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The whole thing is a cluster. A ton of Ukrainian people *are* ethnically Russian, particularly in the east. They aren’t exactly going to be ok under a NATO backed regime that’s hostile to Russia.
Russia shouldn’t tolerate NATO troops stationed on one of its longest land borders.
I guarantee if the Chinese worked out a deal to station troops in northern Mexico we wouldn’t be happy.
Unfortunately the conflict has also revealed a disgusting double standard in Western media.
Ukrainians are “European Christians” with names, hopes and dreams.
Not like *those* people who are collateral damage. Burn the village to save it, blah blah.
> Russia shouldn’t tolerate NATO troops stationed on one of its longest land borders.
2. Most of Eastern Europe has been in NATO for over 20 years and has not seen any permanent stationing of "NATO troops", whatever that means. And the forces that were in Western Europe have seen dramatic decrease since the 1980s, around 5-10x across all key categories (personnel, weapons, etc). The US military is currently undergoing a review with the goal of making further reductions of their presence in Europe.
Russia had long tolerated NATO on it's borders in Latvia and Estonia and is now OK with Finland. NATO is really a defensive alliance that has never attacked any of the countries it borders.
The whole Russia NATO thing is mostly BS to justify invasions while really doing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_irredentism.
You can say NATO has never engaged in an offense war, but a majority of its members did participate in the Iraq war as the Coalition of the Willing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_of_the_willing_(Iraq...
It’s literally impossible for Russia to defend a ground invasion staged from Ukraine. Coalition( or whatever they call it) troops could be dining in Red Square within 24 hours.
Re. ground troops dining in Red Square, firstly Latvia is also about six hours drive from Moscow as well so going via Kyiv wouldn't make much difference. Secondly there is the small business of the worlds largest nuclear arsenal and many troops to put off invaders. And thirdly many countries border NATO countries and seem to manage to deal with it without freaking out and invading others.
Yep. Ukraine is not a Nation state, like Germany, or Finnland, or Sweden. Like Belgium, is is deep divided. The division was reflected in each election. Literally, the east voted for one candidate, the west for the other.
I slept in a Hostel during the war in Kyiv. There ware Ukrainians and Russian Ukrainians. We hung out and had drinks, no problem. And during the night Putin and Klitschko made a pissing contest in the sky...
You see, to the Westerner things must be black and white.
Russia is evil and the West good, despite the last Iraq war having something like 10x as many innocent casualties as the Ukraine war.
Something must be different between Iraqis and Ukrainians to make the latter so much more worthy of concern.
Guess we’ll never know.
If the USA was 6 years into a very messy conquest of Mexico because Mexico wanted to join a trade bloc with China, the West would be very disapproving of American actions.
Similarly the Iraq war is unpopular to Western citizens. Even at the time the British weren't very into it, and the Germans and French outright refused to participate.
A trade block of which the majority of it's members are in NATO.
Don't forget John Mc Cain, who never saw a war he didn't like, took a personal visit to Ukraine.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/15/john-mccain-uk...
Do you think he came to hand out cupcakes ?
>the British weren't very into it,
Was that a valid defense at Nuremberg?
Perhaps if Mexico had a long history of being invaded, divided up, and "Americanized," they would be part of a Military Alliance against American Aggression. As they should.
The German people weren't on trial at Nuremberg.
It’s hard to keep count, but we just kidnapped the sovereign head of state of Venezuela.
Depending on who you asked we did so to stop a potential foreign military base from being located in Venezuela.
Or we just felt like stealing Venezuelan oil.
Cuba is still embargoed.
The Iraq war had various war crimes. But for some reason no convicted war criminals.
And then if the USA said "we gotta invade Mexico because we're threatened by the alliance they set up to counter OUR aggression," that would be a bit hypocritical I think!
I'm not defending the US, you're preoccupied with attacking them. Ukraine has every right to join NATO because Russia is a threat to them, not because of the US.
The clear majority of Russian speaking Ukrainians support Zelenskyy now.
And you even write that $x makes hard things easy. Hope much did the US pay to lose against Iran? Winning against anyone for the same sum isn't easy.
Russia is not fighting Ukraine, Russia is fighting NATO. And we are in dangerous territory.
