MoreAmphibians [none/use name]

I didn’t realize that was the very first act of the Rada. I was thinking it was appointing Natalie Jaresko as finance minster. She was an American who became a Ukrainian citizen the same day she was appointed as finance minister. That happened a lot later than I thought though.

It was a poorly-written, unimplementable deal that neither side took seriously.

Then why did Ukraine sign the two separate Minsk agreements if they never intended to follow them?

FURTHERMORE, the Minsk agreement was simply too unpopular in Ukraine for any government to survive implementing it.

Peace with Donbas was popular with Ukrainians. In the most recent elections the candidate that ran on a platform of peace with Donbas won the election and became president. Zelensky then went to the front and gave his “I’m not some loser” speech to Ukraine’s militants on the front to try to deescalate the war. Once he failed to reign in his paramilitaries he began agitating for more war.

You are correct that it’s unlikely that a Ukrainian government could survive implementing peace with Donbas. This isn’t because it was unpopular with the people of Ukraine but because it was unpopular with the people in power. After the US-backed coup far-right elements were placed in positions of power in the Ukrainian government, especially in the police and military. If that failed, the US could have once again opened the floodgates of money from NGOs to anti-government protestors and replaced whoever the Ukrainian people elected with a more “pro-democratic” leader.

You’re right that overall the central Ukrainian government wanted war too much to abide by the ceasefire treaties they signed. I just don’t think that excuses them. Wanting war too much to do peace is literally what I’m criticizing Ukraine for.

I actually do not, tell me.

Is it a time of need now?

institute of war

Do you mean the Institute for the Study of War? The one founded and run by Kimberly Kagan? She’s the sister-in-law of Victoria Nuland who is the Acting Deputy Secretary of State.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1kjvOsXwAA1tVk?format=jpg&name=large

I think a peace deal involving referendums in these areas (not under military occupation-creates unfair and unfree conditions for a referendum e.g., as in Crimea!) would identify the actual will of the people in these parts of the Donbas.

Ukraine had even better terms than that under the Minsk agreements. They refused to hold to the terms and stop shelling Donbas, even after they signed a ceasefire twice. After the invasion there was another attempt at peace talks, it ended with Ukraine dragging their own negotiator into the street and shooting him in the head. Late last year Zelensky signed a decree making it illegal to negotiate peace with Putin. The few times Ukraine has retaken a major area they immediately begin purging “collaborators and traitors”. If Russia pulled back it’s military Ukraine would just immediately invade those areas, regardless of any agreements they signed.

I’m not philosophically opposed to your idea, it really would be the best outcome. It’s just impossible to actually implement.

the civil war in Ukraine

You have a very active imagination.

Look up what was happening in Ukraine from 2014-2022. I know the media always refers to the people living there as Russian-backed separatists but they are in fact Ukrainians.

The US only has those Abrams because it’s cheaper to produce them than shut down the production line for a couple of years and then start it up again. Realistically speaking much of what the US sends should be valued at negative monetary value as Ukraine taking it means the US doesn’t have to pay to dispose of it.

So why hasn’t the US sent 200-300 tanks? Why did the US demand that Ukraine launch a counteroffensive with insufficient tanks and air support? Why is the US trickling in just enough equipment to prolong the conflict as much as possible without giving Ukraine everything it could possibly need to win. Why is US propaganda so different from the actions the US is actually taking?

That’s Ron Desantis’s face imposed the famous painting “Saturn Devouring his Son”. The son has been replaced with pudding to reference the time Ron ate a cup of pudding with his fingers.

Probably not this time, a big part of why Japanese-Americans were put into interment camps was because Californians wanted their farms.

The US hasn’t declared a war since WW2, they’ve still gone to war. Neither the US nor Libya declared war on each other but it still counts as a war when the US bombs the absolute shit out of a country.

It’s the responsibility of the larger government entity to step in in some cases. Like in the cases of natural (or semi-natural) disasters or if the local governance shits the bed to the extent that people are dying. We’re not dealing with free imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire here, cities aren’t sovereign entities they’re administrative regions for the government.

Compare it to the weepy and self-justified prose that is used when American bombers and spy planes are intercepted.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-navy-aircraft-intercepted-china-jets-pentagon/

“All operations are conducted in accordance with international law and demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” Ross said. Last week, U.S. defense officials said two Chinese SU-30 jets conducted an unprofessional intercept of an American radiation-sniffing surveillance plane in the East China Sea. Pacific Air Forces spokeswoman Lt. Col. Lori Hodge said at the time that the Chinese aircraft approached a WC-135 Constant Phoenix aircraft - a modified Boeing C-135 - conducting a routine mission in international airspace in accordance with international law. The WC-135 crew characterized the intercept as unprofessional “due to the maneuvers by the Chinese pilot, as well as the speeds and proximity of both aircraft,” Hodge said.

American spy plane crew is too cowardly to handle a Chinese jet flying too close to them.

The propaganda from the west is absolutely baffling if you try to understand it through anything other than pure vibes. America claims that Putin is going to genocide every single Ukrainian and the response from the US is to send a dozen tanks in a year or so? Why not promise 200-300 tanks and promise to send them as soon they can get tankers trained on them? There’s literally 2000 of them just standing there in the desert, isn’t a conflict with Russia what they were built for? The west is sending just enough weapons and ammo to prolong the conflict but nowhere near enough for Ukraine to actually have a shot at winning.

The UN was absolutely useless at peacekeeping in Ukraine from 2014-2022. Why would they suddenly become competent now? Ukraine would just keep shelling those territories (now with cluster munitions) and would invade them if Russia pulled it’s military back.

And if you try and say that Ukraine wouldn’t dare do that because it would be against “international law” I’ll remind you that Ukraine had absolutely no problem violating the Minsk Agreements. Ukraine just kept violating those agreements by shelling the Donbas for 8 years without suffering any consequences until Russia invaded.

Ukraine dragged one of their own negotiators into the street and shot him in the head.

Because the US starts color revolutions in those countries until a pro-western government is in power.

I certainly do care about the RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION which is being denied to so many Ukrainians

Do you support the right to self-determination for Ukrainians in the Donbas region? Do you support their right to live in peace, free from artillery bombardment and being terrorized by far-right paramilitary groups? Or do you only support the rights of Ukrainians that the state department tells you to care about?