Not sure of the accuracy of this email advice I received from a friend today.
Ukraine is a Russian word whichmeans - borderland/s. The borderlands were an area between theRussian Empire, Ottoman Turk Empire and Polish- Lithuainian Empire.
As these militaries won andlost wars the borderlands moved around so there never was a state known asUkraine until 1920 when Lenin's communists decided to make some boundaries andcall it Ukraine.
This action by the communists wasillegal according to the constitution of the USSR, the constitution required areferendum of the people who would be living within the new boundaries and thiswas never done. So legally Ukraine has never existed, and for most ofhuman occupation it has been part of Russia.
In 1989 when Gorbachev and Reaganagreed that the Germanies could re-unite the two presidents agreed that NATOwould not move past the ODER River on the East German border.
Since then there has been 3expansions of NATO into east European states until now where Latvia and Estoniaas NATO countries are right on Russia's border. There areconsiderable physical obstacles between those countries and Russia but that isnot the case for Ukraine where flat steppe country runs right up to Moscow.
During WW 2 many people from westernUkraine were Nazis and formed battalions of fighters who fought with Nazi,others performed guard duties in many Nazi death camps, still others wereNazi saboteurs, while still others assisted Nazi death squads round up Jews tobe massacred.
This tradition of Nazism didn't endat the conclusion of WW 2 and is now alive and very influential in Ukraineunder President Zelensky's rule. Zelensky has allowed the ' AZOV Battalion' and 'Centuria' to join the current Ukrainian army and receivetraining from USA and European allies. There is a web pagetitled 'MYROTVORTS' ,this organisation passed on names and addresses of peoplewho had pro-Russian thoughts - many of these people were subsequently murdered.
Furthermore, I was told that from first hand reports from Ukraine, currently, there are many crooks (Nazis?) with weapons gained, conducting robberies ands murders of Ukrainian citizens.
Not a nice place to be.