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Comment by itsmeagainhere | Hacker News Reader

Russia adhered to the Minsk agreements as long as it could, it did not want to start this war. Both Merkel and Hollande, as far as I remember, admitted that the Minsk agreements were not made in good faith, and their purpose was only to give time to Ukraine to rearm. Russia started the war after it became clear that NATO was going to enter Ukraine, and after it was abundantly clear for years that the real purpose of ukranian nationalists was collaborating with the west to destroy Russia and its identity (though you will probably negate this, you could not negate that there was a tacit and creeping legitimization in Ukraine of murders and violent actions against people identifying themselves as Russians).

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Russia started the war after it became clear that NATO was going to enter Ukraine

First of all, the Minsk agreements did not state that Ukraine could not join NATO, this is Russian propaganda:

https://mythdetector.com/en/was-ukraine-refusing-to-join-nat...

Second, NATO was not "going to enter Ukraine". Ukraine wanted to join NATO. Ukraine is a sovereign country. If they want to join NATO, they can solicit membership. The rest of NATO can accept or refuse.

Though given that your account is new and mostly pro-Russian propaganda, you are probably just a Russian troll.

Creeping legitimization of murders and violent actions against people identifying as Russian? Nope I lived in Kharkiv for many years where many people identified as Russian. They felt perfectly safe in Ukraine until Russia invaded. They still feel perfectly safe living in Kyiv and Odessa —- except for Russian missiles of course.

As for Merkel and Hollande — if you think the Minsk agreements or other agreements were in bad faith, then was the invasion of Crimea and Donbass “in bad faith”? There can be no “good faith” agreements when a neighbor chooses to invade you.

> it did not want to start this war

This is such twisted logic it’s insane. If Russia didn’t want to start this war then why did they start it? Who forced them?

My distant roots came also from Khar'kov.

As for legitimization of murders of Russian people, I remind you the Odessa pogrom and the "anti terrorist operation" (there was not "just" this).

"Such twisted ligic.." Russia started the war with the main purpose to make the current Ukranian government fall, and to stop NATO from entering Ukraine. It did not succeed.

Regarding the Odessa incident— Any government will of course punish traitors. There is no government in the world that doesn’t punish people trying to revolt. The Russian government has killed and imprisoned lots of Russians for opposing the government for example. This Odessa incident is not a proof of anti-Russian hate, it’s a normal response of any government.

Now you agree that Russia started the war to topple Ukraine and and failed in its purpose. So we agree!

I should also add that I still read Dostoyevsky and respect Tolstoy and other high Russian culture. But killing Ukrainians? I don’t respect that. In fact I believe that if Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy were alive today they would oppose the Russian government of today just like they opposed the Russian government of their time. Both were nearly killed and imprisoned by their own government.

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