Putin goes on to say

”Our proposal is not to freeze the conflict, like how the west wants it, but to end it. I repeat, this is not to freeze the conflict, but for its final completion.”

        • TechnoUnionTypeBeat [he/him, they/them]
          ·
          6 months ago

          You uh

          You wanna expand on that or are you going to pretend you got an epic mic drop own

          Because I have no fucking clue what you're trying to say

          • CasualPenguin@reddthat.com
            ·
            6 months ago

            No mic drop intended, just replying fast to a few people.

            I guess before I figure out which way to expand on it I need a baseline, do you believe history will look fondly on Putin?

            • TechnoUnionTypeBeat [he/him, they/them]
              ·
              6 months ago

              No, I don't. He represents the worst of the collapse of the Soviet Union. He runs a staunchly conservative, queerphobic nation that's put a number of my friends in real material danger simply for existing, and they can scarcely tell me about it because of how tightly the state cracks down on that

              How history will view him depends on how the war shakes out and who you're asking and why. He's been a leader - or around the reins of power - for a very long time, and I don't see him as innocent or blameless in the events that bring us to the invasion. This was a collision thirty odd years in the making, and Great Man Theory fucking sucks as an analysis of history

        • Ram_The_Manparts [he/him]
          ·
          6 months ago

          This doesn't just have to do with Putin, there is no reality where any Russian president would accept Ukraine joining NATO. That has been clear since the fall of the Soviet Union.

          • Philosophosphorous [comrade/them, null/void]
            ·
            6 months ago

            true, Russia could have elected Karl Marx or Jesus Christ or Taylor Swift as president and they would still have responded to american provocation in similar ways. Putin is a conservative, homophobic oligarch, but just about anyone else in that position would have responded similarly to the threat of NATO nukes on their border and nazis ethnically cleansing speakers of their language. If Mexico decided to join BRICS and host Chinese nukes and militias started massacring english-speakers and anyone with american citizenship or ancestry, we would go full Iraq Invasion style and turn the entire country into rubble and irradiated craters and corpses, meanwhile Russia waited like 2 years after invading to even start targeting the electrical grid and other infrastructure.

            • BelieveRevolt [he/him]
              ·
              6 months ago

              I'm not great at geography, so when I recently saw a map that showed how some of the Western missiles could reach Moscow from Ukrainian territory...that was when it really hit me how Ukraine potentially joining NATO is basically the Cuban missile crisis except much worse for Russia. Yeah, make fun of me all you want for not taking the time to really look at a map.

              • Philosophosphorous [comrade/them, null/void]
                ·
                6 months ago

                yea i've had people be like 'we can hit them with nukes from anywhere why does ukraine matter' but like having 20 or 30 minutes to detect an incoming ICBM from the ocean (to maybe shoot it down/knock it off course or get everyone into bunkers to launch your own counterattack) is a much better situation in terms of deterrence than having 5 minutes to maybe detect a launch from concealed/rough terrain and have just enough time to let everyone in the nuclear command center/capital city know they are going to die (missile nerds correct me if i'm oversimplifying, ICBMs at long range need to reach near-orbit heights in their flights whereas closer range missiles can be launched to fly somewhat closer to the ground in ways harder to detect with radar or intercept with missiles of your own)

                • Ram_The_Manparts [he/him]
                  ·
                  6 months ago

                  I think it also has to do with Ukraine being the perfect pathway for a land invasion as well.

          • CasualPenguin@reddthat.com
            ·
            6 months ago

            Whether or not any Russian president would have accepted it doesn't justify invading another country with the intent of claiming the land as their own, nor does it make them any less of the aggressor.

            • Tomorrow_Farewell [any, they/them]
              ·
              6 months ago

              You seem to be giving a green light to invade to every NATO-aligned state, including Ukraine. But hey, prove me wrong and tell us how every state that invaded, for example, Iraq and Afghanistan should answer for their crimes.

              But no, if the gang of states that keep invading everywhere around the world and killing millions are encroaching on your borders after promising to not expand towards you, you have a reason to act against them.

              Also, care to tell us what makes you qualified to tell the rest of the world how it should resist you?

            • Ram_The_Manparts [he/him]
              ·
              edit-2
              6 months ago

              Turns out that diplomacy doesn't work like "we are the USA and we will dictate the terms always and forever", it was only a matter of time before someone put their foot down.

