I started ranting years ago when I learned how the anti Russia sanctions harmed Ukrainian industry and agriculture. At least the US is honest now in stating that their goal is to harm Russia. Helping Ukrainians is never the stated goal. I recall that many Ukr industries lost their major buyers in Russia but were kept out of the EU markets. Some of that changed later.
It is almost like globalists only care about enriching themselves.
This link deals with the EU vs RU proposals around 2014. I recall that there was some vague belief in Ukraine that if Kiev joined the EU it would become Paris. When the USSR fell many in Moscow believed if they took the advice of the western experts their standard of living would become like that of the west. Instead the western "Harvard Boys", carpetbaggers made things worse. Life expectancy sucked under USSR. Male life expectancy fell by 10 years in the 1990s in Russia as I recall.
https://t.me/grigoriev_maxim/408?Closer cooperation with Russia would mean revival of East Ukrainian industry (a large part of it concentrated in Donbass) that has been initially created back in Imperial times as a part of Russian productions chains and mostly survived because of cooperation with Russia. Cooperation with Russia would mean a market for Ukrainian industry that was unable to compete with European industrial giants in Europe.
?European proposal was less specific and more vague. Europe did propose an association agreement, however this agreement did not contain any specific bonuses for Ukraine, in fact it was a list of demands that Ukraine had to meet to be considered for EU candidate status. A large part of those demands were of economical nature and their implementation would force Ukrainian industries to compete with Europeans directly and thus immediately lose without even starting the game.
We saw how compliance with these demands ruined Yuzhmash, Antonov, Nikolaev Shipyard, Kremenchug Steel Plant, Azovmash, Zaporozhye Automobile Plant, Kremenchug Assembly Plant, Odessa Port Chemical Plant and many others.?It's worth noting that the Russian offer did not exclude the European offer. On the contrary, Russia was ready to see Ukraine as a mediator between the East and the West and help it turn into a hub for trade between Russia and Europe. However, European offer was less accommodative and in fact demanded Ukraine to choose one of the sides.
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Naturally, Western block promoted their offer through affiliated Ukrainian media that promised beautiful and prosperous life in Europe without mentioning the costs of it and without specifying who exactly will live this beautiful and prosperous life. One could think that Soviet people have already fell for this kind of propaganda back in the end of 1980s, but here it came again and a good part of Ukrainian society also fell for it.
?As public discussion of these initiatives was going on, it marked another split in Ukrainian society. About 45 percent Ukrainians believed the media and wanted EU association no matter what, about 20 percent wanted deal with Russia and the rest did not want any association at all and wanted to keep things as they are.