2023-6 Ukraine, letter in Irish News

in many conflicts, neither side is wholly correct.  Secondly, no matter what the mistakes of Ukraine, no-one has the right to bomb and kill.  Thirdly, 1,000 years ago, Crimea was not in Russia at all - indeed, Russia did not then even exist - while Crimea, a land inhabited by the Crimean Tatars, wasn't in Ukraine either. 

At that time, there was a nation called Kievan Rus, beyond which there were various settlements, one of which became Muscovy, and later Moscow, and later still, the capital of Russia.  Then, in 1240, Kiev was sacked by the Mongols, who also then ruled Russia.  This mainly Slav nation soon expanded to conquer various other regions, many of which were not Slav at all: the Sumis in northern Europe, the Maris and Komis to the East but still in Europe, the Chechens and others in the Caucasus, and over 50 different ethnic groups in Siberia, the Buryats near Lake Baikal, for example, and the Chukchis on the Pacific coast.

One day, soon I hope, the Russian Empire (now called a Federation) will follow the British and others into the history books; alas, not yet.

And now the votes.  Zelensky was indeed elected by a small majority; but we in the West usually consider a majority of 50% + 1 to be enough; we too believe in majoritarianism, the Russian word for which, by the way, is bolshevism, большевизм.  Secondly, Crimea's first referendum was in 1991 when, like every other region or 'oblast' in Ukraine, it voted by a majority to be part of an independent Ukraine.  Granted, Ukraine is now divided, not least because of the two-round voting system which pitted Yushchenko versus Yanukovich in 2004, which the former won (by a whisker), and then Timoshenko versus the same Yanukovich in 2010, which the latter now won (by a whisker).  Only with the protests in Maidan did the EU (EC as was) change its mind against majoritarianism to advocate the opposite, power-sharing... and it rushed over to Kiev... but arrived on the very day that Yanukovich ran into exile.  Granted, the West was involved in those protests on the Kreschatik - the main road in Kiev - and some of the tents I saw used in those 'spontaneous' demonstrations came from abroad.

Referendums.  When Donetsk voted to opt out of Ukraine and be independent, a population three times greater than that of Northern Ireland, in Dobropillia and Krasnoarmeisk, voted to opt out of opting out and to stay in Ukraine!  Putin ignored that result.  (Similarly, when Ireland opted out of the UK, admittedly not with referendums, NI opted out of Ireland.  In like manner, when Georgia voted to opt out of the USSR, Abkhazia voted itself out of Georgia.  The Russians used to call this process 'matryoshka nationalism' - (a matryoshka is one of those famous Russian dolls: inside every big one there is a smaller one, and inside that a tiny one, etc.) - until, despite their allies in Kosova, they started to use binary referendums for their own advantages in South Ossetia.)  But back to Donetsk.  In 2022, Putin changed his mind; he now wanted Donetsk to be, not independent at all (despite the wishes of its majority) but to be incorporated into Russia - an altogether different option; hence another referendum.  In a nutshell, he wanted Donetsk to want, not what he had wanted, but what he now wanted Donetsk to be; and, by some strange circumstance, a Donetsk majority supposedly changed its mind in exactly the same way.  As often as not, in any multi-option debate, binary voting is a nonsense!  If only for the sake of Ukraine, therefore, those in Ireland (and Scotland) who want to change their own constitutional status should desist from any binary vote.  After all, Scotland had its own referendum in 2014, and the word Scotland, 'Shotlandiya', was used by Russian separatists in Luhansk, to 'justify' the unjustifiable: violence and war.

Yours