I don’t have to be willing to sacrifice any Ukrainians because it’s not my call to make. I can’t make them fight. If they want to surrender, they can. Sending them guns and ammo doesn’t stop them from doing that. The guns do nothing without someone to use them. For so long as they don’t want to surrender, I say we should support them. How many Ukrainians are you willing to abandon to Russian imperialism? All of the Ukrainians of Crimea, Donbas, and Luhansk? The whole country?
Yanukovych’s removal was debatably unconstitutional, but it’s an important point that it was done by parliament and not by violence. The parliament’s position is that Yanukovych abandoned his post.
Tell me, if it had been Zelensky in power in 2014 and he was removed by parliament in the same manner following a big protest, would you be as understanding if Romania marched in to Chernivtsi Oblast and annexed it? Or is Russia just special enough that it’s allowed to decide the politics of its neighbours?
If they want to surrender, they can. Sending them guns and ammo doesn’t stop them from doing that.
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Peace negotiations aren’t “surrender”
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If they try to move towards peace they risk losing America’s support, which would turn peace negotiations into a surrender
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I prefer peace negotiations over war. That’s all. It’s not about what Russia “gets” to do, it’s about saving lives.
So in your own description, if international support ends, Ukraine will be forced to surrender without a negotiated peace. On that basis, it is either “keep supporting them” or “Ukraine surrenders”. Again, that’s the situation as you have just described it.
Considering the total failure of both Minsk agreements, the fact that the pre-2014 borders were already based on a treaty with Russia that included security guarantees for Ukraine, and the fact that Russia has no right to anything out of this war, I don’t expect Ukraine to really have a lot of faith in any negotiation in which they don’t hold an extremely strong hand. The Russian government has demonstrated with Crimea that even if it takes something, it will not be satisfied there, it will be only be emboldened to try to take more. Following that, I say we should give them that strong hand.
I don’t expect Ukraine to really have a lot of faith in any negotiation in which they don’t hold an extremely strong hand.
They already have a strong hand because of international support, but international support could end if Ukraine tries to negotiate peace without demanding total surrender. It’s a Catch-22 that Ukraine has been forced into by the West, because they are not allowed to negotiate for peace. They are only allowed to “win”, and that isn’t going to happen either.
So the war will never end. Either it ends up like the Korean War or the War on Terror - endless war forever.
