When the question “What kind of a country is modern Ukraine?” is asked, Americans usually answer that it doesn’t matter for them, what kind of a country modern Ukraine is. However, in the past it did matter for Americans what kind of a country Libya was in 2011 when the U.S. bombed it; or it did matter for Americans what kind of a country Iraq was in 2003 when U.S. invaded it, etc. The second Americans’ answer to the question “What kind of a country is modern Ukraine?” is the answer “Modern Ukraine may be a not especially good country now, but it is changing for the better”. In this article, I am going to consider both above-mentioned theses. Spoiler Rights of ethnic minorities in Ukraine after the Euromaidan Before the so-called Ukrainian revolution, alias Euromaidan, i.e. before February 2014, ethnic minorities had much more rights in Ukraine than now. For example, Ukraine had state-financed Hungarian, Romanian etc. schools where children were taught in their respective languages during the whole course of education. However, in 2020 and 2021 the Law on Indigenous Peoples and Law on Secondary Education were passed in Ukraine and under these Laws the state stopped to finance Hungarian, Romanian etc. schools of ethnic minorities because ethnic Hungarians, Romanians and other peoples were not named “Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine” in these Laws. Before February 2014, there were also so-called regional languages in Ukraine, i.e. languages which were native for more than 10% people in a region, city, town or settlement. These regional languages could be free used in public offices, in mass media, in private enterprises etc. on the territory of the respective region, city, town or settlement. But in 2019 the above-mentioned regional languages were eliminated in Ukraine. Freedom of speech in Ukraine after the Euromaidan Before February 2014, Ukrainian police protected offices of mass media, even opposition ones. However after the Euromaidan, the police often do not intervene when Ukrainian nationalists attack opposition media. In the summer of 2016, a Ukrainian website accused the Ukrainian TV company Inter of cooperation with separatists. Till November 2016, the building, where this TV company is situated, was three times attacked by “activists” and its rooms were set on fire - fortunately, nobody died in these arsons. However, the material damage was great. After one of these arsons, an Advisor to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Gerashchenko wrote in Facebook that one shouldn`t rule out that Inter managers themselves had provoked the arson of their rooms; see here. So far, no culprits of these arsons have been found; and by the way, so far, Ukrainian authorities haven’t published any confirmation that Inter had really cooperated with separatists, i.e. no criminal proceedings have been started because of these allegations. In December 2017, Yevheniy Murayev, the owner of the Ukrainian TV channel NewsOne, called the Euromaidan a coup d'etat. Although his words weren’t violation of Ukrainian laws, hundreds of “activists” surrounded the building of NewsOne and demanded apologies from Murayev. The police did not intervene and Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Avakov said that owners of NewsOne “had to stop to provoke people”. The “activists” blocked all entrances to the building of NewsOne by using sand bags and barbed wire; and this blockade lasted for 7 days and although it was an obvious violation of Ukrainian laws, nobody was arrested or otherwise punished for it. In 2021 the broadcasting of NewsOne was suspended by Ukrainian authorities. And in 2023, the Ukrainian Council for Broadcasting – after a decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine - revoked license of NewsOne, see the official website of this Council; i.e. this TV channel was fully closed. Therefore, I can conclude that situation in the sphere of rights of ethnic minorities and in the sphere of freedom of speech has become worse as compared with the situation before the Euromaidan. Source
Russia is bombing Ukraine to illegally subjugate it for conquest—-aka it doesn’t matter what kind of country Ukraine is, unless somehow it is an equal existential threat to world peace which clearly it isn’t.
No elections, no freedom of speech, all opposition political parties were eliminated, all TV was consolidated into state run TV, no freedom of religion, ethnic minorities discriminated against..... And let's not forgot they worship a WW2 Nazi, name streets after him, build statues of him and have a national holiday for him. Great place that ukie land. U.S. approved democracy in action.
There are two main subjects in the first post of this thread – freedom of speech and rights of ethnic minorities in modern Ukraine. I would like to add some information about these rights. In 2020 the Law on Indigenous Peoples was passed in Ukraine. Despite the UN definition of Indigenous Peoples (see the official UN website), the Ukrainian authorities have introduced an additional criterion for such Peoples; see below a quote from the Law on Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine on the official website of the Ukrainian Parliament. According to this law, ethnic Hungarians are not Indigenous People of Ukraine, although they came to Transcarpathia, which is now a part of Ukraine, in 896 at the latest. On the other hand, Crimean Tatars, who came to the Crimea only in the 13th century, are Indigenous People of Ukraine according to this Law because they do not have their own state entity outside of Ukraine. Such a system of division of national minorities in categories is unfair and discriminatory. For example, each of the three largest peoples of Switzerland (Germans, French and Italians) have their respective state entities outside of Switzerland, but this does not limit their rights. However, national minorities of Ukraine are currently divided into three groups - Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine have more rights; Non-indigenous Peoples, whose mother tongue is one of the official languages of the EU, have less rights than Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine but more rights than Non-Indigenous Peoples, whose mother tongue is not one of the official languages of the EU, i.e. more rights than e.g. Russians; see the Law on General Secondary Education in Ukraine on the official website of the Ukrainian Parliament. I know only one another country, where national minorities were divided into three groups having different rights – it was Nazi Germany. Ethnic Danes, who live in Northern Germany, were in Nazi Germany the so-called Reichsbürger and had more rights; ethnic Poles, who lived in Upper Silesia, were the so-called Staatsangehörige and had less rights than the Reichsbürger but more rights than e.g. Jews.
Whatever kind of state it is matters little at this point. What it is, in point of fact, is a war torn mess that is being slowly bled white and cannot hope to win without a direct manpower in put from Europe and/or the US. They simply no longer have the manpower to win or even maintain the current stalemate other wise. So the question becomes are we going to double down on crazy or cut our losses while there are a few Ukrainians left in the world. It does no good to send the Ukraine tanks if they haven't the manpower to crew them.
I don't think the focus should be entirely on Ukrainian shortcomings. I think most of the focus should be on the Russian Federation and their shortcomings. The real question should become what happens if the Russian Federation succeeds. Ronald Reagan defeated the old Soviet Union by keeping them busy forcing them to use resources and causing them it to fail financially. The Russian Federation is our enemy. The Ukraine is not. A powerful aggressive Russia along with a powerful aggressive China is not in OUR best interest. We have a lot more to lose if the Russia succeeds and the Ukraine does not.
We, US Citizens are not at war with the Russian Federation, are we? Not to my knowledge. Do we face any true national security conflicts from the European war zone? No, we don't. But AH, the Europeans do. So this is not the same thing as feeling as though the Soviets would encroach upon the Western World(I also believe the Cold War was a mistake, the direct result being the Muhajeeden. Would there be terrorists today, if we didn't arm them and train them? We're culpable for that.) This is a European problem, it has been a European war for over 100 years. Also, although Russia and China have an antagonistic friendship, they are entirely different theaters of conflict. Despite what the pro funding crowd thinks, the situation in Europe does not and will not factor into Xi's thinking. If the CCP chooses to forcefully integrate Taiwan, then it will. And unlike land locked Europe, this battle will take place in the sea and in the air.
We are also not at war with any other country or group in the world yet there are many countries such as South Korea and Israel we give similar support. Do withdraw all support from all foreign countries?
