Posted: Dec 05, 2022 11:21 am
dochmbi wrote:One thing I'm curious about: Given how important Sevastopol is to Russian interests and how it was previously leased for their military usage, why did the current post Euro-maidan government deny Russia that lease? If Sevastopol had been made available for the Russian military to use, would that have prevented this Ukraine war from happening?
If there's an obligation to lease their port for military usage by another nation on threat of war, then the assumption therein is that Ukraine is and was a subject nation of Russia.
Putin does seem to believe that's the optimal relationship here, that Ukraine should simply be ruled by Russia in order that they no longer have sovereign decision making power, but given that the point of the Euromaidan protests was in response to an anti-democratic lunge towards closer Russian ties by a pro-Russia government, and the result of those protests was a government representing the interests of Ukranians who made democratically clear that they don't see themselves as a subject nation of Russia, then I think your underlying question is: should we respect the democratic rights and freedoms of Ukranians?
I assume most people would say yes.
Putin emphatically and with murderous zealotry said no.
Had Putin respected their democratic rights and freedoms, which is of course an absolute fucking joke at this point, then that would have wholly prevented any reason for war.
Blaming Ukraine for not sufficiently kowtowing to an aggressor seems laboured to me.