Know what makes me angry, is the IMMENSE amount of research I've done on this topic, and the fact that it's STILL a political thing in the United States.
Did you know that Putin didn't use NATO as an excuse to invade Crimea? Did you know Putin agreed to Ukraine's borders in 2003? Did you know Putin says he didn't agree to the Minsk Agreements, even though you can literally find video of him doing just that? Did you know that, in 2008, Putin said "Crimea is not disputed territory"?
https://www.rferl.org/a/putin-crimea-ukraine/26942862.htmlWhy does everyone want to make Ukraine a political thing?
I'm a conservative, registered Republican, even.
But I've read (sometimes in my very limited Ukrainian), The Budapest Memorandum, The 1997 Friendship Treaty, and the 2003 Border Treaty. Not to mention, the results of the vote of the 1991 Ukrainian Declaration of Independence. And I have ALWAYS been suspicious that Crimea "voted" to be part of Ukraine...especially since Igor Girkin (sorry if I spelled that wrong), admitted that members of the Crimean Verkhovna Rada (parliament) were taken at gun point, and FORCED to approve the "annexation". And I remember, at the time, western media (at least in the United States) just unquestionably accepting Russia's version of the story.
And it's not Ukraine that would be responsible for World War III, it's Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.
I see a HUGE hypocrisy in alleged China hawks in the US acting like Russia is somehow the good guy, when China provides Russia with equipment and weapons (and Iran and North Korea CERTAINLY provide Russia with weapons).
Oh, yet I'm told Russia is a Christian country (with atheist communists and Islamic theocratic allies)?
As for Ukraine persecuting the UOC-MP, it's still legal in Ukraine.
Strange how the "Catholic" Vance never discusses Eastern Catholics (or for that fact, any other Catholic, there are Latin Catholics in Russia, but they can't evangelize) being persecuted in Russia and occupied Ukraine.
That strikes me as hypocrisy. And, it reminds me of what Pope Francis said, "Let us not be hypocrites".
I apologize for such an emotional (but logical, they don't have to contradict)! Response, but, people turning this into a political thing is a huge annoyance of mine.
Anyway, I just wanted to get all these grievances out of the way, because it seems like there is a serious research problem (Like Rick Grennell not understanding the USSR wasn't just Russia...)
