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Comment by richrichie | Hacker News Reader

It is puzzling why UK is risking its national security over Ukraine. UK is a small geographical area and all of it will be pulverized in a nuclear exchange.

It would be entertaining if Milei stirs up Falklands dispute and Russia arms him with hypersonic anti-ship missiles. The French betrayed Argentina by sharing Exocet disabling codes with the British. Russians won't.

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There is surely a lesson to be learnt from history. The UK offered certain assurances to Poland before WWII then backed off when it realised that the heat was too much.

In the UK's defense, 2 days after Germany's invasion of Poland, the UK declared war on Germany and started a blockade against Germany (which persisted till 1945). The next day, the UK bombed German warships in German harbors.

This has been debunked. The French and English did not intervene in force because Poland fell unexpectedly fast. If Ukraine had fallen in a matter of days, there also would not have been Western help.

Your focus is wrong. Poland made a number of political decisions based on British advice and promises. That the British and French couldn't lend a hand in time, is beside the point.

someone has to be first...of all the countries involved, uk and france are the best positioned for this...falklands talk is just a plain distraction, on the other hand sub-saharan coups + new caledonia uprising are real suspicious with russia/china involvement

I am not convinced that Putin would risk using nuclear weapons and the language is short of that. Using them once becomes pretty much a one way street for much of the world. Also remember that even without nuclear UK is part of NATO and other members are obliged to respond to an attack on another member state.

I agree that it is less likely.

OTOH, if history is any guide, contracts may not be worth their paper if survival is at stake. It is an open question if the US or the French will risk losing half of their population and most of their cities over UK.

The invasion of Ukraine was in fear of them joining NATO. If any country reneged on the agreement it would suddenly itself become more vulnerable. The USA under Trump may decide to become further isolationist and leave but that is more internal politics than good sense.

That's what the aggressor says, and would like you to believe.

But it's not the real reason, of course.

What is the real reason and how would you know it is the real reason?

To "Make Russia Great Again" by restoring the conquests of Catherine the Great, basically.

As evidenced by Putin's countless bombastic speeches on the topic (and the simple vacuousness of the claimed NATO threat).

You may also find these pages useful:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Karaganov#Karaganov_Doc...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Russian_chauvinism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-Russian_nation

When Putin speaks of "The Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians" -- this is what he's alluding to.

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