Today’s home page is full of anti-war reflections and empathy. Since we all want to reflect so much, then I will seriously give you a reflection on how this matter in Ukraine has come to this point.

1. Ukraine had a fantastic start

Many people see Ukraine as a small and weak country, but this perception is actually limited.

In terms of the size of the country, Ukraine is as large as Britain, France, Germany, and other European countries, and its population is 50 million. In terms of resources, Ukraine is the third-largest exporter of food in the world, along with the Northeast of China and the Mississippi of the United States. There are more than 80 kinds of rich minerals that can be mined, including coal, iron, manganese, nickel, titanium, mercury, graphite, and so on. Basically, they have all the necessary resources to become a strong power.

It is important to note that Ukraine is not an agricultural country with resources, but an industrial country with a very advanced industrial system and a system of universal education, which was also established as a production center in the former Soviet Union. With a literacy rate of 99.7%, Ukraine probably had the fourth-highest level of education in the world at that time, and had a large number of universities.

Moreover, Ukraine inherited a bunch of highly sophisticated factories from the Soviet era.

For example, the Nikolaev Shipyard - better known to the Chinese as the Black Sea Shipyard - was the largest shipyard in Europe at the time and built nine aircraft carriers for the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the predecessor of China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier “The Varyag” the predecessor of China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier, was nearly 70% completed here.

Kharkiv Morozov Mechanical Design Bureau, where the famous T34 was designed and developed.

Antonov Design Bureau - in the 1980s the world’s largest aircraft was built - the An-225 transport aircraft.

Madasich - the world’s largest aero-engine research and manufacturing company, specializing in the supply of engines for all types of aircraft, known as the “power tsar”

Ukraine inherited 3,594 Soviet military-industrial enterprises, with 3 million workers, capable of producing aircraft, tanks, aircraft carriers, rockets, large transport aircraft, and land, maritime, aero equipment, and they were all at the top of the world at the time.

The most important thing is that Ukraine is not a fat sheep, it directly inherited 700,000 Soviet troops, more than 6,000 tanks, 1,500 aircraft, 300 ships, 176 intercontinental ballistic missiles, and – 2,500 tactical nuclear weapons.

So you think this is a small and weak country? Have you ever heard of small countries with nuclear bombs in their hands?

When the family was divided, Ukraine’s overall strength was second only to Russia, to Chinese, it is as known as the “second hairy”. (Big hairy Russia two hairy Ukraine three hairy Belarus, hairy bear, of course, is the Soviet Union) Although it is no longer the might of the hairy bear, it by no means is a small country that can be compared to an average country.

But the problem is

In 1989, Ukraine’s GDP per capita was 1598$, Romania’s GDP per capita was 1818$, Russia’s GDP per capita was 3429$, and China’s GDP per capita was only 311$. Ukraine was five times larger than us.

Then twenty years passed

In 2016, Ukraine’s GDP per capita is still only $2186$, Romania’s GDP per capita is $9520$, Russia’s GDP per capita is $8748$, and China’s GDP per capita has come to $8123$ (source IMF official website) We are almost five times more than Ukraine.

So there are many countries in the world that can cry themselves miserable, such as some small countries in Africa, with poor natural conditions, little land resources, more than 90% of their land are deserts, they are not close to the shoreline and transportation is not convenient, so the gods can’t help. But Ukraine is not. Ukraine had a fantastic start, which other countries, including us, could not even think about at that time.

2. The Textbook of Color revolution

So how did Ukraine end up where it is today? Ukraine is a textbook of color revolutions on all fronts, because it is really hard to imagine a country that has bought into the evil of the other side like this

First, there was shock therapy.

After Ukraine’s independence in 1991, Kravchuk became president, and in order to bring Ukraine’s economy out of stagnation and quickly transform from a planned economy to a market economy, he believed in “shock therapy” as did Yeltsin in Russia at the time. As you may have guessed, like Russia, the Ukrainian economy went from stagnation to chaos, with prices soaring and the currency devalued, while some senior officials took the opportunity to use their power to acquire state property and become oligarchs.

