Ukraine on Fire

warning :
cigarette smoking

narrator:
here in kiev in recent days

the maidan the independence square

has turned into a full-scale war zone

more clashes in ukraine's capital kiev

there is absolutely no doubt that snipers

are working here. i counted 10 bodies

viktor yanukovich: even today we don't know

who shot those people. that is the problem

reporter:
now on the brink of civil war

at least 70 dead so far

and the death toll is rising

vitaliy zaharchenko: these technologies

i repeat, no country is safe from them

reporter:
what we saw here today was a revolution

k :
hail to ukraine

putin:
want to know what's happening in ukraine?

victoria nuland:
we have spent over 5 billion dollars to assist ukraine

vitaliy zaharchenko: in big politics

whatever they're talking about

they are talking about money

oliver stone:
nato has expanded by 13 countries

up to the borders of russia. 13 countries

narrator:
the focus has to be not allowing

this crisis to turn into a hot war

between ukraine and russia

viktor yanukovich: this is a dangerous topic

we're talking about war

no one should feel safe today

narrator:
ukraine

it's an ancient and proud land

with a rich history

filled with much beauty

heroism and sacrifice

ukraine is a border land

a place where east meets west

this is the flag of ukraine

the blue represents the sky

the gold is seeming endless fields of wheat

ukraine is a prize many have sought

and much blood was spilled in a quest to posess it

ukraine has been the path for the western countries

as they attempted to conquer the east

in world war I

and in world war II

and every time the ukrainian people payed

the highest price for this grand games of power

history doesn't repeat but it surely rhymes

said mark twain

looking closely to the history of ukraine

one will notice many rhymes

being surrounded by stronger powers

ukrainians needed a lot of cunning to survive

the art they truly mastered in time

was the art of changing sides

iIn the middle of the 17th century

ukrainian leader bogdan khmelnitskiy

broke the peace they made with poland

and sided with more powerful russia

just over 50 years later

as the russian-swedish war was raging

another ukrainian leader ivan mazepa

broke the union with russia and switched sides

joining forces with the swedish invaders

many times ukrainian history

was written by third parties

seeking to keep the gains of the revolution

russia agreed to the humiliating brest-litovsky peace of 1918

which turned ukraine into a german protectorate

another historical document

that changed the fate of ukraine

was the molotov-ribbentrop pact of 1939

one of many such agreements being signed

between european countries and rising germany

attempting to protect his nation

from the approaching nazi threat

Joseph Stalin negotiated a treaty

of non-aggression with adolf hitler

while promising each other peace

soviet and german foreign ministers

molotov and ribbentrop

divided the map of eastern europe splitting it

into german and soviet spheres of influence

as soon as the molotov-ribbentrop pact was signed

poland was split

and in september of 1939

eastern poland became the western ukraine

and a part of the family of the soviet republics

and the USSR

but even this bold dividing of land

only delayed the war

germany broke its promise to the USSR

on june 22nd 1941 germany invaded the USSR

and launched barbarossa

the largest military operation in world history

barbarossa was aiming for

saint-petersburg, moscow and kiev, ukraine

three destinations of major significance

ukraine with its rich land and resources

was an important industrial and economic

source for the USSR

to cut it from the soviet union

would be a great success

for most of those in the soviet union

the second world war

was about fighting the invaders of their land

but it wasn't so simple for ukraine

the truth is ukraine has never been one country

when world war II began

a large part of western ukraine

welcomed the german soldiers

as liberators from the recently enforced

soviet rule

and openly collaborated with the germans

true scale of this collaboration

was not announced for many decades after the war

but we now know that whole divisions

and battalions were formed

such as ss galizien, nachtigal and roland

just in the beginning of the war more than

80 thousand people from the galizien region

volunteered for the ss galizien

later known for its extreme cruelty towards

polish, jewish and russian people

on the territory of ukraine

members of these military groups came mostly

from organization of ukrainian nationalists

the OUN

founded in 1929

this organization had the ultimate goal

of an ethnically pure ukraine

and considered terror as acceptable measure

for achieving their ends

their official flag was black and red

land and blood

it will remain in ukraine's history long after

the OUN ceases to exist

in early 1940

the organization of ukrainian nationalists

got its own leader - stepan bandera

[for ukraine, for freedom, for honor, for glory]

severely anti-semitic and anti-communist

he proclaimed a free ukraine in 1941

his german allies found such an act of self-will

unacceptable and they put him in prison

for nearly all 2nd world war

not participating in person bandera still

managed to successfully spread his ideology

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