When we look back on the history of WWII, the heroes, villains, and victims are all fairly clear. The Nazi atrocities against the Jews were clear. When we could finally see the the clear evidence of what happened behind the front lines, the world was appalled.
With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine we are now living in times that bear remarkable resemblance to the late 1930s leading up to WWII, but to many in the West (US/NATO) the facts don’t seem all that clear yet. Many (incredibly) don’t even believe there is a war, and that the whole thing is just a manufactured news story. Even more believe that there is a war, but that the heroes, villains, and victims aren’t all that clear, or that the war isn’t quite the horror it’s presented to be.
A certain level of skepticism about news events is always a good and healthy thing, but in today’s world one must learn how to piece together what you hear from various sources, adjust it based on historical observations and experiences, and top it off with a generous dose of common sense and critical thinking to come to reasonable conclusions.
You probably don’t know me, so my “personal testimony” probably doesn’t carry much weight, but I have some source data on the Russian invasion: I WAS LIVING IN KYIV WHEN IT STARTED. I heard air raid sirens and bombs with my own ears.
Look, I was even invited onto a national TV talk show to talk about it:
I lived in Kyiv for five years teaching English, which put me in direct regular contact with hundreds of individual Ukrainians and I hear their testimonies.
I fled Ukraine in the first week of the war and am now back in the U.S., but I still teach English to Ukrainians remotely, and still hear their own personal experience of the war… the constant air raid sirens, rolling blackouts, intermittent nearby explosions, and the news they hear from their sources.
If you are convinced that the war is fake or that somehow Russia was provoked, this article is not written for you. Of course you’re welcome to read it, but this article is more for those who really don’t even understand why there’s a controversy.
We’ll look at the most obvious objective reports of what is actually, verifiably happening, then consider how that meshes with well known historical practices of Russia.
Then I’ll briefly describe some of the supposed provocations/justifications Russia and its “useful idiots” (supporters in the West duped by Kremlin propaganda).
Invasion
On February 24, 2022 Russia began its full assault on Ukraine. Air raid sirens screamed out nationwide, explosions were heard in almost every major city.
All this started without Ukraine making so much as even a veiled threat Russia’s way.
And Russia didn’t even try to follow internationally accepted principles of modern warfare. Russia TARGETED civilians. And we’re not talking here about “collateral damage”, or a stray bullet harming an innocent civilian here and there.
Russia has RAZED SOME CITIES TO THE GROUND. Mariupol was a city of nearly a half million residents, and barely not a building remains habitable. Clearly a WHOLE CITY the size of New Orleans couldn’t have been a strategic military target.
In cities liberated from Russian occupation there is usually abundant evidence of unspeakable atrocities left in Russia’s wake. Almost always there is evidence of torture sites, civilian executions (hands bound behind backs, bullet holes in back of head), mass graves, many reports of RAPE, and child “deportations” (Ukrainian children taken by force back to Russia to be placed in RUSSIAN homes to be brought up as Russian, with no contact with their Ukrainian families).
Hospitals, schools, theaters, cinemas, shopping malls are all targets of Russian missiles and rockets. Electricity and heating infrastructure are targeted in an attempt to freeze Ukrainian civilians to death and terrorizing them into pressuring their government to surrender.
None of these are isolated events. The stories and evidence are the same from one liberated city to another.
How do we know these things?
Not everyone is convinced of the factuality of reports of war in Ukraine, or at least of many of the important details.
For a few articles documenting the current Russian atrocities in Ukraine as I describe above, try these:
- Allegations of genocide of Ukrainians in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Vladimir Putin’s Ukrainian Genocide: Nobody can claim they did not know
Each of these articles has hundreds of footnotes to source materials to support every claim – in case you’re into that kind of thing. These are not solely the claims of Ukrainian officials.
If this sounds a bit overstated, keep in mind that none of this is an anomaly for Russia. Anyone paying any attention at all to any Soviet/Russian history won’t be surprised. Russia has a long record of this kind of unadulterated barbarism going back at least a century.
And even in recent history there are many reports of Russia using similar military practices in conflicts in Chechnya and Syria: Deliberately targeting civilians, attacks on schools, hospitals, and civilian homes, child deportations (aka “abductions”), murder, torture, ETC., ETC., ETC.
Search online for yourself. Here are a few articles to get you started:
Again, each of these articles has HUNDREDS of footnote links.
Don’t just trust me. Do a little of your own research to confirm (or refute) these basic claims. Open your favorite search engine and search for “Russian war crimes”, “Soviet war crimes”, “Russian war atrocities”.
