Written by Eric Zuesse
Under international law, any nation’s right to self-defense is more fundamental than any other national right. When two nations are at war against each other, one — the one that starts the war — is called “the aggressor” and under international law is blamed for the war — and the other is called “the defender” or the victim of that aggressor, and has no blame for the war, none. But, which is which can sometimes be debated. This question is always about: Which side started the war?
For example: In the case of the war in Ukraine: When did it actually start? Did it start on 24 February 2022 when U.S.-and-allied Governments imply or even say that it did — which was when Russia invaded Ukraine? If so; then what were the Minsk Agreements about? They were about ending the war in Ukraine — establishing and executing a process to achieve that purpose. It was the same war, and it was continuing even when Russia invaded. When did that war begin? Putin made a mash of explaining why Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022. As a result, the U.S.-and allied narrative about this — their lie about it, saying or assuming that the war began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 — has dominated at the U.N. and generally, so that the idea that Russia started the war in Ukraine has dominated ever since. But it’s not merely false but rabidly false, the opposite of the truth, and that falsehood has given those liars — the U.S. and its ‘allies’ or colonies — a terrific PR advantage, ever since, because it hides the violent U.S. coup against Ukraine that started the war, and it hides the U.S. Government’s continuing rape of Ukraine ever since:
The war in Ukraine actually began in the very violent coup that the U.S. Obama Administration had actually started planning no later than June 2011 and started executing inside America’s Embassy in Ukraine on 1 March 2013, and which coup illegally overthrew the democratically elected and neutralist President of Ukraine on 20 February 2014 and which installed to take over the new government on 27 February 2014 the man who had been selected by Victoria Nuland — Obama’s agent controlling the coup operation — when she instructed on 27 January 2014 the U.S. ambassador in Ukraine to have “Yatsenyuk” or “Yats”, a rabid hater of ethnic Russians, placed in charge when the coup would be over, which was then done on 27 February 2014. That coup precipitated or provoked resistance to the coup on the day of the coup, 20 February 2014, when occurred the Korsun Massacre of Crimeans who, on the day of the coup, were fleeing the coup-site on Kiev’s Maidan Square, after holding signs there against the overthrow of that President for whom over 70% of Crimeans had voted, and now they were running back into their 8 awaiting buses to return to Crimea, but became blocked en-route and dozens of them were killed by the Right Sector paramilitaries who beat them to death and piled up their corpses, though many survived to record their accounts of the massacre. So: the war began on the very day of the coup, and it was perpetrated by Obama’s hired forces, specifically the Right Sector paramilitaries, who were under the command of Dmitriy Yarosh, who had been in charge of the team of snipers that the U.S. Government hired to carry out the coup. Some of the foreign snipers that were hired from Georgia and elsewhere were under the command of an American Brian Boyenger, but most of the snipers were Ukrainian racist-fascists who were under Yarosh’s command.
The unrest against the U.S. coup that started Ukraine’s war centered in two main regions: Crimea in the far south, in which that overthrown President had gotten 70+% of the votes, and Donbass in the far southeast, where he had gotten 90+% of the votes. The Donbass towns of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk on 15 April 2014 rejected the Obama-junta-installed-by-Yatsenyuk officials, and Yatsenyuk announced the next day that his government was starting an Anti-Terrorist Operation or “ATO” and sending in tanks to eliminate any such ‘terrorists’. It was now officially an anti-‘terrorist’ war, in keeping with America’s ongoing war against terrorists, but in this case Russia was being blamed for it, because Donbass is Russian-speaking and had voted over 90% for the overthrown, neutralist, President and therefore needed (from Obama’s perspective) to be depopulated so that in any future elections, only anti-Russian candidates would win Ukraine’s elections. Then, on 2 May 2014, Yarosh’s people trapped, inside the Odessa Trade Unions Building, dozens of people who had circulated flyers against the Obama-coup-installed government, and burned them alive, to demonstrate to Ukraine’s Russian-speakers that this new Ukraine hated their guts and wanted them gone from Ukraine. The Obama-installed government appointed, to be the new Governor of a region near Odessa, an oligarch, Kolomoyskyi, who had also funded Yarosh’s operation and helped to plan that burning-alive action. The ATO became the war against Donbass that the Minsk Agreements (which Obama opposed but tolerated) were supposed to stop and failed to stop, because Ukraine’s U.S.-installed government refused to stop its shelling of the breakaway region Donbass, and the war was an ethnic-cleansing operation to reduce the population there, which continued until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, and which still has been continuing there, though perhaps somewhat reduced now as Russia has joined the residents there to fight against the U.S.-stooge regime in Kiev and against its ethnic-cleansing (or ‘ATO’) operation to reduce if not eliminate the residents there.
