Comments by "Dale Crocker" (@dalecrocker3213) on "a response to comments about Russia" video.

Roughly 230 million books are sold in Russia each year. What are the Russians doing with them if they're not reading them?
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There is a fairly comprehensive UN report.
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@SlurpentisCEO Something over 200 million.
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@niftynige I was waiting for answers like these! I was hoping someone would say they eat them, to make a change from potatoes!
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@eyeneffjay The UN has released several reports on the conflict in Donbass, highlighting significant human rights violations and potential war crimes since 2014. One notable report from the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine covers the period from 2014 to 2016, detailing widespread killings and a lack of accountability. The report states that the conflict, particularly in Donetsk and Luhansk, resulted in up to 2,000 civilian deaths, with nearly 90% of these deaths caused by indiscriminate shelling of residential areas. Additionally, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights estimated that from April 2014 to June 2021, the conflict resulted in approximately 42,500-44,500 casualties, including 13,200-13,400 deaths and 29,600-33,600 injuries. The reports emphasize the rampant impunity for these crimes, with both sides of the conflict being responsible for various human rights abuses. The initial abuses were carried out by Ukrainian militia in 2014/15. Since then, however, the rebel armies, aided by Wagner, have paid back the Ukrainians threefold. Perhaps the report you read was Ukrainian propaganda?
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@eyeneffjay The UN has released several reports on the conflict in Donbass, highlighting significant human rights violations and potential war crimes since 2014. One notable report from the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine covers the period from 2014 to 2016, detailing widespread killings and a lack of accountability. The report states that the conflict, particularly in Donetsk and Luhansk, resulted in up to 2,000 civilian deaths, with nearly 90% of these deaths caused by indiscriminate shelling of residential areas. Additionally, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights estimated that from April 2014 to June 2021, the conflict resulted in approximately 42,500-44,500 casualties, including 13,200-13,400 deaths and 29,600-33,600 injuries. The reports emphasize the rampant impunity for these crimes, with both sides of the conflict being responsible for various human rights abuses.
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@eyeneffjay There is considerable evidence of systematic terrorism. The measures taken were so severe that YouTube will not allow me to detail them. Initially they were the work of Ukrainian militia against Russian inhabitants, although later in the conflict the tables were turned, with Ukrainian sympathisers being badly treated by the partisans. While there can been no doubt that Russia had a hand in fomenting the rebellion, there was no initial large-scale invasion. The army and the police transferred their allegiance to Russia almost to a man, as they did in Crimea. They had considerable civilian support as resentment had been building up ever since Kiev took over. Wages had dropped dramatically and there was little or no investment in industry. Instead there was a process of de-Russification, with the language being threatened, streets being re-named and traditional holidays and religious practices being sidelined. The fact that in the present war millions of Donbass resident have fled not to Ukraine, but to Russia, clearly shows where their sympathies lie.
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@eyeneffjay I have to disagree. The reports both give details of actions carried out by both the Ukrainian army and militia groups such as the notorious Azov Brigade which cannot be interpreted in any other way. Measures employed were so disgusting that YouTube will not allow me to detail them. The rebellions in Donbass had widespread support, with the army and the police transferring their allegiance almost to a man. Russia obviously helped organise and equip the separatists, but a great many residents fully supported the actions taken. To you it was an illegal invasion. To Russia it is a liberation.
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@TheMasterMind144 "To a man" means more or less all. Whatever input Russia had into the revolution in Donbass, there can be no doubt that it was based on genuine dissatisfaction with the way Kiev was treating the numerous self-identifying Russians in the area. Ukraine attempted to crush the rebellion with extreme prejudice - as the Americans say - and very many were indeed killed - innocent civilians as well as fighters. All this aside the most significant element to the rebellion and the current war is undoubtedly the ownership of the vast mineral resources of the area, estimated at least $13trillion.
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@TheMasterMind144 This would imply then that Russia is in total control of all of Donbass and that no-one actually leaves until they arrive. Far more likely is that Russians living in Donbass flee to Russia, where they have families and friends. They fear reprisals as collaborators if they fall into Ukrainian hands.
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@TheMasterMind144 While renaming streets might cause some degree of resentment, as might attempts to fade out Russian from schools and government, the greatest cause for alarm in Donbass was surely the prospect of Russian-owned and operated mining and manufacturing interests falling under EU and ultimately US control? And while Yanukovich might well have been a Russian puppet, he was no more so than Zelensky is a Western one. That's the problem , isn't it? Ukraine is a divided country with a large proportion of the population in the East favouring Moscow and nearly all in the West favouring Washington and Brussels. Elections and referendums clearly show this divide. Regional autonomy for the Donbass oblasts, as called for in the Minsk Accords, would to some extent have ironed out the problems and would certainly have been infinitely preferable to the present dreadful war.
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@TheMasterMind144 Very many Russians living in Ukraine have family and friends in Russia and naturally chose to flee there instead of into Ukraine. Your scenario implies that no-one chose to escape until the Russians had actually taken over their towns and villages.
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@TheMasterMind144 Yanukovich was a Russian puppet in much the same way that Zelensky is a Western one. The fact is that Ukraine is a divided country, both geographically and in in terms of national self-identity. Regional autonomy for Donbass, as outlined in the Minsk Accords, would have helped solve the anomalies, and would certainly have been preferable to the present dreadful war.
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@TheMasterMind144 I think recognition of Crimea as Russian and regional autonomy for Donbass would probably have been sufficient to satisfy Russia's interests. They need more territory now to ensure a land connection with Crimea, but in any forthcoming peace treaty they might even give that up. In my view, this war is a war between three gangs of crooks: Russian, Ukrainian and American. Zelensky owes his ascendancy to Kolomoyski, who was trying to forge an alliance between Ukrainian crooks and the US. Zelensky may have tried to wriggle out of his obligations since assuming power but when America tells him what to do, he has to do it. I can only hope that before long they will tell him to pack it all in and agree to a sensible peace deal.
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@TheMasterMind144 I don't think the history of Putin's leadership shows anything more than a desire to protect Russia's surviving interests post the collapse of the SU. I see no evidence of expansionism, merely securing borders and existing economic benefits. Even the present war merely seeks to enshrine realities which were covertly accepted when Ukraine had pro-Russian administrations.
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@TheMasterMind144 I still think Zelensky is the instrument if not of the US government as a whole, then certainly of commercial elements based largely in the US. Kolomoyski did more than provide funds though. Like Trump in America, Zelensky owes his success largely to exposure on a popular TV show! (Is Kolomoyski actually persona non grata, or is this just another of his tricks? I really don't know.)
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@TheMasterMind144 Nothing of Putin's actions since coming to power suggests to me that he does anything not directly connected with maintaining Russia's surviving borders and interests, post the collapse of the SU.
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@TheMasterMind144 No. It made him a very suitable front man for Kolomoisky though. Has he rebelled against his mentor? That does seem likely.
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@TheMasterMind144 Well they were certainly wrong there, weren't they!?
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@mikethespike7579 Have a peanut!
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@mikethespike7579 Give the man a peanut!
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@GARDENER42 There's a weird anomaly here. Google is contradicting itself. I've had three figures so far 229m, 348m and indeed the PA's 669m.
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@GARDENER42 PS. Google now says that 669million is £669million - the total revenue from book sales.
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@GARDENER42 PPS. Hope I'm not boring you, but now it looks as though the 669 million is in fact the number of books PUBLISHED in Britain - but sold worldwide.
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