And don’t just sweep all of this aside by saying “Well, that’s war… bad things happen… collateral damage, accidents, a few bad seeds, etc.” The very definition of a war crime includes INTENTIONALLY killing CIVILIANS, killing prisoners of war, TORTURE, mass child “deportations” (i.e. theft), UNNECESSARILY destroying civilian property, wartime SEXUAL VIOLENCE, genocide or ethnic cleansing, and so on.
THIS is what’s happening before our very eyes in Ukraine now, just as it has happened in the past.
There are thousands of hours of video from phone video, drone video, and professional news coverage. And there are MILLIONS of Ukrainian refugees living all over Europe and the U.S. with their own eye witness stories. I am one of them, though I escaped the country in the first week and only heard air raid sirens and bombing.
Often times Russian soldiers upload mobile phone pictures and videos to Russian social media where they are essentially bragging about their brutality (fortunately sometimes their mobile phone use gives away their locations and they are soon incinerated).
In early March one such video went viral… I found one site where the video is not blurred (hopefully it remains up – let me know if you can’t find it):
WARNING – GRAPHIC – VIDEO OF RUSSIANS EXECUTING POW – WARNING – GRAPHIC
Without a doubt the abundance of the most obvious, visible, reliable evidence supports this basic version of the story.
It’s not for no reason that Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union (Russia) the “focus of evil in the modern world” and the “evil empire.”
But is this all TRUE? Is there another side? Is there some missing context?
Of course every dispute has two sides, right?
Yes, usually, but it’s really a case by case question.
We KNOW the bombs are exploding all over Ukraine, civilians are targeted, killed, and tortured.
So what is Russia’s excuse?
What is the case for the Russian invasion?
Above I described in great detail all that is KNOWN, with lots of clear evidence. We see the apocalyptic scenes of cities razed to the ground, actual video footage of a point blank execution, so what CLEAR, STRAIGHTFORWARD, CONVINCING case is there for the “other side”?
What great offense has been committed against Russia that would reasonably justify a full scale military invasion of a neighboring country who showed no obvious, visible signs of aggression? What could possibly justify the wanton murder of nearly a quarter million innocent human beings (between military and civilian losses) and the abduction/theft of thousands of innocent children?
The case for the “other side”, the reasons Russia and its advocates offer for the reason the invasion was necessary all involve massive logical fallacies, direct falsehoods, and partial truths.
It’s common to hear from some that “What Russia is doing is unconscionable, unjustified, etc., but it was PROVOKED… they overreacted, but it wasn’t without reason, etc., etc., etc.”
Here is a list of some of the most popular reasons offered.
All of these are false and/or misleading. It is not my aim here to provide a full refutation of each point. This post is purely to inform those who may have heard these claims but don’t really understand the issues. For now I will only to list these with a brief description and maybe a few links to more in-depth material on the subject.
Almost all of these reasons have their origins in the Kremlin.
NATO Expansion
NATO is a defensive alliance. No country has ever joined NATO at gunpoint. In fact, it’s more the exact opposite, most later NATO members joined BEGGING for inclusion while NATO resisted.
Almost every Eastern European country has been INVADED by Russia in the past, and they know it will happen again if they don’t make appropriate security arrangements. Very few European countries are able to fully defend themselves against a full military incursion from Russia, hence the need for this alliance.
And contrary to widespread rumor there was never an agreement that NATO would not “expand”.
Russia complaining about having NATO countries on its immediate border would be a lot like the mafia complaining that a new police station opened right across the street from their main hangout in response to the whole neighborhood BEGGING for more police presence.
The complaint is based on the logical fallacy known as “Moral Equivalence”.
But even someone who disagreed with ALL of what I just said still misses one major factor when claiming that NATO expansion provoked Russia: Ukraine was not in NATO, nor was it within a decade of membership. And THIS provoked Russia to invade and murder a quarter million people? The claim is patently ridiculous.
See Memo to Macron: Russia doesn’t need security guarantees but Ukraine does for a full refutation of this stupid, but popular argument.
U.S. Meddling
Many Libertarians and “far-right conservatives” completely blame America for what is happening in Ukraine based on the allegation that we “meddled” in Russia’s “neighborhood” by sponsoring/organizing/staging a “coup d’état” in 2013/14.
In 2013/14 the Euromaidan protests and Maidan Revolution took place when the Ukrainian Putin puppet president at the last minute backed out of a deal that would bring Ukraine closer to the EU. Almost a million Ukrainians came out to protest, and this ultimately led to that president abandoning his office and fleeing to Russia.
THIS, some say, was orchestrated by the U.S. which angered Putin, which in turn ultimately led to his seizure of Donbas (indirectly) and Crimea, which ultimately led to the full scale invasion in 2022.
