There is a legit argument over what support we should give Ukraine. But I don’t understand how so many conservatives convinced themselves that Ukraine committed an unforgivable offense by getting themselves invaded.
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Samizdata quote of the day – cognitive dissonance on displayMarch 1st, 2025 |
 52 comments to Samizdata quote of the day – cognitive dissonance on displayLeave a Reply |
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Hi Friends, until recently, I have regarded Trump as a greatest hero of XXI Century because of his fight for survival throughout the last eight years and his spectacular victory. Today, I cannot even look at him without wanting to throw.
There are three explanations for his barbaric treatment of Zelensky:
1. He is being fed, very discreetly and slowly with mind altering drugs.
2. His inflated ego and arrogance itself poisoned his mind to such a degree that he lost his ability to think.
3. He is indeed a Russian asset as many are suspecting.
Either way, he’s degraded himself into a hideous blob of crawling fat.
He’s also become a symbol of America’s moral degradation and intellectual implosion.
This is exactly what Khrushchev told Kennedy during their meeting: “We will destroy you from inside.”
There is NO WAY America can recover from that.
Regards – Bogdan
This may help the perplexed.
https://youtu.be/u9sAt9hSo3o?si=2kvH30aoi7LWJlVd
The idea behind the proposed mineral agreement (which was supposed to be signed yesterday – but was not signed), was to put American contractors on the ground to act as a trip wire – so that Russian forces could not advance, even in the long term, without attacking Americans.
There seems to have been a failure of communication. Or President Zelensky did (rather than did not) understand – and rejected the idea of freezing the conflict rather than rolling back Russian forces to the pre 2014 position.
As for what happened in 2014 – whether or not there was any American involvement in the removal of the then Ukrainian government, this remains unknown. No firm judgement should be made on this matter.
Historical note – it was President Kennedy who was on drugs (legal and illegal), partly because he was seeking relief from the disease that was killing him.
It was also President Kennedy who betrayed the Cuban exiles – by personally choosing the place for their landing (the “Bay of Pigs” – that was not the original choice for a landing site) and by denying air support. The media said that President Kennedy was nobly “taking responsibility” for what was the fault of the CIA – and it is true that the CIA was useless (all but one of their sources in Cuba were double agents working for Castro’s DGI), but the fault was (not was not) President Kennedy’s – the media just span things for him, as they had been doing since the 1960 Primary Campaign (when even basic facts, such as his Addison’s Disease, were kept from the voters).
As for President Trump – he has never been a pro war person (he supports building up the military to deter war, not to wage war), something that he made no secret of during the 2016 Primary campaign – when, for example, he, in the South Carolina Primary contest, denounced the policies of former President Bush – suggesting, rightly or wrongly, that the Bush Administration lied to get America into war in Iraq.
Many people, including me, thought that such statements would lead to Donald J. Trump losing the South Carolina Primary – but he read the voters correctly.
The offer of the “mineral agreement”, really a cover for putting American contractors on the ground to act as a trip wire against Russian advance, was quite a bold offer.
But the offer has been rejected (at least for now) – either because the offer was not understood by President Zelensky (as some people are now claiming), or because President Zelensky did understand the offer – and rejected it because it would, in his judgement, freeze the conflict in place (much like Korea conflict was frozen in place in 1953) – and his, President Zelensky’s, desire is to roll back the Russian forces to a pre 2014 position.
The notion is mildly preposterous, vastly overstating the ability of the CIA et al to manipulate events. In reality the mass movement that removed Yanukovych was a consequence of local political and social pressures, ending up with even members of Yanukovych’s own party turning on him.
If the CIA tried to exert any influence (it might well have done), hard to see it being more than a little added noise to the overwhelmingly local chorus of protest in the aftermath of bloodshed. I said as much on the first day of the Russian invasion and nothing has changed my views.
