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Comment by wakawaka28 | Hacker News Reader

>The war is not inflicting any tolls on Germany.

Their fuel costs are skyrocketing, which is affecting everything there.

>It was pure stupidity not to be prepared to Russian aggression in Ukraine, and it was pure stupidity to respond while unprepared instead of brokering some Realpolitik peace.

I agree about this. They should have never been unprepared, and they should have settled it by now with a reasonable deal. The war started because of NATO screwing around in Ukraine's politics and trying to set up NATO on Russia's border. Of course Russia also did political things in Ukraine, but it makes more sense for them to be involved with their neighbor than for countries much farther away to do it.

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Russia has shown no issue settling it in a rational way, ie getting the F*%# out of Ukraine in exchange for dropping sanctions. Its not like capturing a few parts of Ukraine does them any good.

Russia were the ones who started this whole ridiculous way. Neither NATO nor the US nor the EU was as you claim screwing around in Ukrainian politics the way you claim. The one doing the screwing around was Russia much of this was illegal (bribes, corruption, etc) and was generally malicous. NATO was already on Russia's borders and its not like they were building huge bases or putting nukes there much less making diabolical plans to invade Russia. Instead they were banding over backwards to appease Russia.

Hell neither the EU nor NATO cared that much about Ukraine, not nearly as much as they should have.

Poland Finland and the Baltics are right in the neighborhood and have a much more rational interest in making sure Russia doesn't conquer Ukraine, cause they might be next. And NATO and the EU have an interest in making sure Russia gives up on its aggression otherwise its eastern members won't be safe. Ukraine is also a future member of both. Also crucially Ukraine has a bigger interest in Ukraine then Russia does

> The war started because of NATO screwing around in Ukraine's politics and trying to set up NATO on Russia's border.

That sounds like an attempt to rewrite history. Ukraine's prospect of becoming a member of NATO was completely buried since 2008, and the intention to join NATO was resurrected only after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014. To this day, the interest of other members to accept Ukraine into NATO remains lukewarm and no meaningful progress has been made in this direction.

The war started because Russia couldn't stomach that Ukraine was on the verge of signing a major trade deal with the EU that would've opened up the EU market for Ukraine, and Russia, facing its vaning influence over Ukraine, decided to invade and subjugate Ukrainians through violence, as it had nothing else to offer.

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