ICHEOKU says an invasion is an invasion, whether minor or not, as Russia has actively violated the territorial land space of Ukraine by formally recognizing two Ukrainian breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk which Russia helped carry out insurrection against Kiev. Unless the West is waiting for Russian tanks to first roll into Kiev, the action for which they threatened a reaction, of imposing suffocating economic sanctions against Russia has now occurred. The West must therefore now act decisively unless they want to completely lose face in the eyes of the people of Ukraine.
The West made a promise to the Ukrainian people that if Russia invades them, they will impose a punishing economic and diplomatic sanction against Russia. They must now fulfill that promise or forever be seen as a people who are big on promises but gun-shy on keeping them. Donetsk and Luhansk regions belong to Ukraine and a foreign Russian army moving into them without an express invitation and authorization of the authorities in Kiev amounts to an illegal incursion, an invasion, to wit. It does not matter under whatever pretext of "peace keeping" mission which Putin used in ordering his Russian troops into the two breakaway Ukrainian regions.
The fact of the matter is that President Vladimir Putin is not the United Nations Organization which normally conducts such "peace keeping" missions and usually at the invitation of the recognized governing authority in a country or with its consent and approval, first sought and obtained; none of which President Vladimir Putin did. In his remarks announcing the decision to take over the two Ukrainian territories, President Putin said: "I consider it necessary to take a long overdue decision to immediately recognize the independence and sovereignty of Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic".
This is a president of Russia who refused to recognize the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine, yet was quick to recognize the two separatists regions of Ukraine. This is a president of Russia who invaded and forcibly seized the Ukrainian City of Crimea; who invaded and seized Georgia's cities of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. And now he is using the proxy of his propped up separatist puppets in Donetsk and Luhansk to once again invade and seize two regions of Ukraine. Yet the world, especially the West, is standing hands akimbo watching Putin repeatedly violate international law and order as it concerns respect for each country's territorial borders.
Hasn't President Vladimir Putin gotten away with enough brigandage already? What again did Adolf Hitler's Germany do differently in Europe? What again did Iraq's Saddam Hussein do differently with Kuwait? What again did Nigeria's Sani Abacha do differently with Bakassi Peninsula? If any of these named three former leaders had nuclear weapons in their arsenal, would the reaction of the West to them have been different? Why is Russia's President Vladimir Putin being allowed to get away with his constant violations of other countries' territorial integrity?
What use is the United Nations Organization if its member Ukraine cannot be protected from the aggression of its more powerful neighbor Russia? Has the organization outlived its usefulness and is it about time to decommission it just like the case is being strongly made that disbanding NATO is also overdue. Where is the "UNITED" in the United Nations Organization when their members are disjointed and disunited, with the more powerful member seeking to consume the less powerful member. Not even the American Kosovo example justifies what President Putin has done with Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk, especially after crushing Chechnya's attempted separation from Russia.
The current Secretary General of the United Nations is very weak and docile; and in fact, ineffective and should not have won a second term in office. With so much global insecurity, ravaging wars, diseases, famines, disasters and now President Vladimir Putin created additional crisis in Ukraine, and you ask yourself what exactly has the SG done to fix or help solve these problems? He is busy making lame speeches and not forceful enough to deter the Russian strong man by issuing a threat of expulsion of Russia from the United Nations Organization. If might is right in the United Nations, what then is the use of "uniting" countries, both weak and strong, under the one umbrella?
President Vladimir Putin is holding the entire West hostage and is now insisting that it is not only Ukraine but every other former Soviet country that must not ever become Westernized. He also added that every Western deployed troops and weapons in Eastern Europe must be removed too. What could have emboldened Putin this so much to so brazenly dare the West if not that he now perceives West's woke induced timidity, fear and weakness. Would Putin have dared the West the same way when Europe had leaders like Margret Thatcher, Jack Chirac and Helmut Kohl and President Ronald Reagan in the White House.
What President Vladimir Putin is doing to Ukraine is violative of every international norm and decency. It shows his total disregard for organizations such as the United Nations as well as the European Union and of course NATO. He looks down on them with a great condescending attitude, the reason he repeatedly calls their bluff and does whatever he wants to do despite their deafening objections. President Vladimir Putin is an embodiment of a living bully and only understands the language of the bully, force.
Why not fight him now and for however long such war might take, cost inclusive, and get his case closed permanently for good. Why is he being tolerated in power for as many decades as he has been in office? Watching the spectacle that was his "national council" meeting yesterday, revealed a dictator who has totally and completely placed every breathing Russian under his thumb. His minions were kept at a great distance from their dear leader and they cowered as they lipped through their pre-approved remarks signing off on the wishes of their living tsar about Ukraine. They hardly made eye contact with him and their voices quavered; then imagine what ordinary Russians are going through if their supposed henchmen and oligarchs are trembling before President Vladimir Putin.
By recognizing the two regions and ordering his troops to move into them, President Vladimir Putin has practically declared war on Ukraine. The people of Ukraine must now respond in kind to defend their country. Nobody is expecting Ukraine to defeat Russia, but at least they would have registered themselves as having fought to defend their country. It is about time for every person in Ukraine, men and women, old and young, anti war or pro war, both the trained and untrained everyday normal people to take up arms and mount an insurgency against the invading Russian army.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy must realize that Russia's President Vladimir Putin is not scared by words of his "friends and partners" in the West and must now mobilize Ukrainians to fight in defense of their homeland. Ukrainians are ready to die in the effort but they need to be first fully mobilized and impassioned about the project, to defend their homeland from the invading Russian army. He should know that Ukrainians are on the verge of a complete nervous breakdown and that they have been fully encircled and have nowhere to run to. President Putin has finally brought the war to Ukraine and he must live up to his duties as the commander in chief of Ukrainian defense forces and president of Ukraine, rise up and meet the challenge head on. No more speeches.
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Christy 'Apena' Essien-Igbokwe , the wife of Jegede Shokoya of the New Masquerade and Nigeria's lady of songs is dead; she was 51years old. Although her family claimed that "brief Illness" killed her like so many Nigerians; Icheoku retorts that it was most likely AKwa Ibom voodoo and remote control that was used to arrest her. It is on record that she had fallen out with the governor of her native Akwa Ibiom State and have been having a relentless war for political turf with the governor? So who knows whether she was sacrificed to Ekpe cult or even Alusi-Okija as an offal; afterall African science is still very much alive and portent. May her soul rest in peace.
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