The Ukraine’s situation at present is a bit like Finland in mid-1945, with the Soviets taking a chunk of Finland’s territory (as they had after the Winter War) and with the prospect of a harsh peace dictated by the military reality. At that time, the UK collaborated with the Soviets in the Allied Control Commission, and the US was insufficiently invested in the matter or preoccupied with other matters to intervene to restore Finland to its October 1939 borders. The USA here is offering a way forward to The Ukraine, albeit it is not what anyway probably wants, it is at least a way to end the fighting, and realistically one day Putin will lose power and a new Russian leadership may well wish to normalise matters and withdraw back to the 1991 border and be a normal nation again (of which there’s no guarantee). But since there is no reason for the USA to do anything at all viz-a-viz The Ukraine, and given that for Mr Trump, Zelensky is identified far too closely with the Biden Administration and the stench of all those goings-on and missing billions of US tax dollars, and that he campaigned for the Democrats in the last election, it is frankly astonishing that he even got an invite into the Oval Office.
As for yesterday’s meeting, well, he made Starmer look good. His conduct was astonishingly inept, anyone who has seen how Mr Trump conducts himself and what he expects from a visitor should have known to take a deferential approach and listen to what he was being told, the saying is ‘Beggars can’t be choosers’.
Despite all that, I don’t think Trump is one to hold it against the people of The Ukraine.
I’ve watched 50 minutes of the Trump, Vance, Zelensky press conference in the Oval Office. My interpretation is completely different from that of the BBC and other MSM in the UK.
Zelensky tried to amend the agreement that was due to be signed during a press conference. Trump had said, before the explosion, that the USA would continue to supprt Ukraine and provide arms.
Vance’s points were completly calm and reasonable. Trump didn’t stay completely calm (I think his response was justified) but his points were reasonable.
And none of it was caused by the question about Zelensky not weareing a suit.
The MSM has been lying about Trump for 8+ years, and they are still doing it.
The edited bits that we’ve seen on UK TV have shown a distorted picture and 90% of the commentary has been one-eyed.
In essence: Trump nwas right, Zelensky was wrong.
Zelensky accepted the invitation despite being branded a dictator by Trump. You think he should have to sit there and mutely agree to everything Trump said? Without demurring when the increasingly bizarre Trump outright lies? Without any guarantee that America might not chuck the Ukraine under the bus anyway?
All the people here saying that Trump is playing clever games, 4D chess or advanced bargaining are deluding themselves. Trump increasingly looks every bit as senile as Biden before him. His behavior when Musk is giving QA from the Oval office was particularly odd.
Bogdhan, you raise an interesting point about whether Mr Trump takes medication. I have no idea. I have read that Mr Musk takes pills to give him more energy, etc. And RFK Jnr, the anti-vaxxer health secretary, took a lot of drugs in his youth.
Fun times in DC.
Bogdan,
If you really believe those three points,
You are a moron!
I have no doubt that the issues around the Russia-Ukraine war are complex.
But as an American taxpayer, I am most recently concerned about two revelations:
1) $100 BILLION (with a “B”) US dollars given to Ukraine are apparently completely unaccounted for. That means nobody has any idea where that money went. It’s just gone.
2) Zelensky owns several houses around the world, including a $15 million dollar home he recently purchased in Florida. This man is not a guerrilla general fighting for the freedom of his beleagured people; he is a huckster getting rich off this war.
Those two things together make me think that maybe I and my fellow American taxpayers are being taken for a ride.
Then if you add in the newmedia rumors that a significant portion of that Ukraine aid money has been finding its way back into the pockets of American politicians (mostly but not exclusively on the left), you will perhaps understand my desire to just say “f*ck it” and walk away from the whole thing.
I am tired of paying for this. I am tired of the constant abuse from the people we are ostensibly helping, not only in Ukraine but also in Europe. I am tired of the endless eye-rolling and smug laughter when some of our politicians point out that Europe has not been keeping up its end of the NATO arrangement.
