourselves.
A friend in Santa Fe NM send this op ed from a member of a very prominent family in Minnesota: op ed on DEI. I think you’ll want to read this short opinion by Adele Oliveira, in the Feb 16, 2025 Santa Fe New Mexican.
I plan to participate in the below activity on Friday.
The 24 hour Economic Blackout
COMMENTS (See also end of post):
from Carol: And also donated to the Protez Foundation in Oakdale which brings Ukrainian soldiers here who have had limbs blown off, to receive state-of-the-art prosthetics.
from Remi, Feb 25: NATO was never the primary issue; Ukraine was far from joining the alliance. The United States only began providing arms to Ukraine after Russia invaded Crimea. There was no formal agreement with Gorbachev regarding NATO; it was merely a comment. Putin’s goal was control, not security. Ironically, his actions have led Finland and Sweden to seek NATO membership.
Biden’s support for Ukraine came too little, too late. While it was adequate to prevent a defeat, it was insufficient to secure a victory. His fear of provoking Putin—specifically, concerns about nuclear retaliation—resulted in costly delays. Acting sooner might have led to a resolution of the conflict long ago.
In contrast to Biden, Trump does not fear Russia—rightly so. Russia is significantly weakened, with its economy in shambles, deteriorating daily, and suffering devastating military casualties and heavy equipment losses estimated at nearly 60%. Trump understands that Putin would not even consider a nuclear response; Putin has already lost. The real question is whether Trump will take action to save him—Trump doesn’t know what he will do himself.
You can make this public if you’d like.
from Remi, Feb 28: As I had feared, Zelensky was lured to Washington for this purpose. It was nothing less than a setup—an ambush meticulously orchestrated and executed by Vance, who had claimed that Ukraine was parading foreign leaders for propaganda tours. I could not be more disappointed and disgusted.
Dick the arrogant, narcissistic five-time draft dodgers and “one” day dictator is doing just as he promised during the campaign for his win over Harris. That is, “give Putin any damn thing that he wants!” and that is exactly what he and President Musk are doing. Th only thing that will stop them from donnée’s Nevile Chamberlain appeasement approach is if the EU countries work out a deal with Ukraine regarding the sharing of the special materials in the ground. Otherwise, Trump will turn everything over to his biddy, Putin., and then there will be peace in our time per the similar claim made in 1938 by Nevy.
With all due respect, I disagree. The information I received is that the West promised Russia that NATO would not come closer to Russia and not arm Ukraine, if Russia would agree for East and West Germany be united once again.
The West broke their promise and this is why Russia invaded Ukraine. They used the excuse the US used when Russia tried to put armaments in Cuba.. We would have attacked Russian ships bringing armaments and Russia itself, if they had not backed off. Russia invaded Ukraine because they were led to believe Ukraine was about to join NATO and were being armed for an eventual attack on Russia. Whether this was true or not, it was the leadership in Russia who believed it. I suspect the US would invade Mexico, if Russia began to arm Mexico and Mexican leadership was more friendly with Russia than with the USA. Just my View.
Fr Harry J Bury
Fr, this is a new one. Russia itself has been spreading rumors that there are Jewish Nazis (or something something) in Ukraine, and that’s why they invaded. Watching what has been done during the invasion by Russia, it’s very clear that Putin wants to rebuild the Russian Empire of old. Catherine the Great is not that long ago in political memory. Russia is willing to sacrifice (so far) a million lives in their meat grinder. Ukraine is the Texas of Europe, with oil, grain, and more. Most of Russia is not so much better than Siberia. It’s obvious why they want it. Obama let them have Crimea, and they knew with Biden in office, they weren’t going to get the rest in anything but an invasion. Kudos to UK for defending their sovereignty.
Not an Expert
I am certainly no expert, but I am an ardent supporter of the Ukrainian people. There is no justification for Russia’s unlawful invasion of Ukrainian territory. The International Court of Justice and the United Nations General Assembly have condemned Russia’s action and demand their withdrawal.
Like most Ukrainians I believe that Russia’s current aggressions started 10 years ago with the unlawful occupation of Crimea. There is a long history of Russian aggressions extending back to the World War 2 era.
Recently I became appalled that diplomats from the United States were meeting with Russian diplomats to assert dominance over Ukraine. Ukraine, their regional partners and supporters should have the dominant voice in peace discussions. I am disgusted that our autocratic US president is trying to craft unbalanced economic arrangements with the beleaguered Ukrainian government.
Ukraine has not applied to join NATO. I do not believe involving the United Nations would be fruitful. The Russians have veto power in the UN Security Council. Ukraine does need strong security. I believe some security agreement will evolve with European partners.
Ukraine is not merely an abstract policy debate. To show solidarity and persona commitment we regularly contribute to the Ukrainian American Center to purchase medical supplies. Our family contributes regularly to Alight, an effective refugee organization that has personnel in Minnesota and many rand other global locations. The local International Institute helps refugees from many lands.
Our family is helping two Ukrainian refugee families in Minneapolis sharing their both their challenges and hopes for a brighter future.