Anne ApplebaumWhen anyone tells you that Ukrainians should trade land for peace, remember: On that land, people have been subjected to arrest, torture and murder - and still are.
To mark the war's first anniversary I wrote about the nature of the Russian occupation, together with Nataliya Gumenyuk, who runs the Reckoning Project
Like their Soviet predecessors, the Red Army officers who occupied central Europe in 1944-45, the Russian army has targeted local mayors and councillors, as well as volunteers. Anyone who is active, anyone who is dedicated, anyone who is public-spirited or civic-minded. Unlike the Red Army, the modern Russian soldiers don't understand why they are there.
Failure and incompetence lead to violence; violence creates more resistance; and resistance, so hard for the invaders to comprehend, creates wider, broader, ever more random destruction. This is the logic of genocide, and it is unfolding right now, in our time, in the occupied Ukrainian territories that have not yet been liberated, in the towns where the torture chamber still exist and Russian soldiers still arrest people arbitrarily on the street. Just on the other side of the frontline.
Zhi Zhu 🕸️"The 2nd assumption made by those advocating off-ramps is that Russia, even if it were to begin negotiating, would stick to the agreements it signed...
But brazen dishonesty is now a normal part of Russian foreign policy as well as domestic propaganda."
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/why-ukraine-must-defeat-putin-russia/629940/
shanenI just finished "The Crimean War" by Orlando Figes. Remarkable how many historical rhymes there are over time.
Would Tsar Putin accept a division of NATO as a "victory" condition? Turkey and France could be the leading members of MATO, the Mediterranean Area Treaty Organization, with Ukraine deferred. Smaller and less threatening, but still good defense via dual members like France.
"We must recall the painful memories about the fatal dangers of appeasing a dictator, of disunity in the face of aggression, and of greedily grabbing at an ephemeral peace while guaranteeing a lasting war...
...The best reason for acting to stop Putin today is brutally simple. It will only get harder tomorrow."
~Garry Kasparov, in his 2015 book _Winter Is Coming_
#Putin #Russia @war
#RussiaUkraineWar
#UkraineRussiaWar #Ukraine
xs4me2Back to the borders of 1991, its the only option.
Leslie Lieurance@anneapplebaum Will read the article today. Thanks.