As I understand it, the current troubles started because the Ukraine decided to cut their ties with Russia and look towards the west, and I agree entirely that this was a decision for the Ukrainian people to make; and the fact that the country may have, in the past, been traditionally allied with, or previously a part of a Russian led block, is irrelevant, in the same way though our national origins may be British, that doesn’t bind us to follow Britain’s lead.
As for using ethnic minorities to facilitate territorial claims, all Putin is doing, is following in the best of European traditions, namely using minorities to facilitate territorial claims, with the most recent notable examples being Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland, both of which were justified (or so Hitler said) on the basis of the persecution of German minorities in both country.
In fact, World War 2 is the best example I can think of if one want to gauge the long term intentions of the Ukraine people. When the Germans invaded they, the Ukrainians, hunted down and handed over every Soviet communist party member they could lay their hands on. In fact, the hatred for the Soviets was so palpable, that in the early years of the war, they voluntarily contributed more men to fight on the Axis side than all other countries combined, with the exception Italy and possibly Finland. Then of course Hilter stuffed it all up treating the Ukrainians as just another subjugated peoples’.
