Statehood For Eastern Ukraine

What is Russia's interest in Ukraine?

We need to dive a little bit into the history to see clearly what exactly Russia wants from Ukraine.Russians had been occupying Ukraine for a few hundreds of years. At first, it was Russian Empire, later it was USSR, but certain (big enough) part of Ukraine had been a part of Russia all these years (except a short period of Ukrainian War of Independence). And starting from September of 1939 whole the territory of modern Ukraine was occupied by USSR. Only about 20 years before this war (started in 2014 by Russia) we became independent to some extent. And last four years this independence becomes stronger and stronger.All these hundreds of years of occupation Russians arrogated our culture, our history, our church, our literature, our talents, our lives and did everything they could to undermine our right to be a nation. Most Russians do not recognise us as a nation; they do not think we have the right to independence and statehood. They just used to think about Ukraine as a part of the Russian Empire, and official Russian propaganda promotes this "opinion". In fact, they treat us like the Nazis did.The matter is that Russia could never become an empire without Ukraine, but they desperately want to become an empire as they were before. So they badly need to undermine our freedom and statehood, to suppress our struggle for independence, and to make Ukraine a part of Russia. It is the only way they see to make Russia great (as they understand greatness) again. The worst Russian nightmare is a strong independent Ukraine, which becomes a part of EU and NATO and outruns Russia economically, technologically and militarily, replacing Russia as a regional leader.

What are the abstention rates of the recent referendum in Ukraine?

According to this:East Ukraine referendum: 90% of voters support statehood of Donetsk People's Republic74,87% voter turnoutSo that's a 25,13% abstention rate.But do you believe a referendum held on gunpoint in what is practically a warzone?

Zhirinovski called Ukraine "an artificial state", and now Putin announced that Kazakhstan did not exist before Nazarbayev. What are historical precedents for such claims by powerful countries regarding their neighbors?

Zhirinovsky exists for the sole purpose of making Putin look moderate - you can ignore what he is saying.  He is leading a minor party not represented in Government - unlike, say, Svoboda in Ukraine. Think Front Nationale a couple of decades ago. Actually, much worse. Few years back he claimed Russia had a weapon that could lower all of Australia into the ocean. If you know a bit about Australian geology, it sounds even more ridiculous. Kazakhstan didn't have statehood before Nazarbaev, it is a historic fact. Before that it was Kazakh SSR, and before that an area populated by nomads with distinctive language and culture which were, to the best of my knowledge, purely oral. So what - they have their statehood now, and cannot be deprived of it at will. It was either a highly deserved praise to Nazarbaev, or an unacceptable slur. Coming from Putin, possibly both. Precedents? McCain's "Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country" fits the bill.

Will Russia ever leave Ukraine alone? Will the world ever help Ukraine turn back the Russian invasion?

The short answer would be: No, they will never do. And the reason is straightforward. Russians (at least most of them) do not recognise our right to independence and statehood. The best of them think (and do not shy to express their opinion) that Ukrainians and Russians are just the same nation. Some of them even claim that the Ukrainian language is just a dialect of Russian, even despite the fact that they do not understand anything in Ukrainian speaking. They say that we have a shared history and shared culture with them and many more falsehoods like this. They prefer not to recognise the fact that Kyiv is several hundred years older than Moscow and many other commonly known facts of Ukrainian history.Worst of them go much further and blame Ukrainians in "fascism" just for our eagerness to independence from Russia. Honestly, I do not know how much truth was in 86% of Putin's support among Russians after they had taken Crimean peninsula, but I know for sure that only a few Russians dared to speak out publically against Russian aggression in Ukraine. So, no, Russian people do not want to leave Ukraine in peace, at least most of them. Noone of them tries to stop the war. Not really.I do not expect the end of this war before Russia get much weaker than now. Before it either becomes as weak as it cannot maintain its army or even is torn apart into several independent states by national independence movements (Tatars, Chechen, Dagestani etc.). As long as Russian war machine exists and they have enough money to feed it, they will never leave us alone. Never. They are just such a sort of people.And one more thing. If Russians manage to swallow us, another war will come shortly. Nobody knows exactly who could be the next, but it will never end until they are stopped.

Are Ukrainians the most Slavic?

I think question is strange. Slavic heritage is language, culture and ethnicity.Language wise the most archaic language is probably Slovenian… but there are a lot or borrowed words in any Slavic language, so pureSlavic or proto-Slavic does not exists. Belorussian language contains more old Slavic words than any other but it is debatable…Culture is the same story, ethnicity is also complex as Slavic countries were invaded, conquered by different nations and there are not pure ethnicity (again Belorussia probably has the purest blood).Ukrainians have heritage from so many ethnicities and genes that we can’t say that somebody is pure Slav)))I think debates are kinda useless here as you can’t say Scandinavian country is the most Nordic or Viking.