Hacker News Reader

Comment by matusp | Hacker News Reader

Is having a conflict in Ukraine somehow making Europe more stable? To be entirely honest, from realpolitik point of view what Trump is doing makes cold and calculated sense. He will sacrifice Ukraine so that it will become a rump buffer state between Europe and Russia, and then he can trade with both. That will satisfy Russia as well as their strategic goal (no NATO in Ukraine) was achieved and they can return to business as usual.

View on HN

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine Sweden and Finland have joined NATO, so now Russia has more, not less, border with NATO. How would a buffer on their southwestern border alleviate that?

It won't satisfy Russia, though. It will just give a thumbs up to them and anyone else wanting to make a land grab that they can go ahead and the US will look for appeasement. This is exactly the kind of thinking that lead to Chamberlain letting Hitler take the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia.

And there is also hundreds of years of historical experience where establishing buffer states worked.

Like Belgium.

Oh wait...

So how are you buffering Finland, or the Baltics? Where is Poland's buffer once you sacrifice Ukraine?

US had interests in the Ukraine because it was a buffer state. By sacrificing a whole country to Putin, NATO suddenly has enemy neighbors.

> you might want to read about World War II.

you didn't read enough about wwii then. giving putin ukraine emboldens him further just like hitler

Reply on news.ycombinator.com