- Joined
- Jul 29, 2018
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Euromaidan in 2013 started when Yanukovich suddenly reversed prior decision to sign the European Union-Ukrainian association agreement, which would pave the way for Ukraine to join the EU. Suddenly Yanukovich decided not to sign the agreement and instead expressed interest in Eurasian Economic Union. (I wonder what was Yanukovich's cost. No one ever published it.) Maidan was started as protest against Yanukovich's decision.
I fully understand Ukrainians, they wanted to have better economy and jobs in the west, this is all. Least of all, war with Russia. But you see, for any autocratic ruler, it is politically disadvantageous to have a neighboring country that, being not as rich in natural resources and generally, poorer, is slowly becoming prosperous, once it gets rid of old political and economic institutions and economically orients towards West. I remember how in 2010es, lots of Ukrainians were looking for jobs in Russia's bigger cities. Ukrainian economy was much worse than the Russian one. And then they started coming less. No matter how much propaganda one can spew over nationalized TV, this fact - that once Ukrainians economically turned to the West and made politics more transparent, they stopped coming to Russia for jobs - would have been the biggest eye-opener for Russians. Economy is always most convincing. I might be the only one who thinks that the main goal of Russian stepwise invasions into Ukraine was geared at preventing its economical westernization, but I stand my ground. As long as this blistering boil, Lugandon republics, were existing, Ukraine had no way of joining EU.
Any country makes political mistakes. This is why it makes no sense to even discuss any other war, or US policy, or any other policy, because most polls would be split around 50/50. But - there are mistakes, and then, there is political suicide. February 24, 2022 marked such a day. Suicide.
