pani 2×4, Sobieski y Sylwester;

You demonstrate something important to keep in mind when we broaden our gaze from Georgia to Ukraine.

Where does Czech end and Polish begin?
Where does Russian end and Ukrainian begin?
It’s not a trivial question.
If one were to draw a line from Rostov to Krakow a smooth linguistic continuum would be revealed. There are no sharp lines; Russian grades into Ukrainian which grades into Polish. Turn west at Kyiv and the endpoint is Slovak and Czech.

Ukraine is not sharply defined. Unlike most countries which take their official language from the dialect of the capital, Ukraine recognizes the dialect of Lwiw, that portion of the country which was ruled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A significant portion of the country views itself as Russian, even if their dialect is a bit hinky to muscovite ears.

The implicit gamble has always been that if Ukraine aligns itself with the west, then affluence will follow. The embarrassing fact is that Ukraine has not only fallen far behind Poland in its economic development, it is now falling behind oil rich Russia.

If there is time, before Russia begins moving against Ukraine, it is mandatory that Ukraine receive a massive economic stimulus.