Putin said he wants the Russian empire back (Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia...)
In 2014, after the Ukrainian people demanded and started their journey towards democracy, Putin took Crimea from the Ukraine and occupied the Eastern regions of Ukraine.
In 2020, when the Putin backed Belarus dictator stole an election and remained in power, Putin provided him with the “police forces” to quash the demonstrations and financing to overcome the West’s sanctions and Belarus became a vassal state of Russia.
Now, after an hour long passionate speech where Putin claimed that the breakup of the Soviet states was illegitimate, Putin invades Ukraine, a fledgling democracy. A country that gave up its nuclear weapons in return for a promise, including by the US, to protect Ukraine’s border integrity. A country that volunteered to help the US fight wars including Afghanistan.
The west Initially imposed limited sanctions that resulted in the Russian stock market actually going up. The west then increased the sanctions to include limiting Russian banks’ access to the global financial system (SWIFT) and on Russian oligarchs. But so far the west hasn’t stopped Russian oil exports, The Swift sanctions are only on less than 10 out of hundreds of Russian Banks and the sanctions on oligarchs is limited to a handful of oligarchs.
With only limited military support, most of which has been given after the invasion, Ukraine is bravely fighting a heroic battle against a vastly larger and more modern military.
Russia is killing 1000’s.
Russia is destroying cities forcing millions of civilians to flee.
Ukraine is begging for a no-fly zone
The west, especially the US, claims they cannot support a no-fly zone because it would lead to nuclear war BUT that the West would stop Putin if he tries to invade a NATO country.
This is hard to believe. If US can stand by the side when the largest country in Europe, a fledgling democracy with over 40 million people is invaded, civilians being killed, how can anyone believe that the US will risk a nuclear war to protect, say Lithuania, a country 1/20 the size of Ukraine.
If Putin is willing to use nuclear weapons to take the Ukraine then he’s willing to use nuclear weapons to take the rest of his empire. The world needs to stop him now.
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