As Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine intensifies, it’s worth looking at some disinformation, along with odd bits of trivia that have surfaced over the last few days.
Ukraine’s Nazis
Two weeks ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin went on TV to tell Ukrainian soldiers to take power into their own hands “against this gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis.” The intention of the Nazi reference was to revive memories of World War Two, when the USSR was invaded by Nazi Germany in June 1941, less than two years after the two countries had signed a non-aggression treaty (the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact). Some 25 million Russians were killed over the next four years, more than the casualties of Germany and Japan combined.
Putin’s “neo-Nazi” claim isn’t true: Svoboda, Ukraine’s far-right nationalist party, won less than 2% of votes in the 2019 presidential election.
Genocide?
Putin has claimed, on several occasions, that Russians living in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine have been subject to “humiliation and genocide” for years, in order to claim that the attack on Ukraine constitutes a rescue mission. However, the UN Commission on Human Rights determined that the count of civilian victims of the low-intensity Donbas war has plummeted, from 2,084 in 2014 to 18 in 2021…hardly genocide. In addition, the 57-nation (including Russia) Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe monitors the situation in Eastern Ukraine. None of its daily reports show anything like genocide. You can read the Poynter Institute’s Politifact paper here.
Ukraine Etymology
It’s debated, but probably derives from the Slavic word for “borderland.” The first mention comes from an 1187 codex as “oukraina,” meaning “outskirts.”
Ukraine Flag
Again, debated. The common explanation of Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag is “blue sky above yellow field of wheat” or perhaps “…over sunflowers,” the sunflower being the national flower. However, this notion only dates back to 1848 (Year of Revolutions), while those colors go back over a thousand years, to the time of the Kievan Rus.
Putin’s Unhappy Childhood
One website claims that Putin, who was born in Leningrad (now, Saint Petersburg) in 1952, grew up “in a surrogate family that he had been sent to by his biological parents.” The site goes on to compare Putin’s lust for power with Hitler’s (unhappy childhood!). Beyond the silly psychoanalyzing (who didn’t think, at some point in their lives, that they had an unhappy childhood?—See this, for instance), Wikipedia, whose sources are given, makes no mention of foster parents. (Putin is, however, the youngest of three children, two of whom died young.) Trivia: Spiridon Putin, Vladimir’s grandfather, was a personal cook to both Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin.
Zelenskyy’s “Practice Run” as President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, born in 1978 in the Ukranian SSR, was the child of gifted parents: his dad is a professor and head of a Ukrainian University’s Department of Cybernetics and Computing Hardware; his mom is a retired engineer. Although Volodymyr’s degree is in law, prior to entering politics he was best known as a comedian and head of a TV production company. In 2015, he began to star in the Ukrainian TV series Servant of the People, in which he played…the President of the Ukraine. Three years later, he became head of the political party also called Servant of the People. And in 2019, he was elected President with nearly three-quarters of the vote.
Ukraine’s Size and Population
Ukraine is about 87% the size of Texas, with about 90% the population of California. (44 million, compared to California’s 40 million.)
I hope the above brings the Ukrainian situation a little closer to
home. If that doesn’t do it for you, check out gas prices.
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