On the 24th of February , Russian military forces under the orders of Russias’s President Vladimir Putin crossed the borders and marched into Ukraine from Belarus and Russia.
The main reason for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was the threat of NATO expansion into Ukraine and closer to Russian borders after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Vladimir Putin argued that if Ukraine joined NATO , it would pose a major security risk for Russia and thus such a move would be completely unacceptable.
The big question is :
Did Ukraine join NATO , even to this very day ???
The answer is – NO !!
So where is the security risk that Ukraine poses to Russia ???
Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelensky openly said on a televised speech that Ukraine will no longer insist on joining NATO and Ukraine will not be begging on its knees for NATO membership.
NATO itself has failed to live up to its 2008 promise to Ukraine and Georgia of full membership in NATO , but instead has sought to admit Sweden and Finland instead.
Russia therefore no longer has a valid and justifying argument as to why it is invading Ukraine.
The invasion itself has been condemned by more than 2/3 of the United Nations General Assembly and 3/5 of the United Nations Security Council as an illegal, unprovoked and unjustified invasion.
So what is the Russian military still doing in Ukraine , now that Ukraine doesn’t desire NATO membership anymore ??? What does Russia want in Ukraine ???
Russias’s war in Ukraine is more than just the politics of security threats and spheres of influence.
Russia has been vehemently accused of targeting Ukranian national and natural resources for either military destruction or looting them for Russias’s benefits – from ordinary home appliances, to minerals, artworks and artefacts, electricity generation centres to agricultural produce and machinery.
# Ukraine to formally drop its NATO ambitions :
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.france24.com/en/live-news/20220308-in-nod-to-russia-ukraine-says-no-longer-insisting-on-nato-membership
# Ukraine-NATO relations :
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine%E2%80%93NATO_relations#:~:text=Plans%20for%20NATO%20membership%20were,fled%20Ukraine%20in%20February%202014.
# Russian looting of Ukranian resources
1) General Goods,Grain and agricultural machinery and produce
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/05/05/europe/russia-ukraine-grain-theft-cmd-intl/index.html
https://www.reuters.com/world/ukraine-accuses-russia-stealing-grain-during-war-2022-04-28/
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/05/26/russian-soldiers-send-home-58-tons-of-looted-items-from-ukraine-investigation-a77811
2) Steel
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/business/russia-stealing-ukbound-steel-ukrainian-boss-says-b2128916.html%3famp
https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/world/2022-07-22-russia-looting-steel-bound-for-europe-and-uk-says-metinvest-boss/
3) Minerals
https://www.google.com/amp/s/finance.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/russia-now-controls-least-12-164741759.html
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6467039
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/10/ukraine-russia-energy-mineral-wealth/
https://youtu.be/BftqoZOryDo
https://youtu.be/If61baWF4GE
4) Artwork and Museum Artefacts
https://www.rferl.org/amp/russia-ukraine-looting-scythian-gold/31829109.html
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newsweek.com/putins-military-stole-famous-artwork-ukraine-museum-mariupol-council-1722614%3famp=1
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/world/europe/ukraine-scythia-gold-museum-russia.amp.html
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/may/27/ukraine-russia-looting-museums
# Russian Genocide against Ukranian people
** How the United Nations (UN) defines genocide :
https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml#:~:text=To%20constitute%20genocide%2C%20there%20must,to%20simply%20disperse%20a%20group.
**Russian Genocide against Ukranian people :
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_genocide_of_Ukrainians_in_the_2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine#:~:text=On%2014%20April%202022%2C%20the,genocide%20of%20the%20Ukrainian%20people.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/why-russias-war-ukraine-genocide
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/27/genocide-ukraine-russia-analysis/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/05/27/europe/russia-ukraine-genocide-warning-intl/index.html
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61017352.amp
Related, Soviet Genocide in Ukraine – Holodomor – Soviet Famine and Genocide in Ukraine :
https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/holodomor
# What does Putin really want in Ukraine ?? :
https://youtu.be/8Sb-5dt2Q3M
https://youtu.be/rfSwBL4UkUs
https://youtu.be/3MfF7z5H17Y
Benochi Arts 