I am just tired of it. I don’t care about Ukraine enough to be swindled and made a fool over it. I want out. Out of Ukraine; out of NATO; out of the UN. Go away.
And I think a LOT of my countrymen are feeling the same way now.
Zelensky’s performative disrespect toward the elected leaders of our country is just the icing on the cake.
@Ferox
Yes, I can see why, as a US taxpayer, you may be rather jaded at the whole affair.
I’m just so glad the billions provided by UK taxpayers are being spent wisely and wholly in the advancement of freedom, democracy and a better tomorrow.
Bogdan Jodkowski:
You have all of the same qualifications and attributes as a supplicant as does Zelensky.
Ask for some more help. Ask for some more of my money. Use that same tone. Then go screw yourself.
Can no one from that part of the world read a damned room?
And your source for that is…?
A vote for what Mr. Ed said above.
Plus – I keep hearing that Trump thinks he’s a king.
There’s a difference between Trump thinking that he himself is King, and Trump thinking that the USA is King, and he is its elected representative.
Prepare yourselves for Fort Apache The USA. Fortress USA. Enclave USA.
I’m not sure I agree with all the points but I think this is a decent overall summary:
https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/1895971755648233940?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
llater,
llamas
“An assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear, but I felt then and believe even more so now that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.”
From his inauguration speech on 20 January. That was when I thought: oh-oh.
Nitpicking?
The $100 billion unaccounted for? The fact that it’s widely acknowledged that Ukraine is one of the most corrupt nations in the region?
Whether Zel actually owns such… if he does, it’s just one more data point. Doesn’t change the facts above.
Chris in Texas, if you don’t believe in my three points, you are a MORON…
Bobby B\b, yesterday Zelensky precisely responded to Bret Bayer on FOX in respect to the allegedly missing 100 Billion bucks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfqLcBwUT_E
Watch carefully before you make a total fool of yourself.
Regards – Bogdan
”$100 BILLION (with a “B”) US dollars given to Ukraine are apparently completely unaccounted for. That means nobody has any idea where that money went. It’s just gone.”
This is wrong. Very little US aid to Ukraine is in the form of cash. It doesn’t work that way.
What typically happens is that an old weapon or vehicle, say a humvee from a national guard unit, is sent to Ukraine. It is then replaced by a brand new JLTV charged to the “Ukraine account”, and the amount of the new JLTV is deducted from that account.
Ukraine did not receive any cash from the transaction. It didn’t even receive a new JLTV, just the old humvee. So not only did the bulk of the money from the “Ukraine aid” get spent in the US, the US military was the one getting the new equipment. All Ukraine got was the hand-me-downs.
$100 billion could not possibly have gone missing because nowhere near that much money was sent by the US to Ukraine.
”Zelensky owns several houses around the world, including a $15 million dollar home he recently purchased in Florida.”
This is just a flat-out lie that originated in Russian propaganda circles. Please do better.
Is there any source for this … other than Zelenskyy himself?
Amen. I agree 100%.
Can someone please explain to me why NATO still exists? I thought the purpose of NATO was to defeat the USSR, and the USSR has not existed for over 30 years. Today there are far more Communists in the government bureaucracy of the USA than there are in the government bureaucracy of Russia.
The Wobbly Guy, no Ukraine is not one of the most corrupt countries in the world. On the other hand, Russia, China, North Korea and other soviet puppets certainly are. Polish best investigative journalist Witold Gadowski spoke about the corruption in Russia few months ago and he estimated that Putin himself and his cronies have stolen and shifted abroad (and that includes those 300 billion in Belgium) between 800 billions, and 1 trillion dollars 220 billions of which were stole by Putin himself.
Zelenski stole nothing. he and his wife were reasonably wealthy because they both were creators of the most popular TV show in Ukraine and the advertising companies were flocking to their doors with money. If Ukraine was as corrupt as you claim, the Ukrainian people wouldn’t be capable of resisting World’s “second” military power for the last three years and the “special military operation” would be over on three days as Putin and his DEGENERATES have originally planned and hoped for.
