I’m just showing these comments I saw earlier, which were interesting. Since it is true, that we’ve been hearing that “Russia is cornered”, since the invasion started. I personally just want this shit to end.
These comments are relating to an article from this week.
I wonder if we will ever know what truly happens on the ground (i.e. when it comes to casualties and many other things)
Honest question, do you really think that a fascist victory in Ukraine is better - for the left and for the world, somehow?
Also, do you really think that Russia wants to conquer its surrounding countries just to be embroiled in decades long internal conflict and facing endless local resistance? If so, why did Russia spend the last 8 years pushing for Donbass to be returned to Ukraine via the Minsk agreements? Why did Russia continuously push for a diplomatic solution with the US and NATO prior to the invasion in 2022?
I’m sorry but tracing the history of the events since 2013 simply don’t add up to your assertions here.
I think calling the entirety of Ukraine and all the people in it “fascist” is hyperbole of the highest order.
If you’re going to make the argument that the current Ukrainian government is fascist, then unfortunately the same things but worse is mirrored in Russia, and you have 2 fascist countries fighting.
The diplomatic solution thing is interesting because the main point was not about Donbass at all, but about the Finlandization of Ukraine, determining for them which organizations they can and cannot voluntarily join. Why is it ok for Russia to dictate terms to smaller countries about what they can do, but when the US does it it’s the worst thing in the world? What’s the difference here?
I mean, the Ukrainian government has been the one that promoted Nazis in power, initiated de-communization across Ukraine and removal of Soviet/communist symbols, banned socialist and communist parties and left wing organizations in the country, brutally suppressed and murdered left wing activists and failed to prosecute the Nazis who have committed atrocities against the civilians of Donbass (even worse, they were glorified on state media).
This is just patently false. There has been so much white-washing in history that it is actually scary to me. How long before people start believing that it was the USSR that started WWII?
Russia did not object to Ukraine signing the EU Association Agreement - their only problem was the existing tariff-free agreement between Russia and Ukraine that would have allowed EU goods to flood the Russian market but not in return. Putin even offered to hold a tripartite meeting to resolve this problem - the EU rejected this proposal.
In this case, Russia simply has no choice but to terminate its tariff-free agreement with Ukraine, because nobody wants to lose money in business. And for Ukraine that meant losing a lot of its trade revenues, since Russia was its largest trading partner. A problem that could have been easily resolved had the EU been more accommodating, mind you. But they refused, why?
To put it in very clear terms for you: the EU Association Agreement was an economic warfare against both Russia (to destroy Russian domestic industries by flooding EU goods into their market i.e. what “free trade” means to most developing countries) and Ukraine (forcing them to take the IMF loans that would have bound them to perpetual dollar debt and with austerity demands i.e. to cut social spending and education).
Yanukovych did not reject the EU Association Agreement, as opposed to what many media tried to portray after the fact. He said that he needed more time to work this out with Moscow, and merely postponed signing the agreement. However, the ultranationalists were already making their moves, and he was ousted before he could even get anything substantial from Russia, let alone signing the deal with the EU.
It was the EU that determined which organizations that Ukraine can or cannot voluntarily join, not Russia!
What absolutely drives me nuts is that this conflict was rooted in very tangible nuts and bolts issues but Westerners all just think it happened because Putin personally wants to drink the tears of apple-cheeked Ukrainian children because Russians are Chaotic Evil
It’s all mindless orgasmic cheerleading for war which is extra scary since it will fuck up the quality of life for Europeans for years to come
Like you can still think Putin sucks, which he does, but at least acknowledge reality
I agree that Ukraine has engaged in suppression of activists and political parties. At the risk of sounding like I’m doing whataboutism, using suppression of activists and parties to justify Russian aggression when they absolutely suppress their entire population seems strange.
Could you please point out some prominent Ukrainian politicians in positions of power right now that you consider nazist? I do mean that as an honest question, I’m honestly trying to see your perspective here.
On the economic side of the spectrum, Ukraine was never a member of the Eurasian Customs Union. There was never any free trade of goods between Ukraine and Russia. There were talks of potentially joining it and it was floated as an alternative to the EU Association Agreement, but it wasn’t in place. This means Russia could have put as many tariffs and controls on EU/Ukrainian goods as they wanted, there was never any danger of an uncontrolled flood of goods into Russia.
Also, the EU never forced Ukraine into that deal. You can make the argument about Ukrainian ultranationalists if you want, but they aren’t in the EU. At the end of the day, it was Ukrainians, however much you disagree with them, that wanted it.
The democratically elected president of Ukraine was removed in a western-backed coup and replaced with a new western-friendly president. The US hand picked the Ukrainian prime minister. The Ukrainian finance minister was an American citizen that gained Ukrainian citizenship the same day she became finance minister.
How can you possibly look at that and say it was the will of the Ukrainian people. Do you just mean that the ultranationalists that participated in the coup were Ukrainian?