The intent of Obama’s coup was mainly to get Ukraine into NATO so that U.S. missiles could become placed on its border only 300 miles away from blitz-nuking The Kremlin, but was also intended to grab Russia’s main naval base, which since 1783 has been in Crimea, and turn it into a U.S. naval base (something Obama wasn’t able to do).
Russia’s 24 February 2022 invasion of Ukraine was intended to prevent Ukraine from hosting U.S. missiles only a five-minute-missile-flight-time away from blitz-nuking The Kremlin. Putin made a mess of his explanations of why he invaded Ukraine. The fact that it was done in order to block any possibility of U.S. missiles becoming ultimately posted in Ukraine only 300 miles from the Kremlin was almost ignored in his public statements. Therefore, he made easy The West’s convincing people that the aggressor here was Russia instead of America. On the surface, it looked that way, if the relevant prior history was ignored — and Putin’s explanations distracted from that history, instead of drew attention to it, and thus allowed the relevant prior history behind this war to be and to remain ignored by the peoples in U.S.-and-allied countries. When he spoke about the prior history, he talked mainly about Ukrainians being really Russians, and other such irrelevancies, which irrelevancies precipitated in The West distractionary debates as to whether or not Ukrainians actually are Russians, or even why he said that they are: pro-U.S. media were, basically, psychoanalyzing Putin, instead of dealing with America’s coup that had grabbed Ukraine and maybe psychoanalyzing Obama himself. The undeniable physical fact is that America’s obsession to get its missiles that close to The Kremlin was intolerable to Russia and to Russians; so, Putin needed to prevent that from happening, and the 24 February 2022 invasion had become the only way to prevent it now, because on December 15th of 2021 Putin gave to the U.S. Government Russia’s existential national-security demands never to place its missiles so close to Moscow, and two days later he gave to America’s NATO anti-Russian military alliance Russia’s national-security demands including that Ukraine will never be in NATO, and, on 7 January 2022, both America and its NATO alliance formally said no to all of them; and, then, on 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine to achieve by military means what the U.S. regime refused even to consider by diplomatic means and negotiations — they refused to negotiate with Russia, regarding what were and still are, for Russia, national-security necessities. They were forcing Russia to invade Ukraine. That’s what they wanted, and they got it.
America and its NATO anti-Russian military alliance started the war in Ukraine; but Russia got the blame. Because of Putin’s incoherent explanations of why he was responding now militarily and invading Ukraine, the populations in both neutral Sweden and ‘neutral’ but Hitler-allied-in-WW-II Finland (Finland had joined his Operation Barbarossa invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 and stayed with Hitler until that invasion was over in 1944) thought and think that the 24 February 2022 Russian invasion was unprovoked and nothing but a land-grab of Ukraine by Russia. But Putin’s PR failure was even worse than that, much worse, because of the timing of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine: If Putin had instead waited for Ukraine’s full-scale invasion of Donbass, before responding then by his invading Ukraine to protect those people and to, at that point, go into Ukraine itself, to take out its racist-fascist U.S.-installed government, then perhaps there wouldn’t have been so many Finns who would have been clamoring for Finland to join NATO. If so, then Putin’s premature invasion of Ukraine has cost Russia its biggest loss ever since 24 February 2022: the loss of a neutral Finland, to a NATO Finland.