Also, you should bear in your mind that Ukraine has been a Soviet slave state for seventy years and all the corrupt structures are remains from the soviet times and are so entrenched in the Ukrainian existence that are almost impossible to remove. Exact situation prevails in other former soviet vasal states like my own Poland, for example, the entire banking, judicial system, large chunk of state and local bureaucracy is still in the hands of the communist or post-communist cronies. Apart from that, the soviets have left a vast network of spies, agents of influence, saboteurs who are almost impossible to remove, especially in a situation when almost half of the population vote for the remnants of the former communist regimes. In Poland, it is estimated that are approximately forty thousand Soviet/Russian spies still opeerating in Poland.
It has been well known for years that the Ukraine war has been used to launder money from American Taxpayers into the pockets of American Democratic politicians. Ukraine is a thoroughly corrupt country, with all manner of illicit activities and suspicious shenanigans involving the Biden family and left-wing Democratic operatives going back many many years. The Hunter Biden – Burisma connection is only the tip of a massive iceberg, the full reality is much worse than that.
I have tremendous empathy and sympathy for the ordinary peoples of both Ukraine and Russia, which is one of many reasons why I want the war to end as soon as possible. The killing, the destruction, the horror must come to an end.
But if Europe is determined to continue fighting this fruitless war against Russia then as far as I’m concerned they can pay for it without one American cent.
Dear Paul Marx, the American contractors on the Ukrainian ground mean nothing. They can be withdrawn at the shortest notice. Zelenski is 100% right expecting and requesting some sort of stronger security assurance before committing to the “deal”. Last time Ukraine trusted America and UK they were betrayed in the most despicable manner imaginable. If Ukraine refused to go on with her nuclear disarmament, Putin would not dare to attack that country and if the war somehow broke out, the “entire world” would rush to try to negotiate a peaceful settlement in fear of the war escalating to the nuclear exchange. Because Ukraine disarmed herself nearly entirely, Trump and his equally arrogant cohort can effort themselves to insult Zelenski for his audacity to defend his country and expect his former allies to fulfill their obligation deriving from the solemn promise made in Budapest in 1996.
Kind – regards.
This may be so. And what about the American promise made to Russia in 1992 and 1993 that NATO would never expand east of Germany? USA failed to fulfill its obligation to Russia. Repeatedly lying to Russia about NATO expansion was a *VERY* serious promise for USA to break.
I never thought I’d see the day when a White House incumbent peddled Kremlin propaganda. But here we are.
Dear Shlomo, did Churchill negotiate with Hitler, or did he signal the fight to the last men on British beaches? The tragedy of WW2 happened because the major powers failed to be armed and ready to act in order to prevent the war.
During the first years of the war when number of the victims of Germans in the occupied Poland was counted in hundreds of thousands, the US was happily trading with the NAZI Germany, Hugo Boss was designing the uniform for Wehrmacht, SS and Gestapo and IBM was selling its computer systems.
Trump is already signaling that he is ready to trade with Putin’s regime as if nothing has happened, so he expects Ukraine to make all the sacrifices and compromises while he is ready to reward the neo-Bolshevik mass-murderer with pushy deals, allow him to rebuild his shattered economy, rearm and invade Ukraine again, and then Poland, and the Baltics and on and on.
Please, go to the website jrnyquist.blog and you will learn everything about Russian/Chinese plans for America, Canada and Australia.
Mr. Nyquist has been quoted few times on this noble website, so he is well known to the well-informed people. He will be more than happy to answer all your questions.
Mr. Nyquist is relatively unknown for the wider circle because of his unwavering determination in exposing the communist infiltration of American and the Western world in general. As almost the entire mass media in the so called “West” is infiltrated and taken over by the leftists, he is being deliberately ignored by them. However, Mr. Nyquist has proved to be right on almost all issues.
