Or why a lot of people on the left (and right) are talking out their asses.
I have to admit my knowledge of Ukraine, and Belarus, is very limited, but I appear to have a better knowledge of the region than most "experts". But the people I am talking about are the pundits on the left who are siding with Putain, whether consciously or not. These are the people who decry US "imperialism" through its unjustified invasions blahblablah. The ones who scream about why people don't care about Syria blahblahblah. NATO is using Ukraine as a puppet blahblahblah.
The ones that anyone with a shred of knowledge about this war can tell these pundit haven't a fucking idea what they are talking about.
Or they are complete whackjobs.
They can be countered quite simply since Ukraine has been an independent nation since 1991. That independence was guaranteed by Russia, the United Kingdom, and US through the 1994 Budapest Accord. The gist of that accord was that Ukraine would be neutral, not join NATO, and in return give up the third largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world.
In short, Ukraine was promised neutrality by Russia for not joining NATO and giving up nuclear weapons.
Since then, Ukraine has been fumbling to try and create a nation. It finally gets to a point where it is getting things together and Russia decides to invade.
That pretty much shoots down the left wing talking points. They show hypocrisy by parroting the unjustified invasions thing, yet not decrying the invasion of Ukraine. It's not NATO or the west that is pushing the nations neighbouring Russia to want to join: it's a long history of Russian aggression. In fact, these people are supporting a nation with policies they claim to dislike.
You can't scream about large aggressive nations with bloated militaries invading countries without any justification and support Russia. Likewise, not doing anything is helping to destroy nuclear non-proliferation. In fact, Russia's actions are truly detrimental to the international framework for keeping peace. These lefties would do better to say both Russia and the US engage in actions which are harmful to peace, since they both act in similar ways. At this point, the US has not openly threatened a nuclear first strike. That is one factor which tilts the scale to making Russia the worse actor.
The next one is Russian disdain for human rights and national integrity, which is why this is called "A tale of two countries". In this case, Ukraine and Belarus. Ukraine is working on becoming a democratic nation that would ultimately become part of the European Union.
Belarus is what Putain wants to turn Ukraine into. A true puppet state. Alexander Lukashenko has been the president of that nation since its "independence" in 1994. This is despite an election in 2020 which Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. No surprise that Lukashenko has referred to himself as the "last dictator" in Europe.
Elections are not considered to be free and fair by international monitors, opponents of the regime are repressed, and the media is not free, leading to sanctions being imposed on Lukashenko and other Belarusian officials. Opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya claimed to have won a decisive first-round victory with at least 60% of the vote in 2020, and called on Lukashenko to start negotiations. Her campaign subsequently formed the Coordination Council to facilitate a transfer of power and stated that it was ready to organize "long-term protests" against the official results.
And Tsikhanouskaya has been in exile since then. And her husband has been sentenced to 18 years in jail by a sham trial.
Russia is trying to get Belarus to aid in Ukraine, but Lukashenko is shrewder than Putain. Lukashenko knows that his government will topple should he send troops to Ukraine. Belarus dissidents are waiting to fight government troops in Ukraine. Not to mention rumours that Bealrus troops were mutinying early on in the war and refusing to fight in Ukraine. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-60827109
Ukraine does not want to be a clone of Belarus, which is why they are fighting. Ukraine wants its independence.
You would think people who claim to be freedom loving would side with the free nation that has been attacked. Especially when a belligerent neighbor invades without reason and commits documented human rights violations.
