And also during a time when the Ukraine government was in flux. There was a fear that fascists who hate all Russian speaking people would take over. Most people in Crimea do speak Russian, but "Ethnically Russian" means nothing. It just means they speak Russian. This was also after decades of Russian deportation of Crimean Taters who had their land taken without compensation etc. Now for 10 or 20 years the taters had been allowed to move back. And as the Ukrainian government was in flux they became active and started making plans to overthrow Crimea and put it under Turkish rule. Which made everybody afraid. So Russia seemed like the safest choice. Since 2014 it has been dangerous to be opposed to Russia. People will not admit it if they are. From what I've been able to gather most in Crimea do not want this war. They don't care if Russia or Ukraine win or who maintains control over Crimea. They just hope the war ends peacefully. But Russia screwed that up by, once again, violating the Budapest memorandum (first time was when they took Crimea) and invading Ukraine. Most of the referendums on the Crimean peninsula have asked if they want to join Russia now or go back to the 1992 Constitution (which basically means join Russia later). Since after 1992 the power to give Ukraine to Russia was removed from Congress. So then it would just take Russia paying enough Ukrainian Congress people to vote to give Ukraine back to Russia. There hasn't generally been an option to maintain the status quo. There was no loyalty to Russia. According to the Budapest memorandum, which Russia signed as well as the UK and the United States, Crimea should go back to Ukraine.
The more I think about this the more ridiculous it seems. I refuse to believe some dickhead simply “dove to the bottom of the baltic sea” and attached explosives to three separate pipelines, then successfully detonated them. That is like James Bond level fiction. It just doesn’t check out. People dont dive to the bottom of the fucking ocean. If someone has some more insight into ocean diving and wants to enlighten me, I’m all ears and open to be proven wrong here. Seriously though, make this make sense.
It's only 200 to 400 ft deep... I don't necessarily think that has to be a state level operation... Any billionaire could have easily funded that kind of thing. Who would stand to gain from taking that pipeline out? Could be any number of people. Could be any number of nations. For just one example... Wouldn't that make Iran's oil more valuable?
That's actually not too small a sample size for a well conducted survey, and look at how many were conducted. It was repeated several times. You've got no leg to stand on. Russia liberated Crimea, so maybe you should be thankful to them. But all you want to do is criticize.
Yes, that was post liberation,the people voted massively in favor of joining Russia. The national elections are a separate issue, in 2004 and 2010, you can see the highly polarized election results, with Crimea, and the Eastern regions voting for the ousted Yanukovych.
It may mean nothing to you, but it means something to the people of Ukraine. Having Russian be a 2nd official state language was a hot button item politically. Think how the views on DEI or abortion divide our nation. They also saw the veneration of Stephon Bandera, someone who aided the Nazi's in WW2 as a major offense. People in the US really have nothing similar to compare that to. It would be like if the mayor of Detriot Michigan said the KKK was going to be the new hero of the city. When people talk about the government of Ukraine embracing Nazism, it's not just political rhetoric, it's what literally happened.
Not according to the Ukrainians I've spoken with. And I've discussed it with many. Ukraine didn't even try hard to get the Crimean peninsula to adopt Ukraine. The only ones who cared about that are a small minority of fascists. Because Ukraine was so open and accepting there were all kinds. Including fascists and skinheads. Nobody else cared what your thought you were. They just wanted peace. And they weren't worried about Russia taking Crimea because Russia, US and UK had signed the Budapest memorandum guaranteeing none would attack, or even threaten to attack Ukraine, and all would protect and honor the Ukrainian border as it existed at the time.
Bullshit. There was no liberating needed. Nobody was under attack (aside from the corrupt government in Kyiv, you like so much to talk about). Untill Russia attacked the border, violating the Budapest memorandum. You don't get to leave just because some polls show it's a popular idea. Texas doesn't get to leave the US. Neither does California, or Cascadia. A popular idea doesn't mean mexico can just go liberate Texas or California. No, we'd knock the shit out of Mexico and their forces in those states. And the US and UK allowing Crimea to be taken so easily encouraged Russia to attack the rest of Ukraine. Making the same arguments about liberating Ukraine from Nazis. It's all bullshit. And it's why Russia needs to come out of this with less than they started with. We need to support Ukraine until they get all of their territory back and pay reparations.
What were they voting on? Join Russia now or revert to the 1992 constitution (prior to the Budapest memorandum). There was no option to maintain the status quo.
There are only a small handful of people in the entire world able to dive at those depths, let alone perform special ops missions attaching bombs to pipelines in the pitch black bottom of a murky ocean. You could fit all the people qualified to do that into a perp lineup at the Mayberry police station lol. As to who benefits from this, the answer is definitely not Russia. Their potential gas exports are crippled by it. So taking that into account, i will use the very logic of you and others who support this failed debacle—whatever hurts Russia is good for Ukraine and the US. Good for oligarchs anyway.
Yeah, I'm not claiming that Russia did it, at all. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Ukraine did. I think it's 50/50 that the US had a hand in it.
I think thats a pretty fair assessment. I have a little less faith in the US government than that though. But thats not surprising to anyone.
The Ukrainian that Germany has issued an arrest warrant, is one of those very few people. He is certified to dive to 240', and has military training. What is not clear, who was he working for?
Good divers can freestyle up to 400ft and with special scuba gear dive to 1000 ft...untrained divers shouldn't dive deeper than 130 ft according to researchers. The divers who blew up the pipe line were highly trained and fully capable of blowing it up...Navy Seals wouldn't have a problem with it but under this circumstance...I think the Ukrainians blew it up and they have special forces similar to our Seals....the Ukranian they arrested may or not have been working for Ukraine. We'll probably never know but it's not like Russia hasn't blown up nuke plants and power stations and oil deposits, hospitals and schools all over Ukraine...in war this shit happens and it's always a waste of life and or resources...there are literally thousands of divers who could blow the pipeline up
Unfortunately they were not given the choice to be independent in the referendum. They were actually somewhat independent already. Called the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and had their own parliament. We do know that there was no neutral party there to monitor the accuracy of the count. And we do know that the parliament was forced at gunpoint to set up a referendum and told how to word it.
Here is a good and fair recap of the last week's events. Ignoring the West and Getting Things Done: This Week in Ukraine Ukraine has its biggest chance yet to punish the Putin regime, the West refuses to commit to defeating Russia and is still restricting its most powerful weapons, Nord Stream shenanigans, and more! https://www.warvector.com/p/ignorin...ngs?r=1n9gs4&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web "One of the biggest and least discussed impacts of the Kursk invasion is how it will probably extend the war. The West and Ukraine were tiring of the long and taxing stalemate in the east, with little prospect of a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive. The Kursk invasion has given Ukraine momentum and reenergized the idea that it has the capacity to inflict unacceptable losses on Russia. Of course, Ukraine has always had the capacity for victory, but lately, it’s been palpable. After gouging out a chunk of the Kursk oblast, Ukraine will not entertain any of Putin’s unfavorable peace rhetoric. Likewise, Putin won’t negotiate while still making incremental and significant gains in the Donbas. Regardless, it will take time for the Kremlin to mount an earnest response to this latest incursion. And the war continues."
