Listening to Ukrainian politician Kira Rudyk on talkRADIO, she seems to think that the war in Ukraine is a Tolkein inspired epoch defining struggle between good and evil. She even made frequent reference to the great man’s work in her recent interview with Julia Hartley-Brewer. Mind you, this seems to be the view that the chattering classes have adopted across the western world and why wouldn’t they? If you watch only the mainstream media you are fed a diet of Russian atrocities—which I am quite prepared to believe are genuine, they have ‘form’ after all—while blatant atrocities by Ukrainian soldiers against captive Russians and against members of their own population, presumably of a Russian persuasion, are almost completely ignored. But we have fallen for a line that says: “Russian bad/Ukrainian good”.
I thoroughly enjoy watching Julia Hartely-Brewer dismantling the woke progressives who think they can take her on in her talkRADIO show. I know she’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but she had the courage to say that she changed her mind over lockdown and is now an uncompromising critic. However, I am irritated by her unthinking pro-vaccine rant each time the Covid-19 vaccines, demonstrated recently to be little better than useless in a Lancet pre-print on the one hand and potentially damaging on the other, are mentioned. Toby Young tried to impress upon her recently that the vaccines may not be all they are cracked up to be and was summarily dismissed. She also seems to have assumed the mantle of pro-Ukrainian war-monger over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and pours scorn, along with her fellow talkRADIO presenter Mike Graham, on anyone who does not share their view of the war in Ukraine. Nevertheless, Graham has, uniquely, permitted Sunday Mail journalist Peter Hitchens to express his views on the war and Hitchens—who knows what he is talking about—takes a more jaundiced view than most of the Ukrainians. How long before he is cancelled, I wonder?
A regular on the Hartely-Bewer morning diatribe is above mentioned Ukrainian politician Kira Oleksandrivna Rudyk a People’s Deputy of Ukraine who, according to her Wikipedia page: “is a Ukrainian politician and current leader of the political party Voice and since 2019 a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.” Kira strikes me as a photogenic and shrill self-publicist who seems to think, not dissimilarly to the Ukraine President, that the whole world should be supporting Ukraine and giving them ever increasing amounts of the wherewithal to kill advancing Russian soldiers. Kira was famously filmed holding a Kalashnikov and telling the world how safe it made her feel. I hope the rifle was not loaded as I felt distinctly unsafe watching her; she clearly had no idea how to hold one and that can be a recipe for a loose round in the direction of an innocent bystander. She has proclaimed that the Ukrainians will give the Russians ‘a good fight’, which is easy to say when you are not quaking in your boots with hot metal coming in your direction as is the experience of those who must deliver the ‘good fight’. I am sure that the Ukrainian soldiers in the front line appreciate her pep talks, often accompanied by her cat which wanders into view frequently. Forgive me, but this scene of domestic bliss from her, seemingly, well-appointed house does not convey a war zone to me.
On her most recent outing on talkRadio with Julia Hartley-Brewer she kept referring to a ‘Lord of the Rings’ style conflict between Russian and Ukrainian troops and how this was one battle that they simply could not lose. Therefore, to ensure they don’t we must pour more materiel into Ukraine and do it soon. There was not a single word about bringing this conflict to an end other than by the mass slaughter of Russian troops and, undoubtedly, a fair few Ukrainians. Julia simply nodded along in agreement. Nobody seems to be seeking a negotiated end to this conflict which, if prolonged, will lead to the economic ruin of a large swathe of continental Europe and the complete destruction of Russia, not to mention further immediate suffering of the Ukrainian people and the further loss of sons, brothers and fathers on both sides.
In an excellent article in The Daily Sceptic, which has given voice to both sides of the great divide of opinion over the war in Ukraine, Noah Carl reports on an address by John Mearsheimer Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. Mearsheimer predicted this war, firmly considers it to be a proxy conflict between the USA and Russia and considers the strategy being pursued by the West to be a very dangerous one. It is hard to put the situation and the solution more clearly and succinctly than he does, so I won’t try: “Shouldn’t we be doing what we can to reach a compromise, even if that involved concessions to Russia like recognising Crimea and ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine? Simply waiting for Russia to lose, and hoping there’s not a nuclear war, doesn’t seem like a very good strategy.”
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