They used to fear the Tartars and the Mongol hordes in the old Kiev ....
Mongol Siege Of Kiev 1240 AD |
..... the Mongol Horde commanded by Batu Khan aka Tsar Batu, founder of the Golden Horde (Part of the Mongol Empire), with his general Subutai, had conquered the Crimean peninsula and captured Moscow.
So when they had totally exterminated the last Russian army, led by Grand Prince Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal, on the Sit' river on 4 March 1238 AD they were free to advance on Kiev. The battle on the Sit' river marked the end of unified Rus resistance to the Mongols and inaugurated two centuries of the Mongol domination of the modern day-Russia and Ukraine.
After several days of siege, the Mongols finally stormed and destroyed Kiev on the 6th December 1240. In 1482, Muslim Crimean Tatars again sacked and burned much of Kyiv. The irony of this history of attacks, was that after they finally overthrew the "Tatar Yoke" the Russians of Muscovy and Ukrainians of Galicia vowed to resist attempts to subjugate them. In this Moscow was more successful than Kiev, but the patriotic flame burnt just as brightly in both cities.
So when Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu recently said that there were 16,000 Muslim volunteers in the Middle East, who were ready to come to fight with Russia-backed forces in the Ukraine, and when the Russian President Putin then said that those who wanted to volunteer to fight with Russia-backed forces should be allowed to do so, then naturally the Ukrainians grew even more alarmed.
Captured By The Horde .... |
Presumably, this like Russia's false claims about, Nazi's, Nuclear weapons (Ukraine had given those up in the 1990s), and biological weapons, is meant to confuse and terrorise the world in to believing the invasion is justified. It may work with the truth starved Russian public, but it just shows how much contempt Putin has for international norms.
But another spectre of fear, has just been added, on top of that already engendered by Russia's invading army. So as well as the Muslim Chechen thugs already operating in the Ukraine, he is now threatening to unleash an army of Syrian Arabs on to the Christian people of the Ukraine .... Putin apparently has no shame anymore. He has in effect resurrected the idea of a new Muslim horde being unleashed on a Christian country.
He has to be seen to win at any cost, and apparently that even includes sacrificing what's left of the honour and reputation of the Russian peoples.
Those people calling for a no fly zone enforced by NATO are really saying let's risk WWII and a nuclear armegadon. It's a stupid request being made by Ukrainians and opportunist politicians.
ReplyDeleteObliterating the planet is something we should try to avoid but anyone who thinks Putin wouldn't do it is underestimating his paranoia.
So let's get real ... we can't risk a direct clash between NATO and Russia so we are doing the best we can.
It's obvious that Russia's armed forces are not terribly good but that would simply force Russia to go nuclear earlier.
I kind of agree with you. I understand the reason for the calls but its not Iraq or Afghanistan, its Russia, and as they are currently showing, they will stop at nothing. We have to decide if we want, or are prepared, to go nuclear in defence of the Ukraine.
DeleteI suspect not. We may even be forced to make that call if Putin decides to involve eastern European by attacking the Baltic states or even Poland. We live in very dangerous times, and Putin is a loose cannon.
Thanks for the comment.
Sadly another prediction on this post has been proved to be correct after a video was circulated online that showed a Ukrainian prisoner of war being castrated in an area of the Russian-occupied Donbas.
DeleteThe 'Russian' soldier filmed carrying out the attack in the town of Severodonetsk, was later identified as being a member of a unit supplied by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov ... Simply Chechen Animals.