Putin was right to have been concerned about, and to be assisting, the defense of the people in the breakaway region of Donbass, but the national security of the people inside Russia was his absolute responsibility, and his public pronouncements smeared together those two, as-if they were equally his obligations to protect. They were not. Washington was luring him into what it could then convincingly lie to call an “unprovoked” invasion of Ukraine; and, right before Russia’s 24 February 2022 invasion, Washington had its stooge regime in Ukraine hike greatly its shellings against the residents in the breakaway Donbass. Putin fell for the bait, and invaded prematurely, allegedly in order to protect the Donbassers against that shelling instead of to protect Russians from U.S. missiles becoming posted in Ukraine, and he thus enabled Washington to call Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “unprovoked.” Consequently, Russia’s invasion shocked the world (as-if everything hadn’t been building toward this ever since 20 February 2014), and was interpreted falsely almost everywhere in the world, except inside Russia itself (which has far-more-honest newsmedia than in the U.S.-and-allied nations), as having BEEN unprovoked. How important was that successful U.S. lie? Its success persuaded Finns, who had had a pro-Hitler history during WW II, to break their decades of ‘neutrality’ since that time and officially join America’s anti-Russian military alliance, NATO. Like Ukraine, Finland shares a long border with Russia, and, whereas Ukraine’s reaches within 300 miles of The Kremlin, Finland’s reaches within 500 miles of it — that’s a 7-minute missile-flying distance instead of a 5-minute one. It’s almost as bad for Russia as-if Ukraine were to enter NATO. But Putin downplayed this disaster for Russians (a disaster that his own PR incompetence had facilitated). On 13 May 2022, the day after Finland announced its intention to join NATO, I headlined “Russia’s Weak Response to Finland’s Joining NATO” and contradicted Russia’s downplaying this matter as being a “balance of power” issue between the two sides, and pointed out that, to the exact contrary, it was a moral issue, and that America was in the wrong on this vitally important ethical matter: “It wouldn’t ‘preserve the balance of power’, because U.S./NATO will then be in position to place America’s nukes on Russia’s border near its brain-center Moscow, whereas Russia isn’t in position to place its nukes on America’s border near its brain-center Washington DC.” Furthermore:
If Finland joins NATO, then America will station its missiles on Finland’s Russian border, 507 miles from Moscow, and that is 7 minutes away from blitz-nuking Moscow.
During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, America threatened to initiate nuclear war against the Soviet Union if the Soviet Union would position nuclear missiles in Cuba, 1,134 miles from Washington DC, which would be about 10 minutes away from blitz-nuking Washington (but would have required much longer to reach Washington back in 1962).
Consequently, Russia now is in at least as dangerous a situation if Finland joins NATO as America was in during the Cuban Missile Crisis when America was threatening to launch a nuclear invasion against Russia if U.S.S.R. placed missiles in Cuba.
Furthermore: unlike America and the Soviet Union during the Cuba Missile Crisis, when BOTH nations were willing to negotiate a peaceful end to that Crisis, Russia is willing to negotiate a peaceful settlement this time around but America is not and has repeatedly refused to do so. Clearly, America is heading for conquest.
That is a replay of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis but in reverse: not Soviet missiles in Cuba, but American missiles in Ukraine — or, now, in Finland. Finland became central to it because Putin’s premature invasion of Ukraine caused Finns to think that — as was the U.S. intention when Putin fell into America’s trap — this was an unprovoked land-grab by Russia instead of part of a long-term plan by America’s rulers to ultimately win control over Russia.
Clearly, America was the aggressor; Russia was not. Ukraine was and is merely the battlefield and proxy army for the U.S., in which this war between America and Russia is being fought. Putin disastrously blew the PR; and, so, not only is NATO continuing its expansion dangerously near to Russia’s central command in Moscow, but it is Russia that is being sanctioned against by the U.S. and its vassal-nations, and Russia that is being condemned in the U.N. General Assembly, as-if the aggressor were Russia, instead of the U.S. regime.
But Putin’s performance is even worse than that: As I headlined on 3 April 2023 and pointed out “Putin’s Enormous Blunder”, an even bigger failure by him has been the follow-up to Finland’s announcement of its intention to join NATO. And— as I pointed out there — even now, after Finland is in NATO, he is continuing that failure.
This is not to say World War Three, which we now are in (not yet in the direct and nuclear stage of it) will necessarily be lost by Russia (I expect Russia and China to win against the U.S. Government, because that Government is astoundingly corrupt), but Putin’s PR incompetency in this is clear. Russia’s diplomacy (and diplomacy is terrifically important a part of success in a war) is continuing to be hobbled by his incompetency at PR. Putin seems impervious to improving his poor performance in the non-military aspects of WW III, except in the economic aspects, which he has managed brilliantly. He has also outperformed The West in the military aspects, though America (which might be as corrupt at its top as any country in history ever was) spends on its military 20 times what Russia spends on its. Putin’s very weak areas have been in diplomacy, negotiation, and PR. And he shows no signs of improving in those fields. He blew them, and he tragically still does. In that sense, he has been rigid. But, because he is a skillful leader in other aspects, his blunders that produced Finland’s joining NATO might not hand an overall victory to the U.S. regime. It was a huge win for America’s rulers, but not necessarily a fatal loss for Russians and for the entire world. The Russian Government’s downplaying it is false: it enormously understates this harm that has been resulting from Putin’s falling into, and remaining in, the U.S. regime’s trap on this Ukrainian matter.
