A response to Alexander Motyl’s article “Is Ukraine fascist?” — Alexander Motyl’s article Is Ukraine fascist?, published on Huffpost in 2015, addresses a question that was hotly contested then, and even more so now. Alexander Motyl is a political science academic based at Rutgers University, Newark. …

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My source for the behaviour of the pro-Maidan crowd in Odessa on May 2 2014 is Paul Moreira's 2016 documentary film Ukraine: Masks of Revolution. I asked you whether you think their behaviour is how democracy works?

When you say "in every part of the country", do you include Crimea? Western media people who have visited there since February 2014 (including NBC News Keir Simmons just a few days ago) would presumably have loved to find popular support for Ukraine there, but what they've consistently found is popular support for Russia.

Thank you for the question. Russian leaders make the point that the conflict did not begin in February last year. It began eight years before, in February 2014. That's when an elected Ukrainian President (Viktor Yanukovych) was overthrown in Kyiv by ethnonationalist paramilitaries. Whether you call what happened a coup, a revolution, or an insurrection, it was vigorously resisted in regions that voted for Yanukovych.

Sounds like the NYT and WaPo found Zelensky's so-called peace plan too embarrassing to write about. His ten points include zero concessions to the communities in the Donbass which Kyiv has been fighting since 2014. He doesn't refer even to the regional autonomy provided for in the Minsk Agreements of 2014 and 2015, which Ukraine's leaders signed and the UN approved.

Thank you for pointing out the risks of escalation. There are justice arguments on both sides of this conflict, which has been going on for almost 9 years now. And there are people on both sides who have lost sons and daughters. Decision makers should beware of the sort of argument which uses past loss of life to make a case for further loss of life.

"Revenge" is a dangerous word, Bob. But it's Zelensky's word, not Scott's. Since 2014, Ukraine's army and paramilitaries have been at war with people they claim as their own. If it's courage you admire, why not take a look at the courage of those on the other side? They too have their heroes and their martyrs.