Randahl FinkThis is huge! For the first time in over two years, Ukraine has begun taking back their land, resulting in a net territorial gain in February, according to Finnish OSI group Blackbird.
Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦
Martijn VosI still think European countries should liberate Ukraine.
Maximilien Danton@mcv @randahl I've been quite puzzled by this all along. When the full scale invasion started Zelensky begged allies to close the skies. That was all that was needed. I still don't get why so little is being done. I mean Poland made it legal for polish citizens to fight in Ukraine just the other day. Volunteer pilots from NATO are now only allowed to fly with their Ukrainian allies. The weapons deliveries are noteworthy, but if Russia prevails it would be devastating for Europe.
Europe has outgrown war, and fears Russian warmongering. That Europe is rearming itself feels like a step back. Everything should be about international law and agreements by now, but we're sliding back. Europe wasn't prepared for Russia's naked aggression. Western Europe in particular was incredibly naive about Russia and Putin, and really thought they would be normal trade partners. Eastern European countries knew better, but were ignored.
It took a couple of years for Europe to wake up. We should have done more. We should be doing more. Hopefully we will do more. I agree we should have created that no-fly zone right away, but NATO feared a direct confrontation with Russia. Still does. I think we should get over that.
@mcv @randahl I understand that it feels like a step back, but Europe has to live in the world we currently have and not the microcosm of postwar western Europe.
The biggest mistake as I see it is the neoliberal concept of peace through trade. It only works with democratic countries. The russian monster was created by that, but it pales in comparison with the Chinese monster. The real result when you trade with despotic regimes is that you enable and normalise them.
I completely agree. We should focus our trade on democracies, on countries with freedom and human rights, and on countries that fight corruption. We should be more reluctant to trade with countries that don't meet our standards on rights and freedom.
What I mean with the step back, is the focus on force, military might, and that nuclear umbrella. It may be necessary in the state of the world today, and I support Europe re-arming itself, but it's still incredibly sad that it's necessary. That our international rules based order failed. That we seem to be headed back towards might makes right again.
Although you could certainly ask whether we ever left it, considering the stuff the US has done since the end of WW2.