Could the military conflict in Ukraine end by splitting the country down the middle?
If you look at a map of Ukraine, it's divided into two pretty equal parts, the east and the west, by the Dniepr river.
Looking at an ethno-linguistic map of Ukraine, it is easy to see that eastern half of the country is predominantly inhabited by ethnic Russians, many of whom are separatists from Ukraine, and sympathize with the Russian occupation.
If Russia were to occupy just the part of Ukraine east of the Dniepr, that would give her a nice big-river border, clear land passage to the Crimea, and control of Kyiv. That would be a pretty good result for Putin by itself.
But what is Putin’s true motivation for occupying Ukraine?
According the John Derbyshire, there are three likely answers:
1.) Putin wants to “gather Russian lands,” bringing the three Slavic Republics—Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine—along with Kazakhstan all together in a unity state. Why Kazakhstan? It’s big, resource-rich, and moderately Russified—twenty percent ethnic russian.
2.) Putin wants to recreate the USSR, the collapse of which he once called “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” This would be serious, as the USSR included the Baltic states, which are now all in NATO. If Putin wants to capture those, NATO will be forced to get involved.
3.) Putin wants to recreate the 19th-century Russian Empire. That would certainly be in accord with Putin’s Great-Russian nationalism. It would, however, mean re-occupying Poland.
John Derbyshire writes:
“So just possibly Putin only wants the eastern half of Ukraine. That's not the way I'd bet, but it's possible.”
Read more of Derb’s coverage of the war in Ukraine here.
VDARE is banned on YouTube! Follow us on alternative video platforms:
Gab TV
Bitchute
Rumble
Odysee
