I disagree with your description of Ukraine, and feel the attitudes shown by the current population prove it cannot possibly be as bad as you describe. And Zelensky may be a corrupt billionaire, but he is also going out and fighting in the street against the Russians personally. I bet NONE of our politicians would do that, even the few I consider honest and properly elected. I admit that at least part of this is a historical bias in favor of Ukraine because some of my ancestors were Ukrainian (my maternal grandmother was born in the Kiev area).Ruark wrote: ↑Mon Feb 28, 2022 5:35 pmYou're drowning in the media's Koolaid. Ukraine is a worthless, corrupt toilet of a country. Zelensky is a corrupt billionaire dictator installed by the U.S. who jails his opponents and has murdered over 14,000 ethnic Russians in Donbass over the last 8 years. They were planning a major military attack on the region when Putin finally said "enough" and moved in. I mean, think about it: Putin is an extremely astute, shrewd, experience individual. Do you really BELIEVE he just did all this on a whim, for NO REASON, knowing full well what it would cost?
I also admit that Zelensky and the Ukraine government are not as pure and democratic as the media would have us believe. I am not as sure that I would describe it as murder of the ethnic Russians (I don't know enough and there are conflicting reports on what happened), but many have died at the government's hands.
But I know for a fact that Putin did not do this on a whim and he did not care about the ethnic Russians in Donbass any more than he cared when he seized the Crimean area from Ukraine using the same excuse. He did it for two reasons. The first reason is the same one Hitler used when he seized Czechoslovakia in 1939 - "the area has always been part of our country and is our territory historically". Putin is going to try to take Ukraine because he is rebuilding the Russian Empire as it was at its peak and Ukraine was conquered by the Russians in the past. He is also threatening to do the same with other former Soviet Republics using this logic. The second reason is the fear of Ukraine joining NATO. Note that Putin threatened Finland and Sweden with punitive actions if they join NATO. A good portion of this is a justified fear of NATO putting troops on his border, especially with missiles. He sees NATO as the US and sees the US as the enemy. And we reacted the same way when the Russians put missiles in Cuba (remember that missile crisis - hmm also under a Democratic president - a pattern may be emerging here).
And as Dave2 said, I think Putin underestimated the cost of this enterprise. That includes the direct costs of the invasion and the indirect costs of the sanctions and public opinion. I am not sure he cares about the public opinion though, either that of Russian citizens or anyone else.