              That's not a moral judgement, that's just how shit happens.

        • Egon
          ·
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          deleted by creator

          • Ram_The_Manparts [he/him]
            ·
            6 months ago

            It's like explaining to a child how babies are made and they go "no actually babies just appear out of nowhere" lmao

    • FreudianCafe@lemmy.ml
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      The problem with informing yourself with mainstream media. Its like putin just decided to invade ukraine that morning. And he is a crazy evil dictator etc

    • CascadeOfLight [he/him]
      ·
      6 months ago

      Show

      say-the-line-bart-1 speech-r say-the-line-bart-2

      In 2014 a bunch of Ukrainian nazis couped the democratically elected government and started ethnically cleansing the Russian population in the Donbas. Some sections of the Ukrainian military rebelled and formed militia units to protect the population from being murdered by nazis, leading to a low level civil war stretching on for years. Ukrainian nazi paramilitaries continued persecuting ethnic Russian Ukrainians civilians as well as shelling Donetsk and Lugansk

      During this time Russia tried repeatedly to conduct diplomacy with the nazis western handlers, the US and the UK, as well as interested third parties such as Germany and France. However, it was pointless as the US never intended to back down and continuously goaded the Ukrainian nazis into attacks on the Donbas, all the while supplying them with money and weapons. When the war seemed to be escalating to the point NATO forces might join in, Russia - understanding that any actual direct combat between Russian and NATO soldiers would lead to a global nuclear holocaust - jumped in with its troops first... after spending three days voting to formally recognize the independence of the DPR and LPR, of course, because Putin is a bureaucrat to the core and these things must be done properly.

      And now, the people of Donetsk and Luhansk can live quietly without fear of nazi missiles blowing up their city centers for no reason.

      • MoreAmphibians [none/use name]
        ·
        6 months ago

        And now, the people of Donetsk and Luhansk can live quietly without fear of nazi missiles blowing up their city centers for no reason.

        This part's not actually true yet.

        • CascadeOfLight [he/him]
          ·
          6 months ago

          No, you're right, the US keeps delivering longer-ranged missiles so the nazi terrorism can continue.

    • Kuori [she/her]
      ·
      6 months ago

      if i point a gun at your head and you attack me, who is the aggressor?

        • FlakesBongler [they/them]
          ·
          6 months ago

          Good to know the Eastern Ukrainians getting shelled in their homes for almost a full decade are imaginary

          Boy, would my face have been red if I had been supporting Nazis carrying out an ethnic cleansing in those regions

          Glad it was just Kremlin propaganda and epic smol bean Ukraine isn't a reactionary shithole throwing an entire generation into a meat grinder war for no good reason

          • CasualPenguin@reddthat.com
            ·
            6 months ago

            That is a whole different topic than the thread you're replying to which is about Russia starting this invasion as the aggressors.

            If you want to discuss the conflict in eastern Ukraine, we can, but don't start by getting snarky about some imagined argument that exists only in your mind.

            • Egon
              ·
              edit-2
              3 months ago

              deleted by creator

            • Ram_The_Manparts [he/him]
              ·
              edit-2
              6 months ago

              It is absolutely not a "whole different topic". Why are you liberals so afraid of historical context?

              Oh that's right, because it demolishes your delusional view of the world.

            • Diuretic_Materialism [he/him]
              ·
              6 months ago

              But the conflict in Eastern Ukraine is one of the main inciting incidents of the war.

              This is like saying we can't bring up the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in a discussion or why Austria-Hungry invaded Serbia.

        • Mog_Pharou [he/him]
          ·
          6 months ago

          There's nothing imaginary about a hostile nuclear power on your border. That is a gun to your head. The US did not allow it in Cuba. Russia will not allow it in Ukraine.

        • Egon
          ·
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          deleted by creator

    • Egon
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      deleted by creator

    • Tunnelvision [they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      Russia started the war because the west wants influence over Ukraine, which is existential for Russia. This is something the United States and NATO are already aware of, so the real question is why would nato take an aggressive posture in Ukraine knowing they cannot win a war?

    • m532 [she/her]
      ·
      6 months ago

      The a in usa stands for aggressor

      usa is always the aggressor

      They started hundreds of wars, this one included