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The events taking place in Ukraine do not bode well for that nation or for peace in the world. Russian President Vladimir Putin is using the same playbook that Adolf Hitler used in 1938, when he first gained control of Austria; after having sent in provocateurs to start a revolt, forced a vote as to whether the people of Austria wanted to join Nazi Germany. Immediately following the vote, German panzer units rolled into Austria and took control of this sovereign country. Once Hitler had secured Austria, he set his sights on the portion of Czechoslovakia called Sudetenland. The vast majority of the people living in this province were German speaking and provocateurs were sent in once again to stir up the population and demand that the province be turned over to Germany. High powered negotiations took place in Switzerland between Germany, France, Italy and England, in which Hitler promised the Western leaders that this was yo be his final territorial request. The western nations did not want war and caved in to Hitler’s demands, agreeing to allow the German armed forces invade Sudetenland without consulting Czechoslovakia, whose land they just gave away. The annexation of Sudetenland did not satisfy Hitler and war came in September 1939, when Germany and the Soviet Union jointly attacked Poland. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELFIn 2014, some 75 years after Hitler and Stalin had started WWII, the Ukrainian people revolted against Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian president of Ukraine, and forced him out of office. The new government broke off negotiations with Russia concerning joining the Russian economic bloc and turned to the West and began voicing an interest to join the European Union and eventually become a NATO member state. Putin responded by sending Russian provocateurs and fomented an uprising of the large Russian population in Crimea. When he noticed that the Western powers just stood by, Putin ordered Russian troops to enter Crimea. These troops carried no identification and began to take over government offices and forced Ukrainian soldiers to surrender their bases and give up their weapons. The Western powers talked a lot, but did not intervene and the provocateurs in Crimea demanded a vote for independence to become part of Russia.
No international observers were allowed to monitor the voting and Putin declared that the people had voted to become part of Russia. More Russian soldiers were sent in and Crimea became a Russian province with almost no shots fired. Just like when Hitler took Austria. Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet Union, but under the name of Russia. He was a card carrying communist in the former Soviet Union and head of the KGB operation in East Germany for 10 years. The only thing that has presently changed is that Putin no longer talks about Lenin and communist ideology, since he is attempting to regain what was lost when the Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1991. The Crimean vote to join Russia was barely over when Putin also started to move in Eastern Ukraine, which has a large Russian population. Provocateurs were also sent to the regions of Luhansk, Kharkiv and Donetsk in the eastern Ukraine, which has a population of 45 million people. One third (15 million) of the country lives in these three provinces where there is a lot of coal mines and heavy industry.
The oligarchs want the coal mining and industry in eastern Ukraine for themselves and Putin wants to rule as much territory as he can carve out. The Ukrainian armed forces cannot win against the Russian forces in eastern Ukraine since Russia’s military is superior when it comes to equipment, training and manpower. Western leaders do not want to arm Ukraine because they hope it will not escalate the conflict to a full scale shooting war with the West. Putin is using an old communist tactic of attacking and taking as much land as possible, calling for a ceasefire, moving in more troops, taking more land and calling for another ceasefire. He will eventually drive the Ukrainian government to a position of losing the whole nation or giving up a large portion of it in return for peace. Just like Hitler, Putin will never be satisfied, and once the Ukrainian government has given up and ceded eastern Ukraine to Russia, he will demand negotiations over the remainder of Ukraine. Once Ukraine has been subdued, the Baltic states will be next and that will apply more pressure on the West since the three Baltic States are members of NATO. Sooner or later the Western nations will have to push back militarily or lose Eastern Europe like it did in 1945. The situation does not look good with a lack of firm leadership in Germany, France, England and the United States. How close are we to the trigger? Only God knows. He is in control. Live each day to your fullest with eternity in mind, so that no matter what happens in the world, you are assured where your final destination will be for eternity.
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Losing these provinces to
Russia would be a financial disaster for Ukraine. Just like Hitler, Putin is
demanding that the rights of the Russians living in these provinces have been
violated and that he had nothing to do with the uprising. It is a well-known
fact in Russia and the Ukraine that the area of eastern Ukraine has been
controlled for many years by the same Russian mafia that controls St. Petersburg
and Moscow. These are former communist leaders who have dropped the communist
titles, and created a wealthy class of oligarchs, which took possession of all
state owned properties in 1991. This includes the industries of steel, coal,
oil, electrical power, factories, etc. These are the people that are responsible
for placing Putin in power and they want a strong Russia.
