https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-24-2026
"Four years ago today, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin launched a “special
military operation” involving dozens of missile strikes on Ukrainian cities
before dawn. In 1994, in the
Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances,
Russia, along with the United States and the United Kingdom, agreed not to use
military force or economic coercion against Ukraine, in exchange for Ukraine’s
giving up the Soviet stockpile of nuclear weapons left in Ukraine after the
Soviet Union crumbled in 1991. At the time, Ukraine had the third-largest
stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world. Russia violated that agreement when
it invaded in 2014 after Ukrainians threw out Russia-backed oligarch Viktor
Yanukovych.
Putin had been eyeing Ukraine’s industrialized region since at least summer
2016, when Russian operatives told then-candidate Donald J. Trump that they
would help Trump win the White House if he would look the other way when Russia
installed Yanukovych to govern a new “autonomous” republic there. Two days
before he invaded in 2022, Putin recognized “new republics” in Ukraine and
then, in his announcement of his invasion, claimed he had to protect the people
there from “persecution and genocide by the Kyiv regime.” He called for
“demilitarization” of Ukraine, demanding that soldiers lay down their weapons
and saying that any bloodshed would be on their hands.
Putin called for the murder of Ukrainian leaders in the executive branch and
parliament and intended to seize or kill those involved in the 2014 Maidan
Revolution, which sought to turn the country away from Russia and toward a
democratic government within Europe, and which itself prompted a Russian
invasion. Putin planned for his troops to seize Ukraine’s electric, heating,
and financial systems so the people would have to do as he wished. The
operation was intended to be lightning fast.
But rather than collapsing, Ukrainians held firm. The day after Russia invaded,
Zelensky and his cabinet recorded a video in Kyiv. “We are all here,” he said.
“Our soldiers are here. The citizens are here, and we are here. We will defend
our independence…. Glory to Ukraine!” When the United States offered the next
day to transport Zelensky outside the country, where he could lead a government
in exile, he responded:
“The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
