The Economist does a good piece on one now oft forgotten aspect of Ukraine. It's a corrupt mess of a nation. It's just as bad as Russia. Totally in the claws of the maffia. This was is well described as two networks of maffia organisations fighting eachother. These maffia networks are also transnational.
Now when the western nations prop up Ukraine, we need to be very careful so we don't make more of a mess than we'd get if we did nothing.
Volodymyr Zelensky removes his defence minister and goes after an oligarch
www.economist.com
We don't don't want a repeat of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc etc. The cold war was full of these. The west props up a corrupt regime, and then when the war is won it instantly reverts to an out-of-control kleptocracy where the democrtic principals are a joke.
I have seen very little evidence that Ukraine winning the war against Russia will benefit the Ukranian people. I still think we should protect Ukraine from Russian aggression. But that's more a question of geo-politics and containing any aggressor. Rather than helping the Ukranians. What Ukraine needs is heavy reforms. It has historically worked out. Germany and Japan are two examples of corrupt messes that turned out swimingly well. But both of those had heavy handed reforms. I can't see that happening for Ukraine. This is an entrenched maffia. It's going to need more than sternly formulated EU letters to swing these guys around.
