The Russian
television channel Russia Today, once reputed as the “Putin’s propaganda bullhorn” (as per John Kerry, the then Secretary of State) fails rather miserably
not only in promoting the Russian perspective but in merely presenting an
unbalanced view.
Let me clarify
from the beginning: I believe Russia’s counterattack on Ukraine to be a just
war. I followed closely on the Internet the 2014-2015 war in Donbass, for which
there were available a considerable amount of information, including lots of
front line videos. It was clear to me and anybody following the events that the
locals won the war. Not only there were no Russian troops on the ground, but I
doubt Russia offered any weaponry. In an enthusiastic patriotic uprising, the
people of Donetsk and Lugansk defended themselves successfully. They had the
Ukrainian army surrounded at Debaltsevo and at this precise moment the West
began to woo Putin in order to save the army from certain extinction. Putin
caved in, forced Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic (victorious
on the battlefield) to sign the Minsk Accord, let the Ukraine army surrounded
in Debaltsevo go and give back territory conquered. It is conceivable that DNR
and LNR could have gone at least to Kiev. They had momentum and the full
sympathy of the Russians in Ukraine.