Great article! But I still don’t know what to make of the white houses discussion that took place yesterday. Isn’t it established that putin is evil, the negotiations are now about what is feasible and not about siding with Putin?!
As a Ukrainian who left the country in childhood, but still has family there, I can assure you that the mentality is not that different from its Russian neighbors. As my grandma said, 'We have family on both sides of the conflict. How can you choose one and abandon the other?' I agree with her, but only on the point that both countries and their mentalities are terrible. The governments are corrupt on both sides. The justifications that Russia provided for invading Ukraine are weak and don't convince even me. And I have family who actually suffered from Ukrainian policies and had their citizens' rights taken from them.
As someone whose family who fled Kiev and Odessa when Ukraine formed part of the Russian Empire, I have no fondness for either country BUT Russian has no right to invade its neighbour on the basis that might equals right. And America cannot prop up Russia according to the same maxim. Either we accept the equal sovereignty of all nations or we become barbarians.
Whatever mistakes the United States and NATO made that led to this war and whatever Ukraine’s flaws, there is no doubt who the bad guys were in this war. Russia is a pariah state who seeks to build an even bigger empire than they already have. They have invaded Chechnya, Georgia and Crimea and illegally annexed the latter. They have dominated and ruled over a number of different ethnic groups now for centuries. They committed horrific war crimes in Ukraine the likes of which hadn’t been seen on the continent since the Yugoslavian Civil War in the 1990s. Mass murder, mass rape, germ warfare, kidnapping children, firing missiles at apartment buildings full of people, carpet bombing urban areas and children’s hospitals, using weapons banned under international law, torture, blowing up POWs, etc. I could go on and on. But the war would ultimately not be a victory for Russia but rather a bloody stalemate. It was a catastrophic economic, military and demographic disaster for them. Ukraine fought harder and smarter than anyone could’ve imagined. Russia underestimated Ukraine quite badly. I think the best thing that can be done now is for President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to negotiate an honorable peace everyone can live with. I think Britain, France and Germany should provide security for Ukraine. The United States and NATO can’t do it because a continued American and NATO presence would only lead to the continued inflammation of tensions between the West and Russia possibly leading to a third world war. Ukraine should become a neutral nation not aligned with either side. The eastward expansion of NATO was always a huge mistake. The first Bush administration and the German government both promised Russia NATO wouldn’t expand into the east. I believe NATO should pull out of the East and the British, French and Germans should handle security for the states of Eastern Europe. Finland and Sweden should also leave NATO and return to being neutral nations. The presence of NATO so close to Russia in a number of ways is dangerous and a threat to peace in the world. Britain, France and Germany must increase defense spending and increase the size of their militaries exponentially. They can’t always depend on the United States to hold their hand and be their security blanket. As to Russia, the United States needs to do another detente and make nuclear arms agreements with them to cut down our respective nuclear stockpiles while using non-military means to role back their influence. Fighting another proxy war with them like we did in Ukraine will help no one and accomplish nothing not to mention lead to a war that would annihilate the planet. That is why a relaxing of tensions and containment of Russian influence is the best way forward. But I couldn’t agree more with you Daniel that they are a huge threat and the United States and the West need to keep them in check. Indeed this has always been the way the Russians are. Whether it be the Imperial Russian Empire, the Soviet Union or the modern-day Russian Federation. The USSR always chastised the United States for imperialism and colonialism. Never mind that they conquered Eastern Poland and the Baltic States, made the nations of Eastern Europe into satellite states, invaded Finland, Iran and Afghanistan, they deported numerous ethnic groups, and brutally crushed uprisings in East Germany and Czechoslovakia. Not to mention the persecution of Soviet Jewry in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Turning to modern Russia, it is a living nightmare. One-third of Russians at last count have STDs, drug addiction and alcoholism are rampant, the birth rate is plummeting, the population rapidly aging, racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, xenophobia, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and homophobia are all pervasive and systemic, crime, human trafficking and poverty are all at appallingly high levels, and Putin and his gangsters rule with an iron fist. You are right Daniel, Russia is a rotten, fragile structure that isn’t as strong or as robust as they look. The only thing that is protecting them from us or the West easily demolishing it is their nuclear arsenal. I think military incompetence and the pervasive corruption in Ukraine are what kept it from winning a decisive victory over the Russian Federation. President Zelensky has served his country well. It is now time for him to resign and retire from public life. Going forward, I call on the states of Europe to build their militaries back up and raise defense spending as Russia took a beating in Ukraine but the Russian bear was badly wounded but not slain. They will continue to be a threat to the rest of the continent except for their buddies in Belarus of course. I too stand with Ukraine now and forever and call upon the West to send as much humanitarian aid to the Ukrainians as possible! Slava Ukriani! 🇺🇦🫡
Clear and powerful. It does interest me as a student of history how many times other nations have refused to press the issue with Russia and the Soviet Union. So many millions have suffered and died because of that refusal.
