KEY DATES RECAP OF UKRAINE PROXY WAR

6 October 2025

Russophobia is a good label, but there is a string of Eurasian wars going back a long long way to back up this fear. What is really going on in Ukraine today?

The privatisations (Maggie in UK and in Europe there was eg Schroder) of the 1990s and 2000s freed up a lot of capital and some got invested in eastern europe and ukraine - investors want a return on that. 

Then there's been falling rate of profit for Western corporations over the last 40 yrs. To restore profits and productivity means reducing input costs and forever opening new markets.

I'd say this was why we have these forever wars - they are forever revenue streams for the MIC, they keep unity in the Western camp and support the drive to retain global leadership. 

Plus, dual use technology (military / commercial - amazon aws, tesla starlink...) created The Magnificent Seven (now plus Palantir)....that's digital capitalism.

For the leadership in Washington to stay on top has meant policies whose effects have been especially bad for Europe: the failure of sanctions and blowback, financial support to a Ukraine government at the expense of European economic needs; the tremendous loss of life, a Europe already in serious demographic decline, reliance on immigration (legal and illegal), growing social tensions and fragmentation; limitations on all kinds of protected freedoms, number one is freedom of speech, EU moirroring old Soviet policies restricting freedom of dissent.

This mismanagement created by our elites, arguably led by a "donor class" would be extremely bad for all our futures.

The result: in Ukraine, an unwinnable war that the West cannot afford to end for economic reasons - trapped between hubris and collapse. Call it what you like - Russian expansionism or Western post-colonial liberal imperialism.

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KEY DATES IN EURASIAN HISTORY AND GEOPOLITICS

• 434 – 453 Attila the Hun – Huns raid Europe; Rome weakened.
• 882 – 1240 Kievan Rus’ – Prince Oleg unites Slavic tribes under Viking rule.
• 988 Conversion to Christianity – aligns Kievan Rus’ with Byzantium.
• 1054 The Great Schism – split between Catholic Rome and Orthodox Constantinople.
• 1206 – 1227 Genghis Khan – creates the Mongol Empire, opens Silk Road.
• 1240 Mongol invasion – Kievan Rus’ collapses; birth of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus.
• 1853 – 1856 First Crimean War – Britain defends route to India.
• 1904 & 1920 Halford Mackinder – formulates Heartland Theory of geopolitics.
• 1917 Communist Revolution – birth of the Soviet Union.
• 1945 – 1989/91 WWII and Cold War – Soviet control of Central Europe.
• 1994 Clinton – NATO expansion announced (Brussels & Prague).
• 2004 Orange Revolution – Yanukovych ousted; pro-West turn.
• 2007 Putin’s Munich Speech – warns NATO expansion a “serious provocation.”
• 2008 Bucharest Summit – Ukraine & Georgia promised NATO membership.
• 2014 Maidan Revolution – Yanukovych deposed; Crimea annexed; Donbas war.
• 2014 & 2015 Minsk Agreements – ceasefires fail to hold.
• 2022 – present Russia’s “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine.

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KEY ECONOMIC REASONS FOR CONTINUING EURASIAN WAR - WHY THE WEST CANNOT PULL OUT

• The West is trapped by its own money, politics, and pride. 

• 1990s - 2000s - Western banks and governments pour capital from privatisations into Eastern Europe, expecting profits from cheap labour and resources - especially Ukraine’s wealth.

• 1980s on -  productivity and "profit rate" falling for rhe last 40 years at home, creating economic necessity to reduce input costs, improve efficiencies, open new markets

• 1955 on Forever wars fought not to win, but to sustain the system behind it.

     - 1950 - 53 - Proof of Concept - Korea

     - 1955 - 75 - Pilot: Vietnam

     -  9/11 - Bin Laden accuses U.S. of: occupying the Arabian Peninsula ; supporting crusader entity Israel’s oppression of Palestinians ; killing Muslims through sanctions and bombings

     - 2001 on  - Rollout - Globalisation of the concept : US declares global, borderless War on Terror. Rollout to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iran, Venezuela? Continuous or "forever wars".

     - 2022 - The wars feed a system of digital capitalism, where defence and tech giants develop latest techno profit from dual-use innovations — drones, satellites, AI, and surveillance....meg7.

• 1990s - 2008, 2009 - 2021 The conflict in Ukraine itself has become a revenue stream for the donor class, not a strategic mission in the interests of the American people.

• 2023 - Sanctions backfired, weakening European economies and further driving up debt, energy costs, and public discontent.

• Now - Ending the war would mean admitting policy failure, exposing elite mismanagement and corruption, destruction of careers, legal pursuit and prison

• The result: an unwinnable war that the West cannot afford to end - trapped between hubris and collapse. Russian expansionism or Western post-colonial liberal imperialism?

I would say you can put it down to fear of the Russian bear or you can go on to highlight American global agapani or you can go further and identify the economic reasons behind this war and why the West cannot pull out.

Some References

Ukraine won't stop fighting

The origin of the Russian-Ukrainian War

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