But when you hear the evidence for this theory that the U.S. orchestrated this “coup”, it’s flimsy at best.
But as with the NATO expansion argument, EVEN IF IT’S TRUE – if the U.S. organized a covert coup to place a more Western friendly government in Ukraine, HOW DOES THAT JUSTIFY MURDERING CIVILIANS? BOMBING CITIES TO THE GROUND?
For more, see Warrant for an Invasion: The Myth of the “American Coups” in Ukraine. 3. Did the U.S. Organize Euromaidan? and What Really Happened in Ukraine in 2014—and Since Then: A close look at the lies and distortions from Russia apologists and propagandists about the roots of the Ukraine war.
Nazis in Ukraine
The “Nazis in Ukraine” thing is one of the more insane reasons offered for Russia’s invasion and consequently those who cling to this are among the more insane lunatics.
This is a hard one to discuss because the term means different things to different people. Obviously it’s origin is pre-WWII Germany and meant “Nationalsozialismus”, or “National Socialists”. So is anyone who is a “Nationalist” a Nazi? Socialist? Or is a Nazi a nationalist + socialist.
Or, does it just mean “bad people” or antisemitism?
Long story short: There are nationalists in Ukraine… Perfectly expected when you consider that they’ve been invaded, occupied, and ruled by both Nazi Germany and Russia all while preferring to just be Ukrainian. But the “Socialism” part is missing, and the antisemitism is missing – especially considering that the president is JEWISH. And the fascism is missing.
As for “bad people,” I lived in Kyiv for five years and got to know some of the best people I’ve ever known. Even more, I never so much has heard of any Nazis. And I taught English to HUNDREDS of Ukrainians over those five years where half of my job was just TALKING TO THEM. If there were Nazis I probably would have heard of them.
BUT AGAIN: EVEN IF THERE WERE SOME BONA FIDE NAZIS IN UKRAINE, how exactly does that justify RUSSIA’S invasion, bombing, and murder? There’s no logical connection.
Ukraine persecuting Russian-speaking peoples in East Ukraine
This is a tried and true formula: “[name of aggressive dictator] says he must protect the ethnic [dictator’s country name] from persecution by the [target country name] government.”
“[Hitler] says he must protect the ethnic [Germans] from persecution by the [Polish] government.”
“[Hitler] says he must protect the ethnic [Germans] from persecution by the [Czech] government.”
“[Putin] says he must protect the ethnic [Russians] from persecution by the [Ukrainian] government.”
See how it works? This is a ridiculously transparent justification.
AND AGAIN, EVEN IF IT WERE TRUE (which it isn’t), how does that involve Russia? With Russia’s history are we really to believe they’re the humanitarians coming to the aid of oppressed peoples all over the world?
Russia is standing for conservative values against encroaching globalism/wokeism
Well, first, ROTFLMAO!
Russia’s population is generally traditional and isn’t all that understanding of all things “Woke”, but frankly, neither is Ukraine’s.
And the notion that there is some kind of outbreak of conservative, traditional religious values in Russia is nuts. The “Patriarch Kirill” (like “Russian Orthodox Pope”) actually blesses Russian missiles before they are fired into Ukraine to murder innocent people. And I have it on good authority that the Russian Orthodox Church was restructured by Stalin in 1943 to serve mostly as a front for the KGB. Patriarch Kirill is a former KGB agent.
BUT AGAIN, AS ALWAYS, even if Russia were the home of a new awakening of traditional religious values, how exactly would this justify Russia murdering, raping, torturing, and destroying Ukraine? Would the murder, rape, torture, and destruction be more the result of a renewed dedication to EVIL instead of God?
So what’s the connection here? “We believe in God and morality, so we have to invade, murder, torture, and rape the neighboring country”? I don’t follow… Enlighten me, please.
For more see: The Russian Orthodox Leader at the Core of Putin’s Ambitions
Should the U.S. provide military aid to Ukraine?
So above we looked at all the most common reasons Russia and its advocates give for its invasion of Ukraine along with reasons others in the west often cite as a rationale for why Russia is somewhat justified in its invasion.
Of course all of those justifications muddy the picture such that the villains and victims aren’t so clear, so it’s less clear that we should support either side. Of course that is exactly why the Kremlin gives birth to most of these points.
But there are other reasons why some argue that US/NATO should not support Ukraine.
Cost
One of the most common reasons far-right conservatives and “MAGA” people offer for not supporting Ukraine is the MONEY. They often say “We should worry more about the ‘invasion’ at our own southern border than the ‘invasion’ at Ukraine’s borders”.
