Russia and Ukraine

[Belacqua]

Leonardo17
 1) a) I don’t know about the US, but many foreign leaders, including Vlodynir Zelensky paraded around Putin to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict in the weeks before and after the start of the conflict. Putin’s response was firm. It was “I want Zelensky gone. Ukraine cannot join NATO. And Ukraine must be entirely demilitarized”. He said that Ukraine was “in his zone of influence” in other words Ukraine could only be a satellite of Russia and he wouldn’t negotiate on that.

Indeed, Zelensky campaigned on a peace platform. But it appears that his bosses in NATO and the US overruled him. Boris Johnson flew to Ukraine to tell him that peace negotiations were not on the table. US officials have said both that 1) Ukraine can't win, and 2) peace negotiations can't be held. 

Whose fault is it that there's fighting and no negotiations? Both sides, of course, but for decades people have been saying that a NATO-controlled Ukraine would be a casus belli and provoke Russia into conflict. Obama knew this and declined to get involved in local disputes concerning the Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine. He said that they would never be of strategic importance to the US, would always be of strategic importance to Russia, and were not worth risking war over. Biden, on the other hand, is more of a warmonger, and he went ahead and did exactly what everyone said would provoke war. So Putin responded to this, and countered with his demands to avoid war: no NATO in Ukraine. He was rejected. 

Can we call NATO a defensive organization if it is knowingly used in a way that everyone knew would provoke hostilities?

I question your wording in the portion of your post I have quoted above. I doubt that your quotation marks are direct quotes. Did Putin really say "Ukraine was “in his zone of influence” in other words Ukraine could only be a satellite of Russia and he wouldn’t negotiate on that." Or is this your own interpretation of what you think he means? 

Russia wants the Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine not to be attacked by the other provinces. It wants Ukraine not to be militarized by anti-Russian forces. Does this make Ukraine a "satellite of Russia"? Well, the Russian-speaking people see themselves as naturally allied with Russia. The other people don't. 

It is false to oversimplify and merely say that Putin demands to control Ukraine. 

Again, you write a great deal here, and to me nearly all of it is questionable at best. It would take me all day to rebut each sentence. 

I think you are a victim of propaganda; you think I am a victim of propaganda. 

I will keep offering links which I think counter your views of the situation. Here is another one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvGUUFdIHds