Fact averse. Reality is a fog of indeterminacy through which we look through darkly, just as Putin prefers it.
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Apparently, most of the non-Russian client world agreed.
It doesn’t seem like it was a hard call.
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It’s odd how Putin insists Ukraine is NOT a country. Yet everything he says regarding that applies equally as well to Belarus.
I don’t think this is about historical origins and cultural similarities.
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Plus, as well, in addition!
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Doubt he gets one. That’s part of what makes him Zelenskyy - this incredible bravery where he just walks down the street with a handful of his advisers. Like he owns the place - because he does.
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Belarus is a client firmly under his control, which seems to be the way he prefers the world.
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It may be firmly under his control but it’s not happily there and with a democracy on its doorstep fighting for its life, Belarus might get ‘ideas.’
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I think there is more to it. Vlad harbors a deep hatred of Ukraine …why, I don’t know. It’s more than where Ukraine is on a map and that they wanted to join NATO, it’s something personal and I don;t get it. Why destroy everything and commit genocide? Why ruin his own country in the process? Why damage the rest of the world economically?
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Lukashenko is to Putin what Mussolini was to Hitler.
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The big picture to keep in mind is that Russia, a major world power, is in the process of self-immolation. Their military has been exposed as hollow and weak. They have missiles, but so does NATO, and our stuff works. We don’t know about the viability of their arsenal and their ability to replace spent missiles. If the US continues to aggressively arm and supply the UKR military, Russia’s ability to project power will diminish to where it is an afterthought.
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Why bomb the shit out of Kyiv? That city is sacred to Russians as well as Ukrainians - their histories start there.
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If we’re doing it right. This doesn’t end in UA.
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ANd you know what happened to Mussolini and then Italy changed sides.
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Except that Hitler modeled his version fascism on that created by Mussolini in the 1920’s. Mussolini was Hitler’s mentor who became his lapdog.
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Well that to me is going to be the outcome - an honest to god New World Order. That’s what Putin was after and he’s going to get it - just not in the way he expected and planned for.
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A while ago someone brought up that he is not fond of Ukraine because Brezhnev was from Ukraine and he and his cronies looted the Soviets dry leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Take it with a grain of salt.
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We’re not in WW3 until NATO and Russia start shooting at each other directly, instead of being involved in a proxy war in Ukraine. This is how Biden has used the term WW3 and I agree with him.
Regarding the country count on each side, there will be 30 NATO countries including the US on one side, and at least Belarus joining Russia. The potential exists for nuclear annihilation affecting the entire world if it escalates. If that’s not WW3 I don’t know what is. But we’re not there yet.
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It must be something deeply personal with Putin to have that much hatred of a country and its people that he is willing to utterly destroy them even though is critically damages his own nation. Ukraine is where Russia’s major source of wheat and barley was among many other things. Strategically it’s well beyond stupid. It’s not shooting one’s foot but more like blowing both legs off in a fit of personal pique,
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I think Putin’s thuggish attitude is if he can’t have it, neither can you. He’s going to obliterate all vestiges of civilization there because he’s a sore loser, and I guess as a warning/threat to other countries on his border. If it isn’t a war crime, it should be.
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That’s Putin’s biggest problem. Grozhny and Aleppo were Islamic cities. Kyiv is Orthodox.
Putin would be insane to do it but then…
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