Invaded again--blood and bars

Invaded again--5 1/2 by 8 1/2 watercolor, 140# d'Arches

The crisis in Ukraine and Crimea is nothing new...the strategic area has been invaded and occupied over and over, from the Turks, to the Russians, to the Nazis, to the Soviets, and now after a few years of independence, again the Russians
The Russians, with Putin pulling the same prevarications  Hitler did in Europe years ago (we've got to protect the ethnic Russians), are bullying their way back into Empire, and innocent, free people will suffer.
For some reason, this crisis is very personal to me. Thus today's painting. The blue and yellow of Ukraine's flag, being swallowed by tyranny's red flag, with bars looming.
I have readers of this blog in Ukraine, and wrote about them a year ago: The Ukraine.

Ukraine's flag was adopted in 1918 in its short lived Ukrainian People's Republic, following the Russian Revolution, but was later changed to red and red-blue flags as part of the USSR. It was officially restored in 1992 following independence, and flag day has been celebrated since 2004 on Aug. 23.

The colors symbolize the blue skies and golden wheat fields of the steppes, but the first representations of the colors for the Ukraine go back to pre-Christian times for ceremonies and represented fire and sky.
I remember growing up that one of my fellow high school students was a blond-haired girl who had Ukrainian royal blood. Her parents and grandmother had fled the Soviets.  That made the threat of communism very real to me.