Yeap, the above image shows a Russian tank flying the Soviet Union flag, while moving inside Ukraine in 2022. It's almost like seeing ghosts from wars past, namely de Cold War. To me it makes me think about the soviet tanks rolling into Warsaw Pact countries when the people there would manifest their will to escape Moscow's control.
Some people think (and one friend said that to me) this image is a fake, edited, but it's not; it's a traffic camera feed in the South of Ukraine. The feed was being broadcasted live and several people saw this tank. In this tweet you can see another video, taken from another camera feed, where the same tank with the flag is visible.
As my friend Cravo said to me, considering that Ukraine has the Azov Battalion (actually a regiment) that has neo-nazis/neo-fascists elements, we might watch in 2022 a fight in the ukrainian plains with one side hoisting the Nazi flag and the other side the Soviet flag. A surreal and bizarre scenario, that after 1944 nobody thought could be seen again except during filming of a movie or a documentary... With the added anomaly that this time the roles would be reversed with the "villains" being the invaders and the "heroes" being the defenders.
I have to reflect and write about the Azov Regiment, that is part of Ukraine's governmental forces (but integrated into the Armed Forces) since 2014, because this unit has been used to validate Putin's argument that he's denazifying Ukraine. But that's for another time since the topic of neo-nazis or neo-fascists is not the theme of this cogitation.
After following closely the first hours of the invasion and writing several posts on Facebook about it, I have to admit that in a way I'm a bit "disappointed" that I am so much more invested in the Russian aggression against Ukraine than for instance the aggression against Syrian civilians or the people of Yemen.
But of course I would be much more invested as there are several factors that explain that: the closer distance, the fact that I know and work with Ukrainians and Russians, the fact this is the return of full-scale war in our continent (that had the biggest wars before), the fact that we are involved, even if indirectly and will face consequences that in a bad scenario can be direct involvement.
Also the circumstances of this war are different than most of the other conflicts that have been ongoing. War and killing civilians is always bad, but different circumstances will impact us differently. Like you get numb (and sometimes sick and tired) of things that have been going since long time but when a brand new event occurs it attracts your interest.
So yeah, it's not fair that so many people of the World are invested in the invasion of Ukraine while forgetting other wars that have caused a lot more suffering.
It's just the way it works, and for me is the same.
So now you know that arguments like "what about..." might strike a (momentaneous) chord, but won't change what and how I feel
Also related with wars past, I've been seeing many comments about Europe not having a Winston Churchill-like figure in power at this time, something that for sure would made a difference. I also had the same thought but after some consideration, I have to say the following:
Churchill was not the prime-minister in the pre-War period not even when it actually started. He became the PM when Chamberlain resigned at the start of German invasion of the Low countries and stayed in power during the war without being elected. Since he was a great leader (was he though??) during the War, one would expect he would easily win the next elections but he didn't. He was later elected in the following ones in 1951 (although his party lost the popular vote) but the general consensus was that he was not that good as a peacetime leader.
So it actually makes sense that we don't have an elected leader in the UE that is a Churchill figure. Someone like him most likely would never be elected during peacetime. Or if they were/would be elected, would face a lot of criticism.
I actually believe there are strong politicians in Europe that could lead in difficult times but probably they would only come to power when those times arrive, not before. And they probably would be considered bad political leaders otherwise (in the current times, where Western Europe has been living for decades a period of peace and prosperity).
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