Operation AXIOM: The 1st Anniversary of the Russian Re-invasion of Ukraine
One year ago to the day, 24 February 2022, ground, air, & naval forces of the Russian Federation crossed the frontiers of both Russia & Belarus into Ukraine, a thrust aimed at capturing Kyiv & decapitating the Ukrainian government. The Kremlin's aim has been clearly stated, to erase the Ukrainian national identity & re-absorb the country into their sphere of influence, the Russkiy mir ("Russian world" & "Russian peace," mir being a multivalent word).
The war is not our fault, the war is the fault of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin & his personalist authoritarian regime. But we failed to deter Putin & we are to blame for our fecklessness. Putin, as prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin, cemented his legitimacy by re-invading Chechnya in 1999, returing the breakaway region to Moscow's control; we did nothing, despite the brutality of the Russian invasion. In 2008, Putin's Russia (at the time, he was prime minister under President Dmitri Medvedev) invaded Georgia, establishing a permanent military presence inside Georgia within the breakaway republics of Abkhazia & South Ossetia; we did nothing. In 2014 (when Joe Biden was vice president of the United States), Putin's Russia invaded Ukraine, illegally annexing the Crimean Peninsula & beginning an insurrgency in the Donbas; we did nothing. In the run-up to 2022's re-invasion of Ukraine, President Biden spent more time ruling out potential American responses than threatening an effective American response; that this utterly failed to deter the invasion became lamentably undeniable on 24 February last year.
Russia invaded the Ukraine, again, one year ago today, 24 February 2022.
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