When Russia invaded Ukraine a few years ago, I was very lib and mostly history-illiterate. I try to be more ML now, but I still don’t know a lot about world history. I’ve heard people saying that, at the dissolution of the Soviet Union, NATO promised they would not move toward Russia, but have since continued to expand eastward. I understand this is threatening to Russia, and I understand why they would want to respond, I’m just not sure why Ukraine specifically was the response? I know we give critical support to Russia in its opposition to the imperial core, so is that the reason? I also know Ukraine is brimming with Nazis in their ranks, but is that alone a reason to invade them? Is my saying Russia invaded Ukraine a misunderstanding in itself? I’m not trying to challenge you guys, I sincerely don’t know and want to understand.
What I meant was just that a full scale invasion must take a long period of time and state resources to prepare. I think that western governments would’ve had intelligence that Russia had a plan to invade Ukraine, and the mobilisation of troops would’ve been seen as the preparation by Russia to invade Ukraine. The article frames the invasion as a response to Zelensky refusing to be in a militarily weaker position against Russia. Is it not fair to view Russian troops in Donbas (internationally recognised as part of Ukraine) as a possible threat to the security of Ukrainian territory west of the Donbas? There’d have to be trust that Putin wouldn’t violate Ukraine’s territory for them to distance themselves from NATO in their situation. You’re right that I wasn’t clear when I read back.
Historically the US has committed an ocean of war crimes and they might have even exaggerated the extent of war crimes committed by Russia but I’m confident that groups like Wagner will have committed war crimes in Ukraine, and also the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Putin for the forcible transfer of children to occupied territory. I didn’t mean to say you shouldn’t support the Russian operation, but isn’t critical support in a context where you view NATO as the aggressor in this case more understandable? That’s what I meant, maybe I sound like a lib. I just don’t really seem 100% convinced by arguments I see about Ukraine on lemmygrad tbh.