From a world perspective, the war between Russia and the Ukraine is the most significant challenge to the US technocratic class and their junior partners in Europe – because it represents a direct challenge to Washington’s hegemony in Europe. Hence the extent which hysteria against Russia and for the US puppet regime in Kiev drives coverage of the event on both sides of the aisle.

The roots of the conflict originate in the US backed Euromaidan coup against Ukranian prime minister Yanukovych for entering a trade agreement with Russia, a move which had the legal authority to do, but which the US and the EU took objection to. This coup was itself a rerun of the 2005 “Orange Revolution” which was likewise engineered against a government that was too friendly with Russia for Washington’s taste.

Yanukovych’s government is challenged by US backed dissidents. Unrest reaches a point where the government agrees, as part of is peace terms with these dissidents, that the prime minister will resign and early elections will be called. No sooner does the ink dry than this ruling clique tears up the agreement, ousts the president of the Ukraine and drives him into exile. A government of this nature could not be trusted to respect Russia treaty rights to access to Sevastopol or Crimea’s constitutionally guaranteed autonomy, so upon the vote of the Crimean parliament to secede, Russian troops move to secure the area. The population of the eastern areas of the Ukraine rise in revolt, and again, in violation of its own constitution, the Ukraine sends the army in an unsuccessful attempt fight whom those whom the claim as their own citizens, slaughtering thousands.

The situation remained more or less unchanged until last February, when the Kremlin, for reasons still unknown to us, chose to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics and sent in troops to protect their autonomy. So the fighting continues until a peace treaty is declared and the new Russian-Ukranian borders are drawn. The establishment press portrays the invasion as “unprovoked” as if the Ukrainians were simply minding their own business when the Russians out of nowhere decided to attack. But this fuse been smoldering for many years, and is not about to go out any time soon. I take no pleasure in saying this, as the war is a zero-sum game for both Russia and the Ukraine as long as it lasts. But lasting peace is not going to come until Kiev agrees that a lasting peace has to be based on existing political realities, which are not those of thirty years ago. With a regime so implacably hostile to Russia, that prospect seems remote.