Putin is a KGB man.
https://open.substack.com/pub/ishayirashashem/p/putin?r=1hp7xr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Great article! But I still don’t know what to make of the white houses discussion that took place yesterday. Isn’t it established that putin is evil, the negotiations are now about what is feasible and not about siding with Putin?!
Well the Trumpist principle is that might equals right. We should accept the power of Russia apparently. What power?!
As a Ukrainian who left the country in childhood, but still has family there, I can assure you that the mentality is not that different from its Russian neighbors. As my grandma said, 'We have family on both sides of the conflict. How can you choose one and abandon the other?' I agree with her, but only on the point that both countries and their mentalities are terrible. The governments are corrupt on both sides. The justifications that Russia provided for invading Ukraine are weak and don't convince even me. And I have family who actually suffered from Ukrainian policies and had their citizens' rights taken from them.
As someone whose family who fled Kiev and Odessa when Ukraine formed part of the Russian Empire, I have no fondness for either country BUT Russian has no right to invade its neighbour on the basis that might equals right. And America cannot prop up Russia according to the same maxim. Either we accept the equal sovereignty of all nations or we become barbarians.
Totally agree.
Whatever mistakes the United States and NATO made that led to this war and whatever Ukraine’s flaws, there is no doubt who the bad guys were in this war. Russia is a pariah state who seeks to build an even bigger empire than they already have. They have invaded Chechnya, Georgia and Crimea and illegally annexed the latter. They have dominated and ruled over a number of different ethnic groups now for centuries. They committed horrific war crimes in Ukraine the likes of which hadn’t been seen on the continent since the Yugoslavian Civil War in the 1990s. Mass murder, mass rape, germ warfare, kidnapping children, firing missiles at apartment buildings full of people, carpet bombing urban areas and children’s hospitals, using weapons banned under international law, torture, blowing up POWs, etc. I could go on and on. But the war would ultimately not be a victory for Russia but rather a bloody stalemate. It was a catastrophic economic, military and demographic disaster for them. Ukraine fought harder and smarter than anyone could’ve imagined. Russia underestimated Ukraine quite badly. I think the best thing that can be done now is for President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to negotiate an honorable peace everyone can live with. I think Britain, France and Germany should provide security for Ukraine. The United States and NATO can’t do it because a continued American and NATO presence would only lead to the continued inflammation of tensions between the West and Russia possibly leading to a third world war. Ukraine should become a neutral nation not aligned with either side. The eastward expansion of NATO was always a huge mistake. The first Bush administration and the German government both promised Russia NATO wouldn’t expand into the east. I believe NATO should pull out of the East and the British, French and Germans should handle security for the states of Eastern Europe. Finland and Sweden should also leave NATO and return to being neutral nations. The presence of NATO so close to Russia in a number of ways is dangerous and a threat to peace in the world. Britain, France and Germany must increase defense spending and increase the size of their militaries exponentially. They can’t always depend on the United States to hold their hand and be their security blanket. As to Russia, the United States needs to do another detente and make nuclear arms agreements with them to cut down our respective nuclear stockpiles while using non-military means to role back their influence. Fighting another proxy war with them like we did in Ukraine will help no one and accomplish nothing not to mention lead to a war that would annihilate the planet. That is why a relaxing of tensions and containment of Russian influence is the best way forward. But I couldn’t agree more with you Daniel that they are a huge threat and the United States and the West need to keep them in check. Indeed this has always been the way the Russians are. Whether it be the Imperial Russian Empire, the Soviet Union or the modern-day Russian Federation. The USSR always chastised the United States for imperialism and colonialism. Never mind that they conquered Eastern Poland and the Baltic States, made the nations of Eastern Europe into satellite states, invaded Finland, Iran and Afghanistan, they deported numerous ethnic groups, and brutally crushed uprisings in East Germany and Czechoslovakia. Not to mention the persecution of Soviet Jewry in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Turning to modern Russia, it is a living nightmare. One-third of Russians at last count have STDs, drug addiction and alcoholism are rampant, the birth rate is plummeting, the population rapidly aging, racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, xenophobia, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and homophobia are all pervasive and systemic, crime, human trafficking and poverty are all at appallingly high levels, and Putin and his gangsters rule with an iron fist. You are right Daniel, Russia is a rotten, fragile structure that isn’t as strong or as robust as they look. The only thing that is protecting them from us or the West easily demolishing it is their nuclear arsenal. I think military incompetence and the pervasive corruption in Ukraine are what kept it from winning a decisive victory over the Russian Federation. President Zelensky has served his country well. It is now time for him to resign and retire from public life. Going forward, I call on the states of Europe to build their militaries back up and raise defense spending as Russia took a beating in Ukraine but the Russian bear was badly wounded but not slain. They will continue to be a threat to the rest of the continent except for their buddies in Belarus of course. I too stand with Ukraine now and forever and call upon the West to send as much humanitarian aid to the Ukrainians as possible! Slava Ukriani! 🇺🇦🫡
Clear and powerful. It does interest me as a student of history how many times other nations have refused to press the issue with Russia and the Soviet Union. So many millions have suffered and died because of that refusal.