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s new book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
I’m too lazy to read all this but the title is 100% true.
Rarely one war was so just (and justifiable) as this war: Maidan junta is the most vile evil regime on the planet, they are the definition of terrorist state. Russia had the truth and all possible arguments on its side. Yet they thoroughly failed to present them even to people in Russia and their own soldiers. They were completely unprepared tactically, technically but above all psychologically. And they still are: they allow various psychos in ukraine to insult and threat Russia daily instead to declare them all terrorists and criminals and finally strike “decision making centers”.
@Valens
You see this whole war too isolated from world history and globalists geostrategical plans. This war for them is just the starter to something much bigger. Therefore we all better should not play along with their (the NWO-JWO masters) evil will and intentions, but instead refuse and resist it.
I feel we therefore better wake up now and realize, that all these fake enemies, these NWO leaders are in cahoots with each other and are of one evil breed. US,EU (+Ukraine),RU,CN are all fully under the control of eighter jews, or jew-puppets and jewish-ideologies. So there will be no good, not the slidest bit coming from politicians of any of these mentioned blocks.
Therefore we, the people, we need to start negotiations, make peace between each other, and refuse the orders of the politicians, who are demanding us to kill each other. That’s the only real solution I see. There is no peace or real negotiations etc. coming from regardless what kind of so-called politicians. Because they want World War 3 !!! We the people, we have to make peace and refuse the satanists order. We need to refuse the New World Order the Jewish World Order and in general ALL ORDERS coming from these satanics and their puppets.
Mostly agree, especially with the ww3. They wanted it. They are prepared for it to survive. But peoples are dumbfuck sheep, idiotized throw 80 years of combined ‘techniques’ of those khazar Satan worshipers.
mostly agree.. zelensky, kuleba, podolyak, reznykov, danilov, budanov all other cretins should be bombed and targeted like ISIS leaders. Including their houses. their families are probably in the West anyway, but show them you are serious,show people in ukraine their masters are vulnerable and you’re fighting against the regime not against ordinary people
You don’t see the whole picture. That is not about Kukrainii colony shithole, the most corrupt country in Europe, but a chapter in the globalist agenda. The orthodox powerful Russia is a very hard obstacle for them to reach theirs evil goals. To step forward to the next agenda chapter they MUST resolve ‘Russia problem’ and that means a total subjugation a la EU model. That can’t be done without defeating the political system of Russia. But as the vast majority of peoples are supporting Putin it remains only 1 valid option: defeating Russia militarily which will lead directly (by dividing the RF into smaller more ‘manageable’ jumerican dominions) or indirectly (by sparking a mass revolt inside due to militarily defeat). The second option is way more probable. As my well respected Pamfil Military Academy predict: 5% for the first one and 95% for the second. So, it’s clear what they want. And Russia must take that very seriously because it is not a joke to fight the total west combined ! And Putin is well aware of that political moves (for that reason he don’t want to announce a new mobilization yet, btw, which in my military academy view is wrong, but anyway). Do you think russians wouldn’t not bomb the shit out of the command centers till now ? But they know if that happen, next day bandera assholes will attack directly Moscow with missiles and/or invade some parts of neighboring Russia, which would be a moral and political blow, very useful for the atlantic terrorists. Many russians can do to totally defeat Ukropizdan nazi neo-reich but they are ‘prevented’ to do by other motifs other than military. So, please stop the childish comments or insinuations. That war is extremely complex.
Zuesse both right and wrong as usual. Putin made a big mistake not to use some false flag attack to justify the war (just like Americans always do in their every intervention since 1898). War on Terror you know. Sure, it’s not ethical and Western media would still pathologically hate Russia but better than starting the war without any real casus belli. Ironically, there are plenty of terrorist attacks in Russia organized by SBU now but Putin still never even accuse them directly for some inexplicable reasons. The same inexplicable reasons why he guaranteed Zelensky’s safety, the same inexplicable reasons why he didn’t declare partial mobilization on day1 but waited 7 months. So many strategic errors.
As famous Russian general Suvorov once said: “One minute decides the outcome of a battle, one hour the success of a campaign, one day the fate of empires.” Waiting 7 months is criminal incompetence, sorry to say. He is still waiting for something, still waging this half-arsed war while they are exterminating everything Russian in ukraine, systematically commit genocide against Donetsk, and even assassinate prominent Russian patriots in Russia itself.
