Ukraine/Crimea/Russia issue

[Smaug]

Thank you for a very interesting and educational explanation of the Ukrainian situation.
I have saved your post for reference and re-reading.
Your discussion about the various exchanges of lands and economic and political pressures in the Ukraine area which led to the current disunity was enlightening. I was somewhat informed about the importance of the Crimea to Russia's navy, but I had no real understanding of how the Ukraine came to look like it does: thrown together.
From any view; local or global, the situation looks like a mess. Best wishes for the least destructive resolution.

Thank you for taking interest and not renouncing my opinion right away.

Ukraine's fate is basically typical for a territory that has always been between major imperial states such as Polish-Lithunian Commonwealth, Russian Empire and Austro-Hungaria, each of them having different cultures and religion (yeah, it seems that there isn't a conflict without religion taking part in some way). But everything is worsened by this fact that for hundreds of years modern Ukraine had basically been a set of culturaly rather separate territories. And by the fact that Kiev is such a historically-important city for the Slavs in general. I advise you to look into Kiev's history to see how important this city actually was in the past. No wonder modern ukranian nationalists have developed imperial ambitions.

Speaking of the nationalists, during the Crimea happenings but before the breakout of a civil war in Donbass and Lugansk the situation escalated so much that said nazis openly threatened and even physically attacked civillians in Eastern regions. 70 people who came to a meeting against the course of the new Ukrainian govt were burnt down in Odessa. And in Crimea they were major clashes and violence ignited by the nationalists to instill fear into civillians who supported the secession from Ukraine.

Then there's also a religious aspect. While Eastern and Central Ukraine are mostly Orthodox Christian, Western regions are mostly Catholic. And historically there has been a bitter hatred between the Orthodox and Catholics. During the times of troubles (which were not so seldom in terms of History) these tensions easily escalated to physical violence. These tensions are far from gone.

Speaking of how general population perceives the conflict, of course it's a tragedy for both sides. As I've mentioned there are heavy interconnections between Russia and Ukraine and this conflict sometimes literally destroys families, friendships, collectives on both sides. This conflict is making wounds that aren't going to heal fast. I'd say the consequences are probably going to drag on for some hundreds of years. I have to point out one thing here. Just don't take it as if I hate people in the US. But I certainly do not approve of what the US government apparently tries to do here. On both sides of this conflict there's a common understanding that in some way the US are behind the coup and try to interfere sometimes un-diplomatically. Some view it strictly positive but the majority of interested people (and I'm not talking of right-wingers who naturally oppose the US or those who are basically ignorant of this topic) view it as more or less negative and some even blame the US for trying to ignite a European-scale war here. Even some of the liberals who generally disregard such ideas as the ruling partie's propaganda now more or less argee on this. It's NATO's recent wars in Jugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, the Syrian conflict and Arab Spring events as a whole that add considerably to this negative image. And this foreign factor adds up sufficiently to the overall tension. The situation is now percieved sometimes as a consequence of NATO's apparent effort to expand to the East or some global conflict of economic intersts induced by the US.