Is Putin the sole responsible for this war?

Indeed, some politicians, in particular Germany's Scholz, and journalists often claim that Putin is the only responsible for this war. However, the following suggests that this claim is not justified:
  • Independent poll showed that 58% of Russians support invasion of Ukraine and only 23% oppose. Other polls show substantially higher support of Putin. Moreover, polls also show that the support of Putin has a tendency to go up as the war progresses.
  • A survey by VTsIOM showed that Putin's rating jumped ten percent in the week ending March 11 to reach 77% as compared to 67% on the week ending February 14 (before the war). This is in line with the raise of Putin's support among Russians after the Crimea annexation in 2014.
  • More than 300 rectors of Russian Universities backed Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
  • Russian culture supports the war against Ukraine: Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre announced that one of their performances will be in support of Russia's "military operation" in Ukraine.
  • It was not Putin, who killed civilians in Bucha with hands tied behind their back.
  • The witness in Bucha told that Russians killed civilians by shooting in head. Surprisingly, Putin was not among the killers.
  • On Friday April 8, the Russian military fired a guided ballistic missile at the train station of Kramatorsk. The train Station was full of civilians fleeing clashes, killing at least 30 people in an obvious war crime. Russian soldiers had written "за детей" on the missile, meaning "for the children". It is unlikely that Putin is the sole responsible for this war crime.
  • People in Kursk, Russia, are greeting Russian armed forces on April 10, 2022. This is more than one week since war crimes of Russian Army in Bucha became widely known.
  • It was not Putin but rather Smolensk officials and local activists who have brought heavy machinery to the Polish military cemetery in Katyn and threatened to destroy it in response to the "demolition of Soviet monuments in Poland". They've also started a petition to resolve the "Katyn issue" once and for all. Katyn is where the Soviets executed tens of thousands of Polish officers and intellectuals in 1939, back when Moscow and the Nazis were on the same side, and then lied about it for 50 years.
  • SBU intercepted a call between Russian soldier Roman and his wife Olga. In this call Olga says: "C’mon there, rape Ukrainian women and don’t tell me anything. Just don’t forget about contraception!" Roman and Olga are raising a 4-years old son. While this conversation may have been just a stupid joke, but mass rape by Russian soldiers in Ukraine are horribly real.
  • “The opponents of the letter Z must understand that they will not be spared. Everything is serious here: concentration camps, re-education, sterilization!” - this was declared by the Director General of Mosfilm studios Shakhnazarov on Russian state TV. Shakhnazarov further remains the Director General of Mosfilm studios after his claims.
  • "When you are a part of mass-murder machinery, it is not enough to look away!" From closing arguments of the prosecutor Lars Mahnke at the trial against Bruno Dey, who was found guilty over mass murder at Stutthof Camp despite he had not been involved in the killings.

Is this the first war between Ukrainians and Russians?

No, the history of wars between (ancestors of) Ukrainians and Russians goes back as long as XIIIth century. In the more modern history, the last large-scale war happend between Ukrainian People's Republic and Soviet Russia in 1918-1920. UPR lost that war and, as a result, most of the teritory of UPR became part of the USSR. Despite this defeat, numerours uprisings all over the teritory of Ukraine took part in 1920s. The red femine or Holodomor was Stalin's response to the will of Ukrainians to be free. The number of victims of Holodomor is between 3.5 to 5 million people.

Somewhat later, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army was engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Soviet Union (and the Polish Underground State, Communist Poland, Nazi Germany) in 1942-1956 mainly on the West of current Ukraine.


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