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Comment by dvt | Hacker News Reader

> the responsibility that the US bears on this conflict cannot be underestimated, and it is totally absent (or at least severely under-reported) from Western sources.

Either we agree that countries have sovereignty and can enter whatever pacts they so please or we do not. You can't have it both ways. NATO is an alliance that Baltic nations joined of their own accord. The US doesn't even enter the picture here.

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> Either we agree that countries have sovereignty and can enter whatever pacts they so please or we do not.

I completely agree. The problem is that for the past 70 years or more, this has not been like the US has behaved. They set the historical precedent that it's ok to respect other countries sovereignty if and only if said country aligns with your own interests. When that's not the case, it's fine to overthrow the government to make it more "democratic".

So there is no Munroe doctrine in place? Cuba has the right to station nuclear weapons? The hypocrisy of any great power is mind boggling and it’s sad to see individuals buy into that.

Do countries have sovereignty to develop Nuclear weapon? No, because big boys club sees it as a threat and it is understandable. If some power sees actions of another country as a threat, sovereignty becomes more nuanced.

Nuclear weapons are a special case because they threaten the survival of the human race (you can probably throw certain chemical/biological weapons in here too). Joining NATO--not that the Ukraine was even doing that--does not. There's a material difference here.

Smallish country developing nuclear warhead wont threaten survival of the human race. It wont have neither enough warheads nor sufficient delivery capabilities, yet no country is allowed to enter nuclear club, because existing members sees it as threat and have means to enforce their will. Ukraine joining NATO is same in principle: a threat to someone who is willing to act on it.

> Joining NATO--not that the Ukraine was even doing that

Ukraine was actively seeking NATO membership since 2014, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine%E2%80%93NATO_relations

And even before that, in 2008, at the Bucharest NATO meeting there were talks about including Georgia and Ukraine into NATO.

The US clearly enters the picture here if they are willing to supply weapons to the Ukrainians. That is a justified security concern from Russia's perspective

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