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[Darris McNeely] The news right now is transfixed with news out of the Ukraine because of the
revolutions that has been going on there in recent weeks, and now the vote in Crimea to
separate from Ukraine and to realign itself with the Russian republic. Many people are
watching and trying to understand what's taking place, but I think that the biggest question
that we should understand and focus on is why Ukraine matters within the context of
a massive geopolitical fight between Russia, Europe, and America's posturing and roles
that it's taking right now with the threat of sanctions. Why does this matter? What's
taking place?
These three maps on the board here help us to at least begin to understand that. At least
geographically, it's important to understand that Ukraine borders Russia, Poland, some
of the Baltic states, and Western Europe. Ukraine has recently wanted to become a part
of the European Union, but that was blocked last fall, and now with the overthrow of the
government there, and the redistribution that's taking place, Russia has now moved in and
a vote has taken place in Crimea to realign itself with Russia. What this means is that
there is a major shake-up taking place within this very critical country. These other maps
show, again, a little bit more of the agricultural and industrial importance of Ukraine to Europe,
Russia especially. It's interesting to note that agriculturally, western Ukraine represents
some of the richest, most productive soil in the world -- probably within the top three
agricultural areas in terms of the value of the land to agricultural production in all
of the world. This is important to Russia as well as to Europe.
This other map shows the crossing of energy pipelines from Russia, across Ukraine, into
Western Europe. Western Europe gains the majority of its natural gas and petroleum from Russia.
And the lines, the pipelines that carry that petroleum and that natural gas go through
Ukraine. Who controls Ukraine is going to control the heat in Germany, in Poland, and
other parts of Western Europe. So you see the stranglehold that is there. And of course,
with Russia involved in this right now, it's impacting its relationship with other European
nations and the United States -- financial ties, political ties, especially with the
role that Russia is playing with the other great powers in the Middle East, Syria in
particular -- the relationships between all of these nations -- the United States, Europe,
and Russia -- is very, very critical and very important. That's why it matters.
There's a couple of -- there's a few other issues for us to consider as to why this matters,
as well. What is taking place in front of us, really, is the biggest crisis since the
end of the Cold War over twenty years ago. And for most of us in the United States especially,
we've been having a holiday from history. We have not been all that interested. We're
more interested, perhaps, in the sports events, the next NCAA tournament that's now just gearing
up in the United States, other matters, and we're not really interested in what's taking
place in other parts of the world. But this is big. This is the biggest in over twenty
years. And should Russia -- which it looks like it's going to do -- annex Crimea (this
was recorded before Russia annexed Crimea), possibly eastern Ukraine, because of the ethnic
Russian majority in this part of Ukraine, it would also represent the biggest land grab
since Adolf Hitler in the late 1930s, and what he began doing in Europe that triggered
World War II. That's important. That's why what is taking place over there matters.
There's one other thing to consider. We're coming up this year on the 100th anniversary
of World War I, the beginning of World War I, August 1914 -- August 2014, 100 years later.
And as we see these alliances between Russia, relationships with Europe, led by Germany,
the United States, France, and other nations in the periphery of Ukraine, we're reminded
that it's all about alliances, and it was the alliances that triggered World War I.
And now we are seeing all of these alliances among these same powers -- different personalities,
different leadership -- things have changed in one sense in 100 years, but in another
sense, things haven't changed. And these relationships are very important. They get out of line,
they can trigger unintended consequences and other events that can lead to bigger issues.
That's why this is important -- to understand and to watch, as well.
There's some other Biblical issues that we need to consider, as well. I'll save that
for another Daily. But this, at this point, is important to at least help us to grasp
why Ukraine is important.