Russia's Criminal Aggression Against Ukraine
A larger war between Russia and Ukraine is a catastrophe for both countries
Russia has launched an illegal war of aggression against Ukraine. Putin announced the start of the operation in an early morning statement. It remains to be seen how expansive the military campaign is, but as of tonight it looks very bad. No matter what official excuses Moscow offers for this action, it is nothing other than criminal aggression and should be condemned as such. It goes without saying that the responsibility for the war lies squarely with the Russian government, and their entire leadership should be held accountable for what they are doing and what they are about to do.
Critics of NATO expansion have said our piece about how we think this crisis might have been avoided. I won’t dwell on that right now because there are more important things to consider, but I sincerely hope that Western policymakers and politicians may learn something from this disaster. The priority now should be to bring as much diplomatic pressure to bear at the United Nations and elsewhere as we can for a ceasefire, to provide humanitarian assistance to the injured and the displaced, and to take in as many refugees as possible.
I had hoped that there might be a way to avert this conflict, and we may still hope that it can be halted before it has caused too much devastation, but those efforts have so far been unsuccessful. I doubted that the Russian government would launch a major invasion because it seemed obvious that it was very risky and potentially costly to Russia, but I was wrong. A larger war between Russia and Ukraine is a catastrophe for both countries, and the U.S. and its allies should do what they can diplomatically to halt the fighting.
I completely disagree with Daniel’s take on this. Ever since the US-sponsored Maidan coup in 2014, Putin made absolutely clear that NATO’s arming of Ukraine and possible inclusion in NATO was putting a knife to Russia’s throat. Putin was willing to negotiate and offered various off-ramps for Biden and Blinken but they were all ignored and instead they hyped the threat of war and sent more weapons into a non-NATO country on Russia’s very border—that was madness, unless provoking Russia was the entire point—which I believe it was.
Ukraine failed to implement its obligations under the Minsk II agreement and allowed the continued harassment of the two regions by neo-Nazi Ukrainians to continue. Zelensky then started talking about developing nuclear weapons—more madness but certainly an effective provocation.
As for condemning this as aggression, sorry, but the US has absolutely zero moral standing to condemn Russia. The US is an expansionist, aggressive, warmongering empire. We have sponsored more wars, coups, drone assassinations, torture, and starvation sanctions, while selling arms and providing diplomatic support to some of the most repressive countries on Earth. The US is entirely responsible for this war.
This is exactly the right take, Daniel. I have been a strong critic of NATO expansion and I believe that above all, it led to the crisis we now see unfolding. But that does not justify this appalling and criminal action by the Russian government. This crisis could have been avoided, but we are now faced with the situation we face now.
I never in my life thought I would live to see this kind of horrible crisis unfolding. This is a crime and a tragedy.