[Hugin]

The UN doesn’t make international law. It preexists the UN. There is nothing under international law that makes it legal for NATO or anyone else to decide to just depose governments we don’t like, let alone give part of a country away to rebels. And that was the original posters point about Putin. If Putin’s actions are illegal then so was our attack on Serbia. And Russia also has a UN veto.

Countries have a right to act when they or other countries are attacked, or when their security, or that of other countries are threatened. The Serbs in Kosovo were no threat to any other country, and they were fighting Muslim terrorist rebels in their own territory. There was no legal justification for us doing what we did. But it didn’t matter because we were strong enough to do so, and nobody could stop it. Well, what goes around comes around.

[Tailgunner Joe]

There is no “international law.” What law exactly do you think we broke? Where is this international law you speak of written down? Nowhere. The only “international law” is the UN Charter which is merely a treaty. Treaties don't trump the US Constitution. Yes Russia has a veto in the UN too, which they didn't use to prevent the establishment of a no-fly zone in Libya. They could have but they didn't. The difference between Kosovo and Crimea is that the USA did not annex Kosovo and make it part of our country like Russia did to Crimea. Kosovo was not a war of conquest like Putin is waging in Ukraine.