Kind regards – Bogdan
Dear Shlomo, there has NEVER been such a promise made by America. It concerned only the Eastern part of Germany after the unification and that promise has been fulfilled as there are no nuclear installations in the Eastern Germany. Gorbachev himself admitted that there was not such a promise ever made.
Please, watch this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gxssycoxz0&list=PLDSdVo7FufTAP-qujgLuBjbxNPxKoJ-ko
Regards – Bogdan
Basing your arguments on comparisons to Hitler is so fucking cringe
Sometimes I wonder what midwit intelligences said in debates prior to the 1940s
Sounds like you should start begging Germany, France, and the UK for a lot more money to pay for your national defense and your wars because I don’t give a shit. Many Americans are sick and tired of sending our money overseas. Pay for your own wars
Dear Perry, below is the excellent presentation by the current Polish Foreign Minister, Radek Sikorski in the UN few months ago concerning the alleged CIA “involvement” in the Ukraine’s Maidan revolution, its roots and its nature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k10gHRbFK9E
Kind regards – Bogdan
Chris in Texas, watch this, please:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-u4d6Zwdns
Shlomo Maistre, I see that you are impervious to the civilized argument, especially when it is armed with the proof. It is, probably, because you are full of shit yourself. This war is America’s war as well. As Leo Trotzki used to say: “You may not like the war but the war, certainly, likes you.”
This time without regards…
Isn’t a key part of what Trump is saying (and did before he won) is that if toytown Austria-Hungary imagines itself as a nascent superpower (who’s immense reach – I recall – was going to swat us like a fly should we dare to leave), then it should start acting like one in it’s own backyard – which it certainly seems to consider as including Ukraine?
Specifically that it should be the one providing the guarantees? After all, it has an economy and population massively bigger than Russia, and it does have nuclear weapons.
Whatever you think of Trump, America and Americans in general – love them or hate them (personally I rather like the US and am glad it’s the global hegemon. Believe me, you’ll miss it should it cease to be) – its politics or what it might have done in the past, Trump has fairly clearly stated that he is not willing to be a backstop.
End of!
Is he just playing games to try and force toytown Austria-Hungary to do something? But he is playing realpolitik – 4D chess or a complete balls up remains to be seen.
The ball is in the EU’s court? That must fill everybody with confidence!
Starmer (spit!), of course, just sees an opportunity to bury his head in the sand (or rather mud of Ukraine – Raputitsa is about to slow things down a bit for a while, so maybe it does provide a short term opportunity) and ignore the typhoon of disasters his cabal of morons daily inflict!!
Not nitpicking. Asking for a source is a reasonable question. There are a lot of assertions like this flying around. And yet I never see a killer factor back them up.
He was bailed out by the Americans (Britain was on the verge of bankruptcy in late 1940), and the country had to pay war debts until 2006, and our once mighty empire was liquidated within a few decades, at least partly at American insistence. Also Churchill (and Roosevelt) signed off on handing over Eastern Europe to Stalin.
In the 1950s when he was NATO Supreme Commander, Eisenhower said that he’d deem it a failure if American forces were in Western Europe after a decade. I think there were 3 good opportunities to replace NATO with something where European states were solely responsible for Europe. The obvious time was 1992 after the USSR collapsed. Failing that, when many European states opposed (alongside Russia) Bush invading Iraq in 2003, that could have been a good time to end NATO. Then there was Trump’s first term, when so many European leaders alternated between being terrified of Trump while also laughing at him. None of these roads were taken, so we are here with the shit situation we have today.
@james strong:
https://www.samizdata.net/2025/03/samizdata-quote-of-the-day-cognitive-dissonance-on-display/#comment-865299
If you’re right and MSM is misrepresenting this – and they have form, boy do they have form – then this is a bombshell moment.
