Very few people in the West would have said Ukraine was neutral under the presidency of Victor Yanukovych in 2014. So what is the price if pro-NATO Zelenski government manages to defeat the Russian invasion?
UN votes to lift the US blockade on Cuba
Australian solidarity with Cuba
Well Ian, Ukraine was neutral ( it did not support the US blockade)
it had to be careful because as you know it depends on the USA
for military support against the Russian invasion. This does not
make it a client state.
Rigor in journalism and analyses is very important for credibility.
Mitch
Ukraine has been a client state of the US since the 2014 fascist putscht. The war against the Russian speaking eastern oblasts started that year. The Donbass repeatedly requested Russian help and was ignored until they declared their independence this year.
I think your criticism might be better addressed to the stenographers at the ABC and SBS.
Mitch,
You point out that Ukraine has to be careful in its dealings with the United States. Why? Its prosecution of defence against invasion by Russia places it under the influence of the United States. The Biden administration has written a blank cheque to provide Ukraine with military equipment more sophisticated than the Soviet era equipment that Russia has. Ukraine has shown the ability to strike at military targets deep inside Russian territory. To abstain is not a neutral stance when virtually every country on earth is opposed to the US blockade of Cuba.
Under the Budapest agreement Ukraine is not neutral in the European context. It is pro NATO. As you point out, that does not make Ukraine a client state. Nonetheless the Zelensky government is clearly in the thrall of US-style liberal capitalism that exploits workers and has banned trade unions. Zelensky is hardly going to vote for Cuba given its past association with the USSR and Russia and given Cuba’s socialist outlook. So the Zelensky government’s vote is both political and ideological. It chose to ignore the concerns of Russian speaking people in the Donbass that led to a civil war in that region.
Cuba has a history of solidarity with Ukraine although it is still an ally of Russia 🇷🇺 and did not come out against Putin’s invasion.
It is hardly coincidental that Time Magazine made Zelensky its 2022 Person of the Year.
The US rhetoric against Russia is hypocritical given that it chose to invade Cuba in an assault known as the Bay of Pigs in order to get rid of a government that the Cuban people clearly support. The US invaded Iraq against the wishes of most people on the planet. The US wishes to start a war in the South China sea in order to reverse its failure to compete with China’s powerful economy.
There is a warning here for many countries to align themselves with US imperialism that caused the genocide of people in Indo-China during the American war in Vietnam.
As a reward for aligning his country’s interests witb that of the United States, Zelensky has just been made Time’s Person of the Year. Yet Zelensky was elected to negotiate a peaceful settlement in the Donbass, not to align his military with the openly fascist war criminals in the Askov Battalion.
Ian Curr
9 Dec 2022