after russia invaded..... make sure you always include that
If I was President of Ukraine, I would certainly not shell Donetsk or shut off the water supply to Crimea.
I don't know which genius advisor told them it was a good idea. I suspect that they just "allowed" the nationalists to pressure them into these things.... Rather, the government pretended it was on board, in order not to make itself look completely impotent.
It was nationalist paramilitaries that showed up one day at the Crimean border and started throwing bags of concrete into the canal.
It was nationalist paramilitaries that would fire random rounds into Donetsk, when they would get drunk and bored.
If I was the Ukrainian president, I would do everything in my power to show the Ukrainians living on the other side of the front line that we keep them in our hearts and minds daily. I would ensure they can claim their pensions and welfare benefits without leaving occupied territory. I would encourage them to keep their Ukrainian passports, so they may continue traveling freely in Europe. I would do everything possible to ensure they continue to receive clean and sufficient water supplies.
From the moment they lost them, the Ukrainians began to treat their former compatriots worse than collaborationists. They pushed them into our embrace, because they had nowhere else to go.
Now there are as many as 5 million former Ukrainians, who view the Ukrainian state as the enemy. Nobody forced Kiev to act so myopically. It is all of their own doing.
And we will recruit from among these 5 million. And we will send them to kill their former compatriots. And they will go.