Really need the link so we can watch the full 50 minutes: can you provide?
A question for our knowledgeable commenters: is Zelensky really in control in Ukraine or is he merely a mouthpiece for Nationalist elements in Ukraine? Doesn’t look to me that he is fully in control and really determining Ukraine policy. I think he is mostly a figurehead.
According to Mollie Hemingway, as quoted here, Zelenskyy, while in DC, was a puppet of the American neocon Deep State:
I note that that “may have been” does all of the work here: no evidence whatsoever that Rice, Blinken, Nuland, or Vindman had any recent contacts with Zelenskyy.
Still, i like this hypothesis because it is in agreement with 2 prejudices that i have:
1. Zelenskyy was a fool in putting up a show of friendship with Biden and Scholz, and with Dems and Germans more generally, while at the same time criticizing Trump and Vance;
2. Anybody who thinks that Biden was aligned with Zelenskyy and/or that Trump is aligned with Putin, is delusionally insane.
That holds independently of whether you approve or disapprove of any of the 4.
— By following my link above, you can also watch the entire Oval Office press conference. 50 minutes of it. I have not yet watched it.
Jacob, I’ve no idea.
One thought about the farce on Friday. I wondered if Trump decided he was concerned that a mineral resource deal with Ukraine would effectively draw in the US into a long military commitment. Defending a territory to preside over a bunch of mines for lithium etc is not much different than the US having a base in Saudi Arabia to defend oil installations. Trump’s while foreign policy, to the extent he seems to have a coherent one, is about weaning the US off foreign natural resources that can embroil America.
Martin, I agree that that it would have been better in the long run for European countries to take the lead on defence and create a pact, retaining a friendly link to the US, share intelligence, etc. Europe would also have avoided a dangerous dependence on the US, with this consequent entitlement mindset that European countries seem to have. It’s created deep resentment: JD Vance’s speech in Munich, while containing some truths, also showed how basic civility between historic allies had frayed.
However, I don’t think wrapping up NATO would have appeased the likes of Russia, unless a very different kind of political system developed instead of Putin as gangster-in-chief. In any event, we are where are: Putin doesn’t respect Ukraine as a sovereign country; at best, he sees it as a vassal that should keep its mouth shut. Or as the foreign policy “realists” assert, to be nothing more than a “buffer state”, an abject situation that is inherently unstable.
Bogdan: “especially in a situation when almost half of the population vote for the remnants of the former communist regimes”
Interesting observation.
Is it possible that maybe half the people in Ukraine (or some great chunk) wish to stop this dammed war, and don’t care who controls the Crimea?
“I wondered if Trump decided he was concerned that a mineral resource deal with Ukraine”
I think this whole idea of mineral concessions in Ukraine is a piece of idiocy. There is absolutely no mineral that cannot be found and extracted in the USA or the Western Hemisphere. The US needs Ukrainian minerals like it needs a hole in the head. The reason the US is looking for minerals somewhere else is that US environmentalists (or lefties) don’t permit the development of any new mines in the US. (too dirty).
China is retaliating to US boycott of advanced chips with a boycott on rare earths (on which China has a virtual monopoly). Now, if these minerals are vital for the US it is idiotic to swap this dependence on China for a dependence on the Ukraine.
About the Ukraine… I read somewhere that there is a big minority of ethnic Russians in the Ukraine (Russian speakers). What is their stance vs. the war? Are they happy to fight their kin at the front? Does their opinion not count? In general: is the support for the war unanimous? Or are the minorities shut-up?
A country that is very reliant on another state to defend it isn’t really a sovereign state. It’s a client state. Whether or not it was the founders of NATO’s goals or not, most NATO states have become so reliant on America due to whittling away their industrial power and military strength that they have voluntarily become client states. This was always extremely unhealthy. Americans came to perceive the clients as lazy and suspicious that they are being used as a military welfare state. The client states go through periodic mood swings resenting the US half the time for being overbearing and then resenting they may lose their US protection the rest of the time. It’s been particularly interesting and morbidly amusing watching Britain’s elites going schizo over the last few days. These people have pushed myths about the ‘special relationship’ for years, yet now many are boiling with anti-american rage. These people don’t even seem to realise Britain is so militarily reliant on America effectively owns Britain’s nuclear deterrent.
