Chapter 1471 - 27: Outbreak of War

Chapter 1471: Chapter 27: Outbreak of War

Donbass Defensive Line.

Compared to Russia, the newly independent Ukraine is clearly a very weak country, and Ukraine’s flat and open terrain further adds to the difficulty of countering a Russian invasion.

Of course, from the Russian perspective, Ukraine was originally part of Russia, so it should be called the recovery of lost territory. However, due to the special attributes of the Russian Labor Party, Ukraine and other occupied regions should be handled under the guise of "liberation."

Russia’s ambitions do not stop here; liberating Ukraine and other former Tsarist Russian territories is just the first step. The second step is to liberate all of Eastern Europe, the fourth step is to liberate all of Europe, and finally extend to the entire world.

Therefore, the Ukrainian government, in order to prevent being "liberated," naturally constructed the Donbass Defensive Line, seeking to use this line to resist Russia.

On the west side of the Donbass Defensive Line.

Ukrainian Marshal Doroshenko stared at the military map with a troubled look, pondering how to deal with the Russian Red Army.

Surrounding him were several senior Ukrainian commanders, who clearly did not have the confidence of inevitable victory when facing the massive entity that is Russia.

"The entire Ukrainian terrain can be described as flat and is not conducive to defense. When Ukraine became independent, if the Allies had seized all of Eastern Ukraine at once, we wouldn’t be so passive," Ukrainian General Volosivka said.

The so-called Allies naturally refers to the forces of the Allies during World War I. Due to the agreement between the Allies and the Russian Labor Party in the later stages of the war, based on controlled territories, Ukraine was re-divided, which is why Ukraine is not complete.

Doroshenko said: "It’s no longer meaningful to discuss these matters now. We should be praying that the Donbass Defensive Line can support us against a possible large-scale Russian offensive."

Nearly all Ukrainian commanders were not very optimistic about the so-called Donbass Defensive Line.

Although World War I proved that trench warfare had become the current main form of warfare, trench warfare was not very friendly to either the attacking or defending sides.

Especially in terms of personnel and material consumption, Ukraine’s largest shortcoming was precisely this; Russia at the time was not like the lame Russia of the past, which was cautious in war due to population issues.

Currently, Russia’s population exceeds one hundred million, whereas Ukraine’s population is less than twenty million, and Ukraine’s industrial capacity is almost negligible.

Thus, Ukraine faces Russia completely as an agricultural nation confronting an industrial nation, and in all other aspects, Ukraine seems to fall behind significantly compared to Russia, of course, except in terms of international relations.

Marshal Doroshenko said: "Although our opponent is very strong, we are not completely at a disadvantage; we have the support of the mainstream civilized world behind us, whether Germany and Austria or England and France, even the United States beyond Europe stands with us."

The reason East Africa is not mentioned is simple: there is a Tsarist Russian exile government in East Africa, and the exile government clearly does not agree with Ukraine’s so-called "independence." In terms of maintaining national unity, the exile government’s stance is even more resolute than that of the Russian Labor Party.

Moreover, the support from the UK, France, Germany, and Austria for the current Ukrainian government is fundamentally to prevent East Africa from leveraging Tsar to control the former Russian dukedoms.

Thus, extending its influence into Eastern Europe, the UK does not wish for East Africa to break through barriers and enter Europe, while Germany and Austria-Hungary purely consider market factors.

It’s known that Eastern Europe has always been an important traditional market for Germany and Austria, and during the war, neither country expanded its overseas market range through war, so they placed greater emphasis on their traditional market after the war.

Therefore, driven by interests, both countries tacitly excluded East Africa from Eastern Europe, which was a severe betrayal for East Africa.

After all, during the Tsarist era, trade between Russia and East Africa was very frequent, and at the time, due to Russia, East Africa could conveniently enter the Ukrainian region market through trade.

Currently, the Ukrainian government is effectively a puppet supported by Germany and Austria, and naturally follows their lead. Germany and Austria intentionally exclude East Africa from the Eastern Europe market, and the Ukrainian government acts according to their arrangements.

Thus, East Africa and European countries have disagreements on the Ukraine issue; naturally, East Africa won’t contribute to the so-called Ukrainian People’s Republic.

After all, East Africa already has its Russian spokesperson, that is Aleksey and the Tsarist Russian exile government.

From this, it is clearly evident that in the scramble for profits, all sentiment between nations ultimately proves meaningless.

Adding Poland and Ukraine, the total population is around four million, such a large market is something Germany and Austria-Hungary naturally want to monopolize.

For the Ottoman Empire, the same logic applies; post-war, Germany and Austria-Hungary sought ways to exclude East African influence within the Ottoman Empire.

That’s one of the main reasons for East Africa being distributed to Iran: the UK and Germany do not want East Africa to become too close to the Ottoman Empire, especially since aside from the UK and East Africa, the Ottoman Empire is the only Great Power along the Indian Ocean Coast.