But again you are totally wrong about Finland, stop repeating that nonsense please. Finland would join NATO anyway, war or not war. They and Swedes are more pro-globalist than most Americans. And they are strategically almost irrelevant, Americans are already in Estonia, in Norway, Barents Sea….
Mostly agree but…….just only one CLARIFICATION, for the others I don’t have enough time to repeat them again and again. Putin can’t bomb that pussy idiot khazar Cocalansky because that means Israhel will have green light to provide military assistance to Kukrainii nazi shithole. Anyway, recent continuous anti-Nethanyahu ongoing mass protests are clear a indication that ameriscum throw its intels are using internal agents from the Mossad to blow the government.
Israel is a Russian ally.
You nuts or something?
The west people are just “sheeple” so it doesn’t matter what they think or what they believe. Fuck’em and their opinions, they have ZERO VALUE
Yet another incomplete representation of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviets put missiles in Cuba in response to the US putting Jupiter missiles in Turkey. JFK made a deal with Kruschev that he would quietly remove the missiles in Turkey after Kruschev removed the missiles from Cuba. It was a tit for tat deal but allowing JFK the optics of making Kruschev back down. JFK was having to deal with Kruschev directly because he was having a running battle with Alan Dulles at CIA at the time and eventually fired him, but that cost him his life because the CIA eventually assassinated him.
Hat down, sir. I’m always wondered why the americans are so dumfuck sheep
Whoever wrote this is an unhinged schizophrenic.
I find this whole account unconvincing Eric
America was equally to blame for the Cuban Missile Crisis as it is today for the Ukrainian missile crisis – in both cases, it either pre-installed missiles in Turkey to threaten the USSR; or plans to do so in Ukraine to threaten Russia. As to the Finns “falling into the west’s trap” and believing that Russia was the aggressor in Ukraine; if we here at SF fully understand the reasons for the invasion, then so too should the Finns who decide on Finland’s foreign policy.
So it’s not that such persons do not understand; rather, it’s that they do understand, but are fully bought-out by the jews who arrange all these things. Irrespective of the international response, Putin should have invaded the Donbass as soon as the Kiev terrorists started the ATO; had he done so, that regime would have been unsupported by western assistance, and would not have been given eight years to build up their defences; defences which overcoming at this late stage has cost thousands of Russian lives, and tens of thousands of woundings and maimings, both for the Russian army, and for the citizens of Donbass.
Before2021 Russia don’t have means to resists US and EU boycott, if Russia have SMO in2021 and get boycott from the West is catatophicfor Russia.Putin need time too to arrange anti boycott process.Especially Putin must made sure China has been with US side.
Makes no sense to negociate with any selected leader in the West, simply because their master decide, not the sh*t dog pretending to be president, PM, whatever..
WHY am I not surprised, you didnt see the build up to WW1, unable thru massive propaganda to see why WW2 happened, and everything inbetween then and now, you stil forgets who is behind it all, and been so for centurys. If any mistake in this, witch I to an certain degree agrees with is that RF initially didnt come out much more, uh… clear cutt, slamm the hammer back then before the SMO came, but no. And I also dont forget the Republics initital years, where RF just hid behind their desks. And again, propaganda works, when its everything you/they know.
Russian army is a joke. Nobody tkae them serious after this more than 1 year struggling.
Wow what a marathon of facts we already knew. Gee if the New York Yankees don’t make it to the World Series will that be another “Putin blunder?”
Finally got one halfway right Eric. But you left out the part about the Russian Central Bank that is the marionette to Putin “the puppet”… Much like the rest of them.
If Putin were a true leader he would give up what is being frozen in the U.K. U.$. and EU for what it is… Greedy slobs that don’t deserve dual citizenship and can stay where they are never to return to mother Russia!… Like ALL bad investments when you find out your a “sucker”, you “lick your wounds” and move on!…
That. And of course showing the World a new way forward by abdicating membership in the rotted bloated corpse of the UN and it’$ host which Russia should have fled after Maidan coup 2014 -but DID NOT!…
Right. Two giant mistakes and failures from Putin and his Advisors. 1. Attacking Ukraine before ukros attack Donbas. 2. Attacking Ukraine with only 150.000 troops instead of at least 500.000. Because of that the war is the biggest PR, politicaly, military and economic Desaster for Russia at least since 1945. I still cant belive how stupidly Putin and his,Advisors/Traitors step in this giant but more than obvious USA and NATO trap. And it could come even worse, because after 14 Months of War still not enough russian troops, armament and ammo in the war zone. Wtf!?
With writers like this one Russia does not any enemies