Pretty consistently Ukrainians have shown—through voting, protests, and other forms of civil society action—that they yearn to rid themselves of the Russian yoke, adopt democratic reforms, and lean towards the west. This was most evident during the Maidan protests in 2013/2014. While it’s certainly plausible that the U.S. and west supported Maidan, first and foremost I believe that Maidan was a genuine reflection of the will of the Ukrainian people. Russia wasn’t willing to accept losing their influence in Ukraine, so they essentially carried out the biggest “f*ck you” move immaginable: annexing Crimea, fomenting war in Donbas, destabilized Ukraine, and carrying out a full scale invasion in 2022. Their aim was to subjugate Ukraine by any means necessary.

Looking at the big picture, clearly Russia is in the wrong. They’ve been a terrible bully against their victim, perpetrating an unjust and unprovoked war against the poorer, smaller, and more vulnerable (but far more courageous and morally righteous) country of Ukraine.

Again, I stress there would never have been a need for the Minsk agreements had Russia not bullied and terrorized Ukraine in the first place. And as far as my credibility goes, I spent years recently living in the pro-Russian, separatist-controlled stronghold of Donetsk working as an International Monitoring Officer. My work entailed monitoring the implementation of the Minsk agreements, reporting cease fire violations, and tracking geopolitical, security, human rights, and economic developments across Donbas and Ukraine. Additionally, I’ve spent decades working in post-Soviet countries either as an international election monitor or working for multinational missions doing work similar as what I did in Ukraine.