“Otherwise, they would have accepted Putin’s ultimatum in February with no fighting taking place, and maintained statehood.”
Jeez. Russia’s telly broadcasts to its own people, over the last six months, have swerved from calling for all-out genocide against Ukrainians one day to nuking the West the next. That follows 20 years of veiled threats and massive butt-hurt swerves from the Greater Russian Empire fanatics.
We know from Ukrainians inside Russia that ultranationalist Russian “intellectuals” have been talking like that about EVERY former Soviet republic, pretty much all the time since the Soviet Union broke up. One minute they’re being patronising about needing to take care of their little brothers from the former USSR, the next they’re calling their little brothers all kinds of names and arguing for a wholesale erasure of everything that makes them independent.
Ukraine has had 20 years to observe how Russian proxies, soldiers, and military commanders, translate this Russian fascist expansionist rhetoric into direct action on the turfs of MULTIPLE former Soviet republics - they always knew they were simply the next in line for the Chechnya / Georgia treatment.
Of course the Ukrainians weren’t going to take the deal Putin put on the table in February. It was a deal that served ONLY the interests of Russia, a deal deliberately intended to leave not just Ukraine but the Baltics without ANY defence against future aggression from Russian, and a deal that provided no assurances that Russia wouldn’t break the deal the second it was expedient to do so like they’ve done with EVERY PREVIOUS DEAL Ukraine’s entered into with it.
Eastern Europe has had enough of Russia salami-slicing its way through the ex-Soviet freed states, but they lack the power to do anything.
NATO does that the longer Russia keeps getting away with bullshit pretexts for bullshit “operations” that are really no different to what Saddam was doing with Kuwait, the more likely it is that China will decide, when even a mongrel third world version of what used to be a half-decent country called Russia can get away with it then they DEFINITELY can. So the whole of NATO knows, unless its own members want THAT kind of New World Order, Russian aggression needs to be comprehensively kicked in the balls.
For the last 20 years NATO’s response to Russia has been utterly pathetic - amounting to, “are they invading anybody we care about? No? Then leave them alone.”
Europe kept putting sweeteners on the table for Russia to follow the western countries from the former Soviet bloc - to modernise, reform, and PROSPER through peace and innovation. Putin and co are stuck in the 19th Century and are having none of that, so they’ve instead doubled down on gangsterism and merrily dragged the nation backwards, into a third world basket case hermit state status.
Russia did it to themselves, and they didn’t need any assistance or provocation from outside. But there was always going to be a point where the people at the sharp end of their angry wasp bullshit were going to realise there’s no point signing any peace deal with a state that is pathologically anti-peace. And Ukraine said, “Nope - we’re not putting up with your bullshit anymore.”
LOL. The bias is through the roof. I mentioned that you view the Chechen issue as a problem of Russian nationalism without looking into details of it, but for some reason don’t see Crimea and Donbas as a problem of Ukrainian nationalism.
Why?
Regarding the way of Eastern Europe to prosperity, thanks for a laugh!
After 30 years and hundreds of millions in handouts your “economic tigers” are barely nominally on par with Russia which was still under trade restrictions inflicted on the USSR which gradually piled up over last 20 years.
Come to Lithuania taking pride in its “Europeanness.” They have a nice Western-looking “Freedom square” in the capital’s downtown but there is no asphalt on the street next to it and it is full crack shacks falling apart without running water. They lost all their industries and 40% of population since 1991. That is some example to follow!:)