Hearing shouts of “Freedom for Ukraine” from young students who, like me, had a Slavic father seemed a very odd thing back in 1972. The boys I heard shouting political slogans were the sons of Ukrainian soldiers who had settled in West Yorkshire after World War II. They were reacting to news of a wave of arrests that year, ordered by Soviet Premier Leonid Breznhev, who crushed the political defenders of Ukrainian language and culture favouring centralist and ‘Russification’ policies. Forty years later, on the discovery that my own grandfather had been born to a Jewish family in Ukraine, my interest in the country grew.

Historical background

The modern history of Ukraine, particularly since the collapse of the Soviet Union, is a story of division and strife. Ukraine was brought to the point of disintegration and Civil war following the presidential elections of 2004. Mass protests over two months – the Orange Revolution - brought to power a pro-Western President, Viktor Yushchenko, who defeated Viktor Yanukovych, a candidate supported by Russian premier Vladimir Putin.

Yanukovych was later elected president in 2010. Mass demonstrations and a wave of protests during his tenure were triggered by his government's decision not to agree to closer ties with the European Union because of pressure from Russia. Following the Ukrainian revolution of 2014, Yanukovych went into permanent exile in Russia.

On the discovery that my own grandfather had been born to a Jewish family in Ukraine, my interest in the country grew.

The history of Russia’s relationship with Ukraine may not be well known here, but former KGB officer Vladimir Putin has a long memory, understands the history and is a skilled tactician. He has patiently waited for his opportunity to give the West a bloody nose and perhaps bite off a piece of Eastern Ukraine for the Russian Federation. For decades, the rift between Ukraine’s EU-leaning and pro-democracy West and Eastern separatists, many of whom are ethnically Russian and favour closer ties or integration with Russia, have dominated the region’s politics.

The West’s invasion of Russia

On the face of it, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, predicted by western leaders for weeks, has a simple explanation - the evil tyrant Putin invades at an opportune time when the West – during the Biden presidency – is demonstrably weak. America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan gave a sure sign to Putin and to Chinese premier Xi Jinping that the so-called ‘leader of the free world’ had no more stomach for foreign wars.operation Barbarossa 1941

There is however another explanation. In the west, World War II invokes memories of Nazi tyranny and its ultimate crime against humanity, the slaughter of six million Jews in the death camps of central Europe. To a Russian it evokes memories of the four year ‘Great Patriotic War’ – a titanic struggle in which as many as 28 million Soviet citizens died. 

On June 22, 1941, 150 divisions, almost three million German troops invaded Russia in three parallel attacks. This was the most powerful invasion force in history, a military offensive spread across a thousand miles as Hitler’s Nazi war machine began a second front. ‘Operation Barbarossa’ is etched on the mind of Vladimir Putin as with all previous post-war Russian leaders.

Russian policy since that conflict has always been to keep a buffer of friendly countries, a sort of peripheral line of defence to prevent it ever again being overwhelmed by a surprise invasion.

The West’s weakness

Metaphorically, the USA and NATO have been poking the bear with a stick. The result is an emerging tragedy for the Ukrainian people and, in time, for Russians too.

With Ukraine under invasion, Western governments have already started to impose the most punishing range of sanctions against Russia. There is talk of banning Russia from the ‘Swift’ international banking system and other crippling financial measures. 

Russia supplies 40% of Europe’s gas and we in Britain, like the rest of Europe, have pursued an insane zero-carbon energy policy that leaves us critically vulnerable should Mr Putin now decide to turn off the gas tap. Russia’s ally China, with 20% of the global population, currently holds more than half the global stock of maize and wheat. Western defence, previously protected under the umbrella of US global military supremacy, now looks desperately weak on Sleepy Joe’s watch.

We are no longer a great military power. In fact to Putin, we’re rather a toothless lion.

As Russia invaded, Boris Johnson gave a stern warning to the Russians about how we would punish their nation. Perhaps he should have a reality check. The Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace, announced on March 22nd last year that the army will be reduced to 72,500 by 2025, meaning that the existing target of 82,000 personnel, set in 2015, has been scrapped. We are no longer a great military power. In fact to Putin, we’re rather a toothless lion. By contrast, at the end of World War one, Britain had armed forces of over four million and could mount seventy divisions.

It seems like little concrete support will be offered to Ukraine but we pray for the restoration of peace and freedom in that land.

To be continued...

Top photo: Russian soldiers near border with Ukraine (BBC EPA)