One view I always come back to, after delving into the background of such conflicts, is that it's always a small minority of leaders and followers involved, on both sides. Ordinary people carry on their daily lives, work, love, look after their families as best they can. The majority in Ukraine, Crimea, Russia are quite like you and me (whoever you are, unless you are Obama, Putin, a member of armed forces or of a political hierarchy or oligarchy.)
Among the muddled mess in my brain about causes and outcomes, the one thought I earnestly cling to is the hope that ordinary people in affected areas will not have to suffer more pain, more deaths and more destruction, at whatever hands.
