"They're killing our citizens. That's why we want to deter them, we want to stop them, we don't want [to] allow their aviation to come closer to our borders to bomb the cities," [Ukraine Defense Minister] Umerov told CNN.

If I didn't believe what the US government tells me, I'd think this sounds exactly like what Russia was saying since the NATO- and EU-formulated failure of the Minsk I and II agreements in 2014 and 2015.

NATO membership, with its advertised "security benefits," has been dangled in front of an increasingly glassy-eyed Ukrainian government – just out of reach.  Membership is a word that has no meaning.  Those security benefits must be practically provided for, even if they are illegitimate, fantastical, or illegal.

The greatly exaggerated defensive purpose of NATO must "defend" the greatly exaggerated "independent" country of Ukraine, and the US/UK war against Russia for resources and political domination must be continued.  With or without NATO, we must have "NATO," says Umerov.

A similar thing happened last month in the US.  It was announced, that with or without democracy, we must have "democracy."  Towards this end, it became necessary for the ruling party/deep state to conduct a soft coup against the sitting President, and implant a new democratic figurehead, without a single democratic electoral vote. Just before that, this same group, or a group serving them, had attempted a hard coup against the leading opposition Presidential candidate. The July 13 coup failed, while the soft coup on July 21st "succeeded."

An American Zelensky – lacking the charm and intelligence of the original – has been hoisted up by US and European media in the name of democracy, joyful democracy.  Because joy is one of the best ways to fight fascism in our brave new world. Everyone knows this.