Emmanuell Todd predicted this and this is not a person to be taken lightly (e.g. predicting the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1976 as a 26 years old PhD student): https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2024/11/how-the-west-was-...
We need just a few more sanctions against Russia and we will have a Regime change. The regime change will come, but likely different than we thought - AfD in Germany, Farange in the UK and LePen in France.
Russia thought the Ukrainians wouldn't put up much resistance and launched a war of conquest to prevent Ukraine from joining the EU. It's failed in it's gamble and it has to experience the consequences.
Russia often reforms only after military defeat exposes how badly the state and army are failing: Crimea pushed the Great Reforms, Japan helped trigger 1905, and Afghanistan plus the Cold War strain fed the Soviet collapse. Loss forces changes that peace lets the system avoid. And maybe we'll get a conciliatory government not an aggressive one doubling down.
Yeah there was something with Cuba. America attempted the same thing in Cuba as the 2014 Ukraine rebellion Russia fomented and equipped, but instead of failing in 8 years, it utterly failed immediately and the Americans didn't decide to double down on their failure and actually invade like Russia has. America then allowed Cuba to be a Soviet ally, for everything except for forward deployed nuclear weapons which it then removed from Turkey.
Unfortunately you are correct, as Ruski Mir's greatest export is corruption.
The West suffers from the Paradox of Tolerance, and is generally unprepared to deal with Moscow's political operations.
The good news is that those are just three countries, and the EU is made of many more.
The crazy thing to me is that all that Europe wants is for Moscow to join us in the 21st century, and just stop murdering your neighbors.
Apparently this is too much to ask of the old guard. But, we all went through this and eventually became "normal countries." Russia will as well one day, and the Russian people will be one of the greatest beneficiaries of this maturation.
Emmanuel Todd: "Russia has won the war, the Ukrainian army is in its death throes" https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2zI3vzLKmao
Or use pass paywalls clean plug-in.
Denmark has give all her ammunition to Ukraine.
There is little of equipment left. And nobody willing to fight in the West. For what? For a crumbling economy? Unaffordable house prices? Collapsing social systems because two many immigrants draw from them? (Germany, UK)?
Good luck mate. I am not going to fight.
The "Monaco Battalion" (Batysalion Monako) is not an official military unit, but rather an ironic nickname given by Ukrainian media (such as Ukrainska Pravda) to a network of wealthy Ukrainian oligarchs, politicians, and businesspeople. This group relocated to the French Riviera to sit out the war.
Have the efforts of the Ukrainian anti corruption agencies and the defence of them by the Ukrainian public made any impression on you?
I'm interested in the criteria that you judge a country of not deserving of aid, especially since it is in the interests of the donor countries that Ukraine not be conquered.
Google AI:
[1] The European Union and its member states have provided a total of €215.2 billion in overall support to Ukraine and its people since the start of Russia's war of aggression "Since the start of Russia's war of aggression, they have provided €215.2 billion in support for Ukraine and its people.", as reported by the Consilium of the European Union.
As of mid-2026, the United States Congress has made available $195 billion in total spending related to the war in Ukraine.
[2] Ukraine scored 36 out of 100 points in the latest Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), ranking 104th out of 180 countries. While the country’s rating has improved in recent years, ongoing wartime procurement and defense-sector scandals point to continued high-level corruption risks.
Behind most EU candidates: The average score for EU candidate countries is 39. Nations like Montenegro (46), Moldova (42), and Albania (40) are all perceived as cleaner than Ukraine.
[3] Ukraine is one of the poorest countries in Europe by both individual and national wealth standards, largely due to historical factors and the massive economic toll of the full-scale war. Global Standing: On the global stage, Ukraine ranks 94th
Also, supplying Ukraine is a cheap way to prevent similar invasions from happening in the future.
After blowing up the energy supply of Germany....
The European Union and its member states have provided a total of €215.2 billion in overall support to Ukraine and its people since the start of Russia's war of aggression "Since the start of Russia's war of aggression, they have provided €215.2 billion in support for Ukraine and its people.", as reported by the Consilium of the European Union.
As of mid-2026, the United States Congress has made available $195 billion in total spending related to the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers has approved the key parameters of this year's pension indexation, with payments set to rise by 12.1%