Russia is not imperialistic, Russia was fine with Ukraine as a sovereign state. More of it, due to current geopolitical shift, Russia is even more interested in Ukraine being a sovereign state, a buffer between Russia and NATO.
The problem is that USA twice messed with Ukraine sovereignty, first in 2004, and then in 2014 turned this country to a proxy, puppet state, bulwark against Russia. And that's why this war started, because Russia can not allow Ukraine to be turned into a hostile state, ideologically driven by hatred towards Russia and Russians and manipulated by NATO, with bases on its territory.
Russia is fine with Ukrainians, if you're unaware, Russia accepted the largest number of Ukrainian refugees of all countries. Most of these people got Russian citizenship. It's actually Ukraine, that turned Zelensky into a king with absolute power, dismantled all the opposition party, oppressed Russian language, culture, religion, wiping history, and basically brainwashing population with targeted hatred. The reality is: Ukrainian dystopian regime is hanging on Western support. Without money and weapons they can't even feed their people anymore, but already turning women to cannon fodder, and no doubt, that in a few month they'll force their kids to go to tranches also. Because Ukrainian leaders don't care about Ukraine or Ukrainians, all they care is their pockets, that are filled by the war, and their goal is to prolong this war for as much as possible.
> Russia was fine with Ukraine as a sovereign state. More of it, due to current geopolitical shift, Russia is even more interested in Ukraine being a sovereign state, a buffer between Russia and NATO.
This is a lie.
Russia is trying to eradicate the Ukrainian culture. It failed with corruption and tried with military muscle during the invasion. This also failed.
So now they try to freeze people to death, kill civilians and do human wave attacks to gain territories.
People living in the occupied territories are killed for showing any Ukrainian culture. Torture is common. This is the russian Mir.
>Russia is trying to eradicate the Ukrainian culture.
You're lying yourself. It's Russian culture that's getting eradicated in Ukraine by renaming cities, streets, destroying monuments, burning books, prohibiting Russian language usage which is mother tongue for majority of population of Ukraine etc. In Russia nothing like this happens. Ukrainian language is being taught in schools that has significant Ukrainian population, nobody renames anything related to Ukraine.
>So now they try to freeze people to death, kill civilians and do human wave attacks to gain territories.
You're watching too much of your local propaganda.
>People living in the occupied territories are killed for showing any Ukrainian culture. Torture is common. This is the russian Mir.
Yeah, yeah, that's why Russia has the largest population of Ukrainians outside of Ukraine, absorbed the most number of refugees from Ukraine, and people from "occupied territories" are getting Russian citizenship. Brainwashing is real.
I think that getting through a russian concentration camp will make people do anything and say anything to save themselves and their children.
There is no prohibition against speaking Ukrainian. I think you should learn about why people reject your culture while speaking the same language as you. This is somewhat amusing to me. That you can speak a language while rejecting the culture that comes with the language.
About smashing Russian monuments and renaming streets?
This is happening all over the previous Russian sphere of influence. People don't want you there. Let the people decide their own fate instead of invading them and telling them what to think.
The problem is that USA twice messed with Ukraine sovereignty, first in 2004, and then in 2014 turned this country to a proxy, puppet state, bulwark against Russia. And that's why this war started, because Russia can not allow Ukraine to be turned into a hostile state, ideologically driven by hatred towards Russia and Russians and manipulated by NATO, with bases on its territory.
It seems you may not appreciate the extent to which the sources you're getting these narratives from may be woefully uninformed, and/or simply lying to you.
None of this "puppet state" stuff, or the descriptions of events in 2004/2014 that you're echoing here has any connection to reality. If the Ukrainian government were simply a "puppet" of the United States, then it would have evacuated from Kyiv after the 2022 invasion just like the former was advising it to do. But it did the complete opposite, instead.
The year is 1997, but the conflict started much earlier than that, during the fall of the Soviet Union.
For all the brainwashed and self-righteous: feel free to hit the downvote button. I won't respond to stupid questions along the lines of "how is this relevant", "whataboutism", and so on. You can read.
You can go to youtube and search for "prof.Mearsheimer about history of Ukraine conflict" or something like this.
This guy is a USA professor that specializes in international relations. He was warning for years that USA course of actions will result in Russia Ukraine war. And he has multiple videos explaining in details the history and how step by step we ended with this war, what could've been done to prevent it, and what steps actually made it inevitable.
The main thing is that what he tells is true, well known to Russians, but it's that other side of the story, that is wiped and generally not allowed in Western mass media, so most of USA and other NATO countries citizens are totally unaware of it.
One could, but Mearsheimer is a crank, and Youtube is notoriously full of disinformation of all sorts.
So most of USA and other NATO countries citizens are totally unaware of it.
They're perfectly aware of it, because the Russian narrative has been echoed and propagated incessantly by left- and right-wing news outlets and social media commenters ever since 2014.
Most of what you’ve written is just plain wrong, but I’m not responsible for clearing up the propaganda.
Let me just say this: No political fear of any foreign influence on a bordering country ever justifies invading this country, killing its citizens, and destroying its infrastructure. No matter how you try to frame it, Russia committed crimes in Ukraine, which it is completely responsible for. You may try to blame the victim here, but that will never become the truth.
Justifies? Of course not. But it's what governments did for centuries and do up to this day.
We can forget about history for a second, but just look at what's going on with China, for example. They've never attacked USA or any Western nation, they're restoring their country after centuries of foreign occupation, making their people life better, expanding markets with their goods, and USA is intended to destroy them. Why? Because they're an economic threat absorbing world markets and pushing USA out, so USA needs to act fast to preserve own dominance over the globe, because China's also building their military, so window of opportunity for military aggression is getting narrower.
To make it clear: international politics is never about justice, it's about interests. Those who're relatively strong trying to force weaker powers to submit to their demands. USA is the current King of the Hill, and they're trying their best to not allow anyone to topple them, by invading other countries directly, toppling governments, provoking wars by proxies etc.
The problem is that USA twice messed with Ukraine sovereignty, first in 2004, and then in 2014 turned this country to a proxy, puppet state, bulwark against Russia. And that's why this war started, because Russia can not allow Ukraine to be turned into a hostile state, ideologically driven by hatred towards Russia and Russians and manipulated by NATO, with bases on its territory.
Russia is fine with Ukrainians, if you're unaware, Russia accepted the largest number of Ukrainian refugees of all countries. Most of these people got Russian citizenship. It's actually Ukraine, that turned Zelensky into a king with absolute power, dismantled all the opposition party, oppressed Russian language, culture, religion, wiping history, and basically brainwashing population with targeted hatred. The reality is: Ukrainian dystopian regime is hanging on Western support. Without money and weapons they can't even feed their people anymore, but already turning women to cannon fodder, and no doubt, that in a few month they'll force their kids to go to tranches also. Because Ukrainian leaders don't care about Ukraine or Ukrainians, all they care is their pockets, that are filled by the war, and their goal is to prolong this war for as much as possible.