PRESS RELEASE IMMEDIATE 23.2.2026
UKRAINE
4th ANNIVERSARY OF RUSSIAN INVASION – 24.2.2026
THE LESSONS OF WAR!
1 In 1991, Ukraine held a referendum on independence; every oblast voted in favour by over 80%... except Crimea, only 54%. Maybe such a small margin should have prompted a re-run, with other options like ‘joint authority’ or whatever also on the ballot paper. (The lessons for Belfast are obvious.)
2 The EU (EC) advised Ukraine to adopt a majoritarian form of democracy (even though the Russian word for ‘majoritarianism’ is ‘bolshevism’ (большевизм). The 2004 presidential election was held under the two-round system, TRS, which can be very binary; thus the one country of mainly Slav-speaking Christians turned into a country divided, with mainly pro-Europe Ukrainian-speaking Orthodox and Catholic Yushchenko supporters versus the pro-Moscow Russian-speaking folks in the Donbas and so on, voting for Yanukovich. The former won, just. But he won everything: majority rule.
In 2010, Yanukovich won, just. Everything. Violence followed: Maidan. The EU then changed its mind: democracy was not majority rule, it was now power-sharing. A delegation rushed over to Kiev… but arrived on the very day that Yanukovich ran into exile.
3 2014 was also the year of the Scottish referendum. There followed in Ukraine the referendum (with little green men) in Crimea, and two more, in Luhansk and Donetsk. In Luhansk, Russian separatists used the word Scotland (Shotlandiya, Шотландия). And just as Northern Ireland opted out of Ireland when Ireland opted out of the UK, so too Dobropillia tried to opt out of Donetsk when Donetsk opted out of Ukraine.
THE LESSON ARE:
1 Both in decision-making and in elections, binary voting may be inappropriate. .
2 The Right of Self-determination is an instrument of de-colonisation, not of secession.