Russia's War Against Ukraine
OP-ED
Alexander J. Motyl: Ukraine is still caught between a hammer and an anvil
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shows the way to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as they leave a hall after a joint press conference at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 10.
For most of the 20th century, Ukraine was the victim of two equally malevolent empires - Germany and Russia. Germany's contribution to Ukraine's devastation was the two World Wars; Russia's was the imposition of Soviet rule and the concomitant destruction of Ukraine's peasantry and elites. Unsurprisingly, one of the most constant images in 20th-century Ukrainian commentary is that of their country being caught between a hammer and an anvil.
