Ukraine Dispatch 4 | All Out War of Aggression by Russia
Ukraine Dispatches
Volume 1 2022
I
IT IS Saturday 26 February 2022. THE Invasion of Ukraine by Russia changes everything.
Some say that this equates to 1938. It does not. It equates to 1 September 1939.
Putin will not stop at Ukraine.
His sights are firmly fixed on all those Nation States that were formerly caught within the Soviet Bloc and not by their choice but by occupation.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, those nations were free to determine their futures.
They looked westward, the tendency of all peoples living under the yoke of tyranny, the jackboot, and idiotic May Day military parades below the walls of the Kremlin.
II
Why is it, people whisper, that westward, they seem to enjoy a freedom that we are told we have but which seems to be totally different to the freedom that we are again told is the blessed and most heightened freedom of all? Do they in the West know something that we don’t?
III
Putin will not rest until he has subjugated all of those nation-states. But unlike Ukraine, those nations are within NATO, underpinned by Article Five and which has, this week, now adopted its active defence plan.
This gives greater autonomy to military commanders in the field.
Article Five is simple in its application.
An attack upon any one nation-state within NATO is an attack upon every nation-state within NATO.
The outcome for Russia will be calamitous!
III
Putin wants war.
If we are to believe Russian state-controlled media, so do the Russian People.
Let us hope that reason prevails and that the Russian People realise what is being done in their name before it is too late. They have no effective opposition. Politicians who opposed are either now in exile, murdered, or forcibly rendered harmless.
When men and women are killed in battle, their remains, so far as possible, are returned under a flag-draped coffin, and they are buried with full military honours. This is small consolation for the grieving and bereft families, but the people understand the gesture and receive a measure of comfort.
Putin?
The man has Crematoria following his soldiers into battle.
That is their potential ignominious end. That is also the mindset of the Russian president.
As a retired officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, I can think of nothing more repugnant.
That is the value that Vladimir Putin attaches to the lives of the soldiers, sailors and airmen he throws into battle. Only a mind devoid of soul and spirit could do such a thing.
The People of Ukraine will Prevail!
26 February 2022
All Rights Reserved
© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2022
The banner image is captured on a screenshot of the BBC World News Live Feed on my television screen; I have left it unedited as the reflections within also capture the Spirit of the People of Ukraine and their Capital City, Kyiv.
With thanks to the British Broadcasting Corporation Live Newsfeed. © Kenneth Thomas Webb 2022 © BBC 2022
Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.
He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.
Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.
In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.
