If it has not sunk into you yet or if the muffled cry that Russia has cannibalized the autonomous republic of Crime and the city of Sevastopol has whimpered away, the fact remains that Russia is in full control of regions belonging to Ukraine. Though the Russians have their interpretation which paints them as saints and assert that the public referendum conducted showed the people of independent Republic of Crimea expressed their wish to join the Russian federation.
Though Mr. Putin should as well come up with an answer on how he managed to rig the polls. For contrary to the fact that the ethnical Russians comprise around 60% of the region populace, and the minorities including around 22% of ethnic Ukrainians and 12% of the Muslim Tatar population has mongoose and snake relations with Russians, then how come 96.77% of the voters chose to part away from Ukraine and join hands with Russia.
In April 2014 the Russian Ukrainian crisis led to violence and bloodsheds, which by the end of August reported 2,600 lives lost. Excluding the horrific shooting down of a passenger Malaysia Airliner where 298 innocent people met fiery graves. Do these acts not tantamount to war crimes? Now doesn’t Mr. Putin have blood of innocent lives on his hands, and shouldn’t he be held accountable for it and asked to pay the price. The basic instinct of might is right is blatantly manifested by the aggressive Russian forces while the UN sits toothless.
The Russian move was well calculated and executed in phases by initially arming the pro Russian rebels in the eastern Ukraine. Later the so called military advisers from Russia moved in for assistance. Then the floodgates opened with close to 1,000 Russian soldiers, armored personnel carriers, and tanks stormed into the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
The fate of Crimea from centuries has seen many changes and in 1802 it was a governorate of the Russian Empire. Then, came the year 1922 when the region was conceived as Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, a sovereign socialist state and Soviet Union’s fifteen constituent republics. But in December 1991 a public referendum was held which overwhelmingly voted in favor of independence. On December 2, 1991 Ukraine got the recognition as an independent state globally, with the then Russian President Boris Yeltsin being among those who congratulated the first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk.
But come November 2013, public outcry ringed the Independence Square in Kiev and protests were held asking for Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s head. The protests along with allegations of corruptions at high places fueled violent Ukrainian revolution in February 2014, which removed the President from incumbency and an interim government was installed. It was a bitter pill for Russia who termed the transfer of power as illegal and took it as an excuse to invade the Crimean Peninsula.
In war it is always the civilians who are at the receiving end and hundreds and thousands fled from eastern Ukraine, some even shot at while fleeing. The human rights groups and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon raised concerns at the precarious situation, but that is as far as they go. The Russian bullying attitude goes unchecked.