But there is still something to say, after all, no one had the experience back then, the problem is the rest of the operations.

When Ukraine wanted to join the European NATO after USSR’s dissolution, in order to convince the west as soon as possible that he was not a threat, he believed in the promises of Europe and the United States and destroyed his nuclear weapons. On the surface, for Ukraine at the time, this step was profitable both in terms of reducing the funds for maintaining nuclear weapons and in exchange for Western assistance.

But realistically speaking, only a company can discuss whether it makes money or not, a country cannot just consider whether it makes money or not, nuclear and non-nuclear countries are completely different things in terms of discourse.

Why did they attack Iraq? Because it was suspected of having weapons of mass destruction

So why not go after North Korea? Because it really does have weapons of mass destruction.

Ukraine could negotiate terms with Europe and the United States back then, not because Europe and the United States were kind-hearted, but because you really had thousands of nuclear warheads in your nuclear arsenal. After Ukraine destroyed its own nuclear weapons, Europe and the United States not only did not fulfill their promises, but even the previously promised loans started to come with conditions.

In addition to nuclear weapons, Europe and the United States also coerced and lured Ukraine into giving up a whole bunch of military equipment.

For example, when Ukraine had already built the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ulyanovsk, a Norwegian company offered Ukraine’s help to build six ships, but to build them on Platform 0, where the Ulyanovsk carrier was located, and another American steel company took the opportunity to offer a high price for the steel used in the carrier’s construction.

Ukraine had an idea: wouldn’t it be a good move to kill two birds with one stone? So Ukraine dismantled the Ulyanovsk carrier and prepared to sell it, freeing up the shipyard for the orders of new ships.

But when the carrier was dismantled, the US company refused to buy it on the pretext that the contract was invalid, and then the Norwegian shipbuilding contract was canceled for some reason.

After your economic and military, the next is your whole industrial chain.

The famous “aviation power tsar” Madasic company president Boguslaev once told reporters that when he took his products to France to exhibit and tender, Western aviation manufacturers unceremoniously told him, "'Your engine is very good, but we don’t want it '. Why? Because “your product does not meet the standards.”

And what are the standards? The standard is that 24 ways of cutting environment-friendly humanitarian diamond and if you don’t buy it then you don’t love it. The standard is that the only champagne is the wine produced in the Champagne region of France.

If you can produce diamonds in West Africa, then I will emphasize the cut, diamonds are important, but a good cut is equally important, only diamonds that produced in the City of London by a century-old master, with hyperbolic 4C technique are worth the money, you don’t know that thing which is called an artisan spirit!

If you have the cut, I will then emphasize the brightness, only bright diamonds are worth the money, your dim ones are inferior!

As a result, when China’s man-made diamond technology exploded, and they have all the brightness and cut, but…

Guess what the opposite side said?

Only those with flaws are natural! Only natural ones are worth the money!

Your Xinjiang cotton is cheap and good, I will just say that you used slave labor, the standards are in my hands and can change at any time, how do you play with it?

Therefore, repeatedly teased by the west, Ukraine came to its own realization. Ukraine wasn’t stupid, of course, they also reacted to the good old “freedom and democracy.” Everything will become better they said, turns out that’s not true at all, is it?

In 2004, the Ukrainian public felt that we had to change our mindset, not what the west said, so they elected a pro-Russian Yanukovych and tried to move closer to Russia.

Then the final form of the color revolution emerged when the pro-Western Yushchenko, after losing the presidential election, called on his supporters to hold peaceful demonstrations in major cities across the country on the basis of “massive election fraud by Yanukovych”, which became known as the “Orange Revolution” because Yushchenko and his supporters wore orange clothes and waved orange flags.

Under strong pressure, the Constitutional Court ruled that the election results were invalid and a new election was held early the following year, which Yushchenko won by a narrow margin.

The Orange Revolution in Ukraine, along with the Rose Revolution in Georgia and the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan, are considered to be color revolutions, with the common denominator that they took place in the former Soviet Union and that the initial winners were all pro-Russian or socialist parties.