Thread by @BonicMichael

Is ‘Putin’s War’ also 'Stephan Bandera’s War'?
Western Ukrainians became German collaborators in WW2 committing atrocities against Poles, Russians & Jews, and Stephan Bandera is a hero to the Azov Battalion. It is "De-Nazification" vs "Glory to Ukraine!"
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2/"CIA documents that just recently have been declassified show strong ties b/t US intelligence and Ukrainian nationalists since 1946. From the CIA agency report it is clear that they were not mistaken about the nature of the Ukrainian nationalists organization or their leader

3/"Stefan Bandera himself."
So the US has sided w/ Ukrainian nationalists b/c they are a counterintelligence asset to use against Russia. "The enemy [OUN] of my enemy [Russia] is my friend."
Putin sees a Ukraine run by such nationalists that joins NATO as a real threat against

4/the Russian Federation and knows & understands all the figures in Ukraine's Nazi groups better than anyone (being former KGB). His "Special Military Operation" isn't a euphemism for war but a tactical military strategy to weed out all Neo-Nazi OUN extreme right nationalists in

5/Ukraine. That's why the fighting is intense in Mariupol, b/c Azov Battalion is based there. Going by what Putin has said, he looks to "de-Nazify" Ukraine (which implies military victory over the Ukrainian Army) and get Zelensky to agree to his four stated conditions, which

6/aren't "terms of surrender" but "terms of ceasefire". Kind of like an armistice. No one surrendered in 1953 when fighting stopped in the Korean War. If Ukraine agrees to neutrality there'll be security assurances inked into the Agreement for both sides so they can coexist in☮️.

7/The soberest assessment (IMO) has been given by Niall Ferguson, who said the West shouldn't pin its hopes trying to defeat Putin by prolonging the fighting and imposing sanctions, b/c as time goes on things will only get worse for Ukraine. He favors a neutrality settlement.

8/Innocent Ukrainians are caught in the middle of a conflict I don't justify or condone. Putin's statement: "The US is using Ukraine to threaten Russia" is completely rational. Russia perceives a Ukraine in NATO as the vanguard of eastward expansion to Russia's western border.

9/Unlike the Biden Admin that has left Trump's border wall in shambles allowing tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to cross into the US, the neutrality of Ukraine is Russia's front line of defense. A neutral Ukraine buffers Russia from NATO the same way DPRK buffers China

10/from US's ally South Korea. You want the buffer state to be independently sovereign b/c its sovereignty is the geopolitical buffer (along w/ the geographic buffer). This is straightforward analysis right but there seems to be a dearth of this in the news media, which seems

11/to reflect an atmosphere where no one knows what's going on, not even US intel. They are barking up the wrong tree w/ "Putin's grand plan is to rebuild the Russian Empire. After Ukraine the Baltics are next...", "It has nothing to do w/ NATO. NATO doesn't threaten Russia",

12/"Putin is madman who'll do anything to reclaim the former Soviet Union", ""de-Nazification" is just an excuse to invade Ukraine to defend a group of illegitimate people in Eastern Ukraine", etc.. IMO the sooner this conflict is resolved diplomatically the better. Putin offered

13/Zelensky an off-ramp but Z won't take it. A ceasefire based on neutrality should be sought, the sooner the better. (IMO) "Stop the killing, now!!" ✌️

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