Dennis Prager has several times recently made the point that the argument that we shouldn’t aid Ukraine while we have our southern border problem is a logical non sequitur (one point isn’t logically connected to the other). We had the southern border problem before the Russian invasion, and we’ll have it after it’s over. Our failure to secure the southern border is NOT because all the resources we need to do that are being sent to Ukraine. We have a southern border problem because people in government WANT the southern border problem.
As for the actual cost, the U.S. is budgeting about 0.65% of the national budget for aid to Ukraine, and that’s about 5% of the defense budget which is 13% of the total budget. For nearly 80 years Russia has been the biggest threat to our national defense, and is the main reason we have the huge military budget that we have.
And very little of that expenditure is in the form of cash, but rather it is like the “MSRP” (manufacturer’s suggested retail price) of old weapons, artillery, rockets, and short-range missiles that we’re sending… items that we actually PAY to store, then when that rocket and missile fuel EXPIRES we pay to have it safely destroyed. The cash for Ukraine aid is SPENT IN AMERICA to replace those old items we’ll never use.
And by sending Ukraine weapons to enable them to defend themselves, we accomplish two major benefits: First, we drain the very life out of Russia making it much less of a threat, all without shedding a drop of U.S. blood. Secondly, we help good people defend themselves against evil. It’s a bargain.
And if you consider yourself a conservative, you might want to note that this is EXACTLY what Ronald Reagan did in multiple circumstances. See What Would Reagan Do? or An Immorality So Great.
To read the financial case for supporting Ukraine, see It’s Costing Peanuts for the US to Defeat Russia and Gen. Jack Keane: US ‘investment’ in Ukraine denied Putin his ambitions, kept America’s future secure.
Zelenskyy is a dictator limiting basic freedoms
This is 5% true. Under martial law, while the country is under violent, criminal attack, known collaborators with the enemy are temporarily restricted, just as been done by America itself in times of war. See Zelensky Bans Freedom of Religion, Press, and Opposition Political Parties?
It will start WW3
Unfortunately nuclear weapons exist, and some very bad people have them. Does that fact mean that those bad people always get whatever they want unopposed because we don’t want to risk WW3? If so, then welcome to a much more evil world.
Ronald Reagan heard this criticism a lot. He was often called a reckless, warmongering cowboy who would get us all killed.
But Reagan said,
…We cannot buy our security, our freedom from the threat of the bomb by committing an immorality so great as saying to a billion human beings now enslaved behind the Iron Curtain, “Give up your dreams of freedom because to save our own skins, we’re willing to make a deal with your slave masters.”
Admittedly, there’s a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement…
(Source: A Time for Choosing Speech (October 27, 1964)
None of our concern
Ronald Reagan also said,
Europeans who remember history understand better than most that there is no security, no safety, in the appeasement of evil.
(Source: Address to the Nation on the United States Air Strike Against Libya, April 14, 1986)
When the largest country on earth, with the second largest military on earth and the largest nuclear arsenal on earth, led by an undeniably evil, dangerous man whose true enemy all along has been the U.S, and he’s now marauding through another country murdering, raping, and torturing innocent people, committing heinous acts of genocide, IT’S OUR BUSINESS.
Conservative icon Dennis Prager says,
The case for aiding Ukraine, in my opinion, is morally, politically, geopolitically, internationally, … it’s a non-question… But there was a time when Americans generally all believed that WE STAND FOR SOMETHING IN THE UNITED STATES. If God, or nature, allowed us to be the richest and most powerful country in the world, THEN WE HAVE A MORAL OBLIGATION TO USE THAT POWER. THAT’s what I believe.
I don’t understand religious Americans being isolationists… we’re in the richest country on the face of the earth and we shouldn’t help countries that are being devoured by evil? To which the answer is always “Sooo, you want us to be the world’s police man?” Yes, I do, in fact, because if we’re not the world’s policeman, China will be, or Russia will be, or even worse, the UN will be. That’s why. Those of you who say America should not be the world’s policeman, you are simply using the left’s argument of “defund the police,” except you’re doing it on a global scale and they do it on a domestic scale…
(Source: Dennis Prager: AT RISK, Thursday, March 2)
Assuming that THIS is the real story, what should we do?
So, WHAT IF Russia really is attempting to eradicate Ukraine, and all the most extreme reports of their atrocities are true, and none of it had reasonable justifications or provocations?
Well, first we would be able to say that sounds a lot like what Hitler did, so how should we have responded to Hitler?
If you could go back in time to pre-WWII knowing what you know now, would you support the defense of Europe against Nazi Germany? If so, that should be your answer to what you would do now.
If you would not support Europe in its defense against Hitler, you might be speaking German now and living in a REAL Nazi country.