Cav's Place

When I saw last night’s truce announcement, I definitely didn’t think it’ll be worth much, but have to say I was almost as surprised to hear of today’s events as I was on Tuesday, when this started. This is following the pattern of the Arab uprisings, albeit with a stronger backing from an existing political opposition and certain visible interest groups, so it’s not exactly the sort of thing you expect to see happening in Europe!

What will happen next, I don’t know, but what’s obvious is that the current Ukrainian regime needs to go… As does the Russian one and its influence on the world, but that’s nothing new and, either way, a slightly different matter. If the world truly wanted to do something about that, Georgia offered them a great chance, five and a half years ago, but nobody made any use of it. So now we’re in this situation and Ukrainian people happen to be the ones paying the price today, with their blood, sweat and tears.

Of course, on the protesters’ side, alongside those who truly believe the European Union will bring them a better life and want the country to join it as a result and those who are closer to the ideals of the recent movements seen in other parts of the world as well and are therefore fighting for an entirely different system, you also have the political opposition with their own selfish interests, the right wing extremists, anarchists, some who’re just there for the fighting and possibly various other smaller groups as well. All of them can and do unite against a common enemy as long as they’ll at least somewhat agree on the general direction they’re going in, but ask them what they want to happen once they’ll overthrow the current regime and they’ll be at each other’s throats immediately.
Unfortunately, that’s always the case, but I guess there’s little to do about it but take things one step at a time. Support the fighters, commemorate the dead, comfort the injured and those losing friends and loved ones, and help the people of Ukraine break free of their current rulers, their current oppressors. Once that first goal is achieved, the support will clearly need to largely focus on those who’ll be struggling to create an entirely new system, knowing it’ll be a long and terrible fight, against current allies and old enemies alike.