by Paul Craig Roberts, Paul Craig Roberts:

As I have explained correctly in a number of articles, there was NO RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE.  It was, as Putin said, an operation limited to ejecting Ukrainian and neo-Nazi forces out of Donbass, historically, like Crimea, a part of Russia herself and populated with ethnic Russians.  These historically Russian territories were transferred for political and administrative reasons from Russia to Ukraine by Soviet officials.  As Ukraine itself was historically part of Russia for centuries, and as both were part of the USSR along with Georgia and Central Asia, the transfer was understood as adjustment of state boundaries as in the US within the same country.  Ukraine did not exist as an independent country until about 30 years ago when the USSR was broken up.  So the claim that Donbass and Crimea are part of Ukraine has been true for about 30 years, whereas they have been a part of Russia along with Ukraine for centuries.