{"id":1485942,"date":"2024-08-26T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-26T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1485942"},"modified":"2024-08-26T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-26T10:00:00","slug":"10-reflections-on-ukraine-after-its-latest-independence-day-celebrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/10-reflections-on-ukraine-after-its-latest-independence-day-celebrations\/1485942\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Reflections On Ukraine After Its Latest Independence Day Celebrations"},"content":{"rendered":"

10 Reflections On Ukraine After Its Latest Independence Day Celebrations<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Ukraine celebrated its 33rd\u00a0Independence Day on Saturday, during which time Zelensky made a\u00a0hyper-aggressive speech<\/a>\u00a0boasting about his forces\u2019\u00a0ongoing invasion of Kursk<\/a>.<\/strong> So much has happened in the over 900 days since the latest phase of this\u00a0already decade-long conflict<\/a>\u00a0began that many have forgotten how everything got to this point.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The one-third of a century since Ukraine declared its independence from the USSR is therefore a fitting time to share some reflections about this country:<\/p>\n

1. A Country That Grew Out Of A Concept<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cUkraine\u201d means \u201cborderland\u201d, but it used to be the heartland of Kievan Rus. It was only after that civilization\u2019s destruction by the Mongols, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania\u2019s subsequent control over its central-western remnants, and then that polity\u2019s merger with Poland that the borderland concept began to take shape once what\u2019s nowadays Ukraine became the frontier between their Commonwealth and Russia. This centuries-long process led to the creation of a distinct identity and eventually a country.<\/em><\/p>\n

2. National Identity Remains Contentious<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Two schools of thought arose with regards to national identity: the radical one obsesses over their differences with Russia and fiercely hates it while the moderate one is more focused on socio-economic development and won\u2019t rule out cooperation with Russia. The struggle between these two has defined the Ukrainian national movement since its inception. The radicals are predominant right now, but they\u2019re nervous that the moderates might make a comeback, ergo why they\u00a0continue persecuting<\/a>\u00a0them.<\/em><\/p>\n

3. Socio-Economic Collapse Was Avoidable<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Ukraine had over 50 million people at the time of independence and a rich Soviet industrial inheritance that was then fueled by generously subsidized Russian resources, all of which could have turned it into one of the most prosperous countries in Europe, but the opportunity was squandered. Its population is now estimated to be\u00a036 million people<\/a>\u00a0and its non-stop deindustrialization made it\u00a0the poorest country in Europe<\/a>. All credible forecasts suggest that Ukraine\u2019s socio-economic collapse will further worsen.<\/em><\/p>\n

4. Incorrigible Corruption Killed The Country<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The abovementioned collapse was caused by Ukraine\u2019s incorrigible corruption since competing oligarchic cliques cared more about their personal economic interests than the nation\u2019s objective ones. Different ones came to control different Ukrainian leaders, and with time, these cliques and their politicians came to be influenced \u2013 and in some cases outright controlled \u2013 by foreign forces too. Widespread awareness of this systemic problem gave rise to well-intentioned protest movements that were also later co-opted.<\/em><\/p>\n

5. Color Revolutions Were Never The Solution<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Many Ukrainians sincerely thought that the\u00a0Color Revolutions<\/a>\u00a0of 2004-2005 and 2013-2014 would liberate their country from corrupt oligarchs and finally give them the future they deserved since 1991, but that was never the solution since these were really weaponized protests orchestrated by the West. The whole point was to co-opt the public\u2019s anger by capitalizing upon legitimate grievances in order to aid their allied oligarchic factions in a coup de grace against Russia\u2019s as part of a geopolitical power play.<\/em><\/p>\n

6. Hegemonic Goals Predetermined The Proxy War<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cEuroMaidan\u201d was a ploy to pivot Ukraine towards the US at Russia\u2019s expense by turning it into NATO\u2019s easternmost vanguard. This hegemonic goal aimed to coerce Russia into a series of incessant concessions that would ultimately neutralize its sovereignty and was influenced by Brzezinski\u2019s precept that Russia ceases to be an \u201cempire\u201d without Ukraine in its sphere of influence. The largest conflict in Europe since World War II would never have broken out had it not been for the US\u2019 pursuit of this.<\/em><\/p>\n

7. From Faux Democracy To Actual Dictatorship<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Ukraine was a faux democracy before \u201cEuroMaidan\u201d, but it wasn\u2019t until that Western-backed Color Revolution that it finally became a dictatorship. Additionally, the US ensured that the radical school of thought on Ukrainian national identity became the country\u2019s de facto ideology, which coupled with the newly imposed dictatorship to prevent their Russian-friendly moderate rivals from ever returning to power. Ukraine is now much less politically free today than it was a decade ago.<\/em><\/p>\n

8. Burning Europe\u2019s Land Bridge To China<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Regional military and domestic political changes in post-\u201cEuroMaidan\u201d Ukraine were also accompanied by broader geo-economic ones with regard to ruining the possibility of Ukraine ever functioning as Europe\u2019s bridge to China. Western-encouraged Russian-Ukrainian tensions precluded the possibility of them cooperating along the \u201cEurasian Land Bridge\u201d, thus advancing the US\u2019 grand strategic goal of \u201cdecoupling\u201d the EU from Russia and China. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

9. The Western Elite\u2019s Neoliberal Playground<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s accelerated socio-economic collapse from \u201cEuroMaidan\u201d onward led to the logical culmination of its dictatorial oligarchic regime after the country sold itself out over the past two and a half years to become the Western elite\u2019s neoliberal playground. The\u00a0G7 countries<\/a>,\u00a0BlackRock<\/a>,\u00a0foreign agricultural investors<\/a>, and others now control strategic sectors of the economy. Ukraine\u2019s sovereignty has thus become nominal since it\u2019ll likely never be able to regain national control over those industries.<\/em><\/p>\n

10. Are Ukrainians Approaching Their Breaking Point?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Ukrainians have experienced such devastation and disappointment since independence that one can\u2019t help but wonder whether they\u2019ll ever reach a breaking point. They hadn\u2019t hitherto since they weren\u2019t literally dying for their dictatorial oligarchic regime, but\u00a0growing resistance<\/a>\u00a0to its\u00a0forcible conscription policy<\/a>\u00a0suggests that some folks have finally decided to fight back. It\u2019s unclear whether this could evolve into a full-fledged revolt, however, since the secret police brutally suppress all forms of opposition.<\/em><\/p>\n

Post-independence Ukraine failed to fulfill its initially promising socio-economic potential due to incorrigible corruption, and when people finally began to protest this systemic problem, their movements were co-opted by the West as part of a geopolitical power play against Russia. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The country is now a shell of its former self after having surrendered its sovereignty, sold out its industries, and descended into an oligarchic dictatorship that\u2019s obsessed with its role as the anti-Russia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 08\/26\/2024 – 02:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/10-reflections-ukraine-after-its-latest-independence-day-celebrations<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10 Reflections On Ukraine After Its Latest Independence Day Celebrations Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack, Ukraine celebrated its 33rd\u00a0Independence Day on Saturday, during which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1485943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1485942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1485942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1485943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1485942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1485942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1485942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}