3/27/24
For many of us, the Ukraine - Russia war has become a back page news story buried beneath the news of Israel's Gaza invasion, the latest Haitian crisis, etc. But for our guest speaker: Anna Skrypnyk, it is a deeply personal, daily tragedy. She is an exchange student who is in daily contact with her family in western Ukraine, and will be returning to home at the end of the school year.
Her presentation provided us with an overview of Ukraine's tortured history:
- The 17th - 18th century Ukrainian Cossack state was taken over by Poland and the Russian Empire, and in the 1920's was taken over by Russia.
- Ukraine's fertile grain producing regions make it the "bread basket" of Europe, and the the early1930's Russian made famine claimed several million victims as a result of Stalin's process of agriculture collectivization and a deliberate starvation to suppress Ukrainian nationalism.
- Millions died during the German occupation during World War Two.
- Ukraine gained independence in 1991 as the Soviet Union dissolved.
- In 2014 Russian unilaterally annexed the Crimean peninsula and supported pro-Russian unrest in the eastern Donbas region, followed by the full-scale invasion in 2022.
Ukraine is totally dependent on the USA and its allies for weaponry to defend itself, and seeks membership in the European Union.
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