That's what he wants people to believe he is doing. But he actually started aggressive. Even if you don't take Crimea cause supposedly there was not much blood spilled, the invasion into Ukraine started on April 13, 2014 when Russian special forces killed a group of Ukrainian internal security officers deep into Ukrainian territory. There were no "victims" to defend at that point.
The invasion only just started a few hours ago. It's not like we saw all of the casualties immediately when they last invaded – hell, it was several months later that the a Russian SAM was used to shoot down an airplane of civilians.
> Yet US rhetoric on this was basically "Putin is going to glass Kiev and murder everybody".
No, it wasn't. It was that Putin wants to control Ukraine, and plans to invade. Today he went on TV and said that Ukraine is not a sovereign nation. He annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014, and is annexing the DNR and LNR regions as we speak.
Clearly he thinks that when the Ukrainian people threw out the russian puppet head of state that was an aggressive attack against Russia so everything done since then is in self defence.
I'm looking at his actions, rather than believing the words of a liar.
Just before the war, he said he was not going to invade. Then he did it anyway. His words are meaningless. His actions are what counts. And he obviously did try to take Kyiv. There were paradrops intended to take Kyiv in hours, even. There was a push by more forces to take Kyiv in days. It all failed because they encountered far more serious resistance than they expected, and it turned out they lacked the supplies for a longer operation, and couldn't get those supplies organised in the face Ukrainian defense specifically targeting Russian supply lines. Eventually they couldn't make any progress and withdrew. Though not before murdering lots of civilians in Boucha.
Did Ukraine attack Russia in any way? No. Is Ukraine a sovereign Country? Yes. Is Russia sending troops to Ukraine? Yes. This is an invasion. Isn't an invasion an aggression? If not, what is?
Contrary to what you're insinuating, this is one of the clearest cases in recorded history of conflicts. Russia is the aggressor and started a territorial war against Ukraine - already in 2014, now turned into a full-scale invasion. You need to check your moral compass and brush up your knowledge of international relations and history.
Your position is ludicrous. Russia invaded Ukraine. They are clearly at war with Ukraine. There is no valid historical or political justification for this.
You're absolutely right that war doesn't just happen. Putin made a conscious choice to invade a neighboring country, and one with which you'd had close ties at that, leading to all of this suffering and needless death. The only thing that isn't obvious here is whether you believe what you're saying or are intentionally spreading nonsense.
Russia has already invaded Ukraine, with special forces and proxy forces, in Donetsk and in Crimea, indeed Putin claims Ukrainians and Russians are the same people. The forces they support have even committed war crimes like downing a civilian jet and killing hundreds and in recent days shelling civilian villages.
While it seems to be fashionable to make excuses for a murderous dictator like Putin, Putin’s intentions are clear and include at the very least regime change in Ukraine to install a puppet regime.
If you call massing hundreds of thousands of troops at two borders, invading two parts of a country and staging massive war games at another puppet state nearby ‘zero evidence’, your denial of reality is chamberlainesque. I hope you accept you were deeply wrong about this if Russia does invade again.
I wish I had enough karma to downvote you. You are either extremely uninformed ( to the point where stupidity is actually a better explanation than ignorance) or, more likely, maliciously spreading misinformation.
Let me remove any kind of doubt. Ukraine is being invaded by a dictator deserving of all condemnation. Putin has started an illegal war and this is bad. No part of his actions are justifiable.
What is not happening in Ukraine however is a genocide. To claim that is wrong, unhelpful and stupid.
"Russia did not invade Ukraine; it assisted the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic in their self-defense against Ukraine. Ukraine was the aggressor."
The truth is Putin's troops invaded Ukraine and are killing innocent people every hour. And it's obvious that each day of this aggression will make this number higher and higher.
Yeah but my point was that the declared invasion is happening due to the rebels that took over Donetsk and Lugansk asking for help from Putin to defend themselves from the ukrainian govt
Was Russia's invasion of Ukraine provoked? Like, has there been evidence of the claimed nazis (which AFAIK isn't grounds for invasion) or whatever? Did Ukraine strike first?
"Aggression" is an objective measure. There is no subjectivity who starts a war and wo is in another country's territory. Those are observable facts.
And obviously Russia did not believe Ukraine to be a threat - or they would have not done this haphazard invasion with too little preparation and too few soldiers, so there is no excuse.
reply