Jacob: its been put forward the mineral deal was basically a way for the US to make a security commitment without explicitly making a security commitment. so if US workers were in the Ukraine there is an implicit threat that if Russia invades then the US will enter the war. of course the problem with this kind of thing is what happens if Russia calls America’s bluff. because presumably this strategy would need some advantage over giving an explicit guarantee. but the idea from the America’s point of view might be it works some percentage of the time and Russia will call the bluff the other percentage of the time and in that case America might walk away most of the time (maybe they only enter the war 10% of the time). so America kind of gets to freeroll a threat based on the uncertainty they will follow through without damaging their reputation too much because they didn’t explicitly give a guarantee.
Rupert Lowe managed to get from the MOD the recent target vs actual recruitment figures for the British armed forces. The ‘youth’ don’t seem keen, and I don’t blame them these days.
For anyone interested, I can recommend this book about the years leading up to Russia’s 2022 invasion: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0300269463/?coliid=I1JAHQB9KVP6H7&colid=1HCEQWCVEU6HT&psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it
It largely flattens claims that there was some sort of CIA/Western plot to dislodge a democratically elected Ukrainian government a decade ago; it pushes back, in my view persuasively, against the idea that Russia was provoked into invasion and that the Western powers should have kept their heads down. It shows what dangerous folly this has been. We have had numerous chances to confront Putin’s gangster state, and we flubbed it on numerous occasions. Garry Kasparov saw much of this coming; I can also suggest folk read his cry for action, written in 2018: Winter is Coming.
Jacob: About the Ukraine… I read somewhere that there is a big minority of ethnic Russians in the Ukraine (Russian speakers). What is their stance vs. the war?
Various press reports over the past few years suggest that many Russian speakers have turned against Putin’s criminal regime. Another complicating factor is we don’t know for sure how many Ukranian kids have been taken to Russia and resettled as a sort of deliberate displacement. Here is another link to a story about this.
I don’t know why you make such comments if after three years of war you haven’t noticed places where resistance was strongest, such as Kharkiv, are overwhelmingly Russian speaking. Most of the Ukrainians I know are Russian speaking but have no problem seeing themselves as Ukrainians. Speaking Russian does not make people pro-Putin or pro-Russian or make them see Russians as “their kin”. People in the Republic of Ireland overwhelmingly speak English…
If you look at the referendum to become independent from Russia, in even the Russian speaking areas a majority voted in favour. How can you not know this but instead parrot Russian state propaganda?
Perry,
Of course, many ethnic Russians in Russia herself (let alone Ukraine) fiercely oppose the tyrannical and corrupt Putin regime. (Though it seems that Putin still enjoys great support in Russia).
I was wondering to what extent does the continuation of the war have support within Ukraine at this time. I’m sure most Ukrainians hate the guts of Putin, and would like Crimea to belong to the Ukraine. The question is how long do they wish to prolong their suffering in this war, since it seems it won’t end favorably anytime soon. Is there any opposition within Ukraine to Zelensky and the perpetual war Nationalist elements?
I don’t think that the war is over Ukraine’s independence. It’s over control of Crimea.
I imagine not everyone in UK was all that optimistic in 1941 either, not after 3 years of war with Germany in occupation of most of Europe.
Of course it is. Russia wants to eventually extinguish the very notion of a separate Ukraine, reverting it back to a mere Malaya Rossiya. They want the attitudes you seem to think exist now amongst Russian speakers in Ukraine to become a reality, using whatever force is required (essentially exterminate Ukraine’s intelligentsia).