Editorial rights purchased from iStock. Photo by Aquir.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine isn’t going as planned. Ukrainians are fighting back — and not just the Ukrainian Army — civilians are joining in the cause.
Armed with AK-47s they’ve never used before and Molotov cocktails made from a recipe broadcast on Ukrainian television (or found on Google), the people of Ukraine are not giving up.
Russia has roughly 50%-75% of its armed forces in Ukraine now — when and how they’ll deploy the rest of their troops is unclear. But we do know what the Ukrainian people will do — they will fight for their country.
The country Russian President Vladimir Putin claims is being run by “a band of junkies and neo-Nazis” has not been the easy target Putin may have expected. Nor have any government officials in Ukraine attempted to use children, wives, and parents as “a living shield,” as Putin predicted.
For Russian soldiers in Ukraine, the reality on the ground is not matching the hype from their leader.
Putin seems to have made several miscalculations. The Ukrainian president is neither a drug addict, a neo-Nazi (President Zelenskyy is Jewish), or a coward. Zelenskyy will stay in his country and fight, despite knowing Putin has named him the #1 target of the military — the #2 target is Zelenskyy’s family.
Putin claims his invasion of Ukraine is being done to protect the Russian border, yet Ukraine has never invaded Russia and none of Ukraine’s bordering NATO nations have either — nor have any of them ever threatened to.
Putin claims the government of Ukraine is corrupt and has taken the people of Ukraine hostage. But hostages don’t use AK-47s and Molotov cocktails to attack their rescuers.
Still, a few Americans seem to agree with Putin, namely Tucker Carlson, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Donald Trump. Even less unhinged conservatives like Lindsay Graham want to blame Biden for Putin’s incursion, saying if Biden hadn’t tried to expand NATO this would never have happened.
This is nonsense, of course. It is the Ukrainian president who has been asking to join NATO — if anything Biden has been reluctant to make a move that would commit U.S. troops to defend Ukraine.
Like Putin, Republicans have an aversion to reality — if they didn’t, they’d have to admit that Putin is not invading Ukraine to save it. He can’t stand the idea that a former member of the Soviet Union is now a functioning democracy. It makes his autocracy look bad in comparison.
If Ukraine can elect a democratic leader, why can’t Russia? This is what scares Putin.
The last straw for Putin was when Trump failed to beat Biden in 2020, and attempts to steal the election failed, proving that America’s democracy is still stronger than the numerous lying, cheating Republicans who tried so hard to get rid of it. Still, the handful of crazies who continue to support Putin in the U.S. may have given him the impression that they would prevent Biden from creating a strong and united front against the Russian invasion of Ukraine — another miscalculation by the man who used to be considered a world-class strategist.
For Putin, it’s now or never. He may well be thinking Biden isn’t strong enough to lead the free world in a united front against his imperialistic machinations. But the thing about Biden is he’s the “walk softly and carry a big stick” kind of guy.
Putin doesn’t understand real strength, he relies on bullying, bribes, and blackmail — like Trump.
In the end, Putin will lose. The sad truth, however, is he may destroy the Ukrainian capital and most of the country’s military with him — not to mention the civilian casualties we may see.
We can only hope the tragic loss of the brave souls who are heroically fighting for their lives and their democracy will finally put to rest the Republican fascination with autocracy, fascism, and willful ignorance that have become their trademark.
It will be a price far too great to pay, and an injustice of tragic proportions in that it will be paid by the Ukrainian people — not the Republicans — but given that Republicans are such slow learners, this may be what it takes.