Some #Soviet history for you:
The technological heart of the #USSR was #Ukraine
#Dnipropetrovsk (aka #Dnipro) was nicknamed "Rocket City" during the #ColdWar
So when #Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukrainian innovation answered. Russia has been paying for that miscalculation ever since, and will pay a lot more for their colossal error
Ukrainian ingenuity will win this stupid war
"Ukraine Quietly Tested Space-Launch Capabilities in Middle of War Twice"
people need to understand:
when europe's bureaucrats and america's fascists go "you're not going to build a nuke, right ukraine?" it makes sense ukraine would nod along
and then quietly build a bomb in secret and show proof to russia
it's not your people being genocided, so who are you to judge
i am against nuclear proliferation in principle, but i also understand theoretical ideals vs cold hard reality
you don't want a ukrainian bomb?
then give ukraine everything they ask for, and more
i don't want a ukrainian bomb
you don't want a ukrainian bomb
but it's not us who are having our friends and relatives mass murdered for russia's ethnofascist cruelty, while russia endlessly bloviates about nukes itself
ukrainians don't want a ukrainian bomb!
but ukraine has a coherent need to say: "you nuke kyiv, moscow ceases to exist"
and anyone who thinks this is terrible: it absolutely is
but are you going to blame ukraine for that?
no
this is what russia created
because you were dealing with spineless bureaucrats, in europe and the usa at the time
they were scared of oil shocks and russian nuclear threats. not understanding that on some issues, you have to fucking fight, now
of course now the usa has gone fascist, but europe is growing its backbone
Pretty much all of the serious people I know agree that "first use" of a nuclear weapon would be a war crime. (They also think it was a war crime when the US did it in Japan). Much of the cold war was trying to goad the other side into committing that crime so that the responder could be "in the right." Pretty sure Putin understands that. He could not defend Moscow from retaliatory strikes for NATO neighbors of Ukraine who could claim Article 5. 1/2
It is unclear (and untested thankfully) how far a nuclear war would escalate beyond the destruction of the country that first used nuclear weapons. Most people want to live on what's left of the planet so they are presumed to be inclined to not keep it up after the initial user was taken out. That doesn't really include the eye for an eye types if you know who I mean and they would be a wildcard here. 2/2
@benroyce Ukraine had nuclear weapons.
"In 1994, Ukraine agreed to transfer these weapons to Russia for dismantlement and became a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, in exchange for economic compensation and assurances from Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom to respect Ukrainian independence and sovereignty within its existing borders."
Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 while Obama was president.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction
And thus Estonia gave us Skype, before Microsoft ruined it
@benroyce
When the Kremlin invaded Ukraine, I said to my wife, "Ukraine was the engineering division of Soviet inc. for good reasons. Though this will inevitably hurt Ukrainians deeply, I think Ukraine will make the russians pay a very very high price for attacking."
She and I have been contributing to Ukraine assistance since 2022.
yeah, we can't downplay the suffering and just drumbeat for victory
but ultimately the choice is ukraine's
and so far they have said: "this is very painful, but we will not submit to ethnofascist imperialist colonialist genocide"
ukraine has heart. ukraine has a backbone
oh how i wish so many entitled, dissipated millions in the west would see and listen to what it takes, and learn to fight. instead of this endless empty whining and cynical acceptance
@benroyce @Lsamuelson57 Ukraine has history, Ukraine has civilisation, Ukraine has love.
Russia only steals civilisations, strips them down for parts, calls it ”Rossija”, and complains it’s not great yet.
@benroyce That’s why Putin is desperate. Moscow without Kyiv is just oppression, theft, spies & violence. Most things ”Russian” aren’t from Moscow, but russianised through imperial coercion. Even the name of the state is!
When Muscovy & Novgorod merged in turn of 1500’s, Moscow’s Tšar simply assumed the title of ”King of all Rus”, which was the name of a Ukrainian civilisation from before the Mongols.
We all know Russians cheat & steal, but they even stole their origin story!!
is finland ready to secure karelia?
or maybe also the kola peninsula with your neighbors
i know it's russified now, and russia's chance of collapse is tiny
but it's not zero, and it grows daily as long as this stupid war continues
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