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To see a list of previous articles, enter “Ukraine” in the Search Box on the upper right, on The Trenchant Observer web site, and you will see a list in chronological order.

Dispatches

1) Clemens Wergin, “Putins Atom-Drohung – so groß ist die Gefahr wirklich,” Die Welt, fen 29. September 2022;

2) Peggy Noonan, “Enduring Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis; JFK came to understand the need to be ‘disciplined in self-restraint,’ as he put it in a 1963 speech,” Wall Street Journal, September 29, 2022 (6:42 p.m. ET);

3) “Putin-Zelensky deal on Crimea and recognizing fruits of aggression in Donbas would be void under international law,” The Trenchant Observer, October 1, 2019.

Analysis

Putin invades Ukraine, in 2014 and 2022. Putin conquers the Crimea, and Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson provinces (Oblasts) by the illegal use of fotce in violation of Article 2 paragraph 4 of the U.N. Charter.

Putin conducts sham referendums in the Crimea (2014) and in the other four provinces under Russian military occupation or partial military occupation (September 2022).

Putin “annexes” the Crimea (March 2014) and the four occupied provinces (September 30, 2022- ).

The result is that all of these actions are void under international law.

The Crimea and the other four provinces remain part of the territory of Ukraine.

They have as little to do with the territorial integrity of Russia as would the moon if Putin “annexed” it.

If Putin annexed the moon, would an American landing on the moon violate the territorial integrity of Russia, and authorize Russia to use military force against the United States in self-defense?

I don’t think so.

It’s really as simple as that.

The Trenchant Observer

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