That’s not what you said in your OP. You were pretty clear in your embrace of “NATO expansion” a bring the root cause of the russian invasion of Ukraine and you also openly tried to shift the blame on the US, when the only party at blame are the russians.

Instead I consider the US to not have the best interests of Ukraine at heart; using the opportunity to expand NATO for the benefit of US Hegemony and to extract capital out of Ukraine.

Here you state that NATO expansion forced the russian to invade. You don’t say it explicitly, but I am not stupid. And this pretty standard for Western “leftist” polemics.

From the evidence I have seen, yes the US has escalated the conflict. That does not mean Ukraine is to blame, which they aren’t. Nor does it mean Russia hasn’t escalated the situation more than the US has, which is an easy argument to make and has merit.

Here you are justifying the russian invasion by claiming that the actions of the US forced them to invade. There is only one party to blame for the invasion of Ukraine and that’s the russians.

Keep in mind that most western-based pro-russian narratives typically being with “I think the invasion is bad, but…”. This is not a novel rhetorical device and it’s widely used by supporters of russian genocidal imperialism in the west.

Russia to engage in diplomacy was the correct response

What does this mean? What incentive would russia have to engage in good faith via diplomacy. You don’t understand the russian mentality if you think it will just magically happen.

Still very much looks like you’re pushing russian propaganda.

What are you on about? You don’t speak Ukrainian or russia. You’ve never lived in Ukraine or russia.

You have no idea what you’re talking about and you are openly promoting russian genocidal propaganda.

Don’t play dumb with me.

You support russian imperialism and believe the russians should have control over Ukrainian foreign policy. You admit as much by parroting russian propaganda about “NATO expansion”.

And now you are trying sow doubt about the genocidal nature of the russian invasion! Why am I not surprised?

Revealing your true colours, I see.

Russians should be able to hit Ukrainian hospitals (including children’s cancer hospitals), the Ukrainian energy system and blow up major Ukrainian dams on the Dnipro.

But Ukrainians striking with American weapons is an escalation!

Such a big fucking escalation that the world ended when Ukraine hit russian territories with western weapons!

Get fucked, russian shill!

but one can also criticize the imperialistic economic and hegemonial control the US seeks over the region, those things don’t contradict each other.

There was no legitimate criticism. It was some word salad about neoliberal world order and IMF. There were no real world references to Ukraine’s engagement with IMF.

Sure its not OK by moral standards that Russia wants to influence sovereign states for their military interest. Sadly the world doesn’t (yet) work by moral standards or international law.

Be clear about this and don’t hide in the skirts. I don’t know what part of Europe you are from, but you are deluding yourself if you think the russians would be satisfied with just Ukraine. Domination and extermination of the Baltic nations remains a key agenda for a significant majority of russians. And that’s just an “immediate” goal.

There is not a bad faith argument.

They do not believe Ukraine should have an independent foreign policy and russia should be allowed to determine what organization Ukraine is allowed to apply.

This is open support for russian imperialism.

OP supports russian propaganda narratives by justifying the russian invasion by explicitly claiming the US is responsible for escalation.

The only ones responsible for the invasion of Ukraine are the russians.

You and OP are white-washing russian genocidal imperialism.

Russia is not a member of NATO.

Stating russia should have a foreign policy veto over Ukraine is support for russian genocidal imperialism.

You are saying that Ukrainian sovereignty in all matters should be subject to russian approval.

You and OP are supporting imperialism.

By supporting a key element of russian propaganda; “NATO made me do it!”.

Attempting to white-wash russian genocidal imperialism (by blaming the US) is genocidal apologetics.

I have always maintained the position that Ukraine is fighting a war of self defense and fighting for their sovereignty. I have always maintained that Putin’s war is illegal and unjustifiable; and that what Russia should do to pull out completely and enact reparations. I have always maintained that I am in complete support of supplying arms to Ukraine, same as any other people fighting against Imperialism and/or Colonialism. I also consider Putin’s invasion justifies the need of a European security pact, although I’d prefer it to be one without the US. And yes, Putin’s war is a genocide, as multiple genocide scholars have expressed.

OP claims to support Ukrainian sovereignty, but at the same time believes that Ukrainian foreign policy should be subject to a russian veto under the auspices of “no NATO expansion”.

YTB.

You are promoting russian propaganda about NATO expansion as a justification for the invasion. This is a key element of their overall propaganda. Ukraine was neutral before the beginning of the russian invasion in 2014.

You are also essentially supporting the notion that russia’s former colonies do not have the right to self-determination.

There is a reason that the Baltic nations and former Warsaw pact countries immediately tried to join NATO as soon as possible, because unlike you, they understand what the russians are like (going into details is out of scope for this post, but in short, decades of sociological research using a wide variety of methodologies, including ones to estimate the impact of preference falsification, show a consistent strong majority support for genocidal imperialism among the russian public).

I will also point out that russian occupation is happening in countries that were not able to join NATO (Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine).

Your attitude is indeed campist. The stuff you say about “neoliberal this and that” and “IMF” is comical in context of Ukraine’s economic development.

Can you outline your argument in a clear and specific manner in your own words? This should be simple if you aren’t merely repeating copytext.

The Brendon James quote is definitely pro-russian and de facto serves as justification for the russian invasion.

Kulwin also engages in pretty typical whataboutism style justification of russian actions. EDIT: Kulwin is associated with “Chapo Trap House”.

Did the US annex Basra, steal tens of thousands of Iraqi children and send them to re-education camps were they would be forced to write letters to US military forces involved in the annexation of Basra? Did they ban Islam and and allow only US Christian churches in the newly annexed Basra? Did they ban Arabic and send anyone caught speaking Arabic into a network of torture camps? Did the Americans systematically use castration and torture against captured Iraqi soldiers trying to stop the annexation of Basra?

Do Kulwin or James speak russian or Ukrainian? Have they ever lived in russia or Ukraine?

All I am seeing is pretty lazy repetition of russian propaganda copytext. The type that is widely used by russians as justification for all their actions.

It’s fair to not tolerate propaganda in a community, even if a user genuinely believes it or claims to be acting in good faith (which may not be true).

A username such as “Keeponstalin” is also an immediate red flag.

If there are no guarantees around security, there is no point in signing a deal with the Americans.

Then of course there is the issue that the US cannot be trusted in principle…

I lived in russia for many years (as a minor), while I speak fluent russian and have an understanding of local culture, I and my family (everyone speaks russian) constantly got harassed by security goons, including some almost comical situations where their reflexive racism almost made the outcomes worse for the cops/security. There was also some really mean-spirited stuff; a completely wasted cop aggressively harassing me on a major street without any reason at all other than me walking by, I was in my pre-teens, it got to the point where his colleague had to drag him away and tell me to leave.

But it seems that the Americans (no disrespect to sane Americans) have decided to enter in a competition with the russians. Week long interment without any real reason? This is insane.

The funny thing is that I’ve also lived in the US and travelled there a lot when I moved to Canada; while there was a lot of what I call “cowboy roleplay”, it never got this bad.

This is some super fucked up shit.

Americans, you’ll need make sacrifices and deal with very difficult and scary choices if you want to deal with this and everything else that is happening in your country. Freedom isn’t a mere polemic.

Removed by mod

The US is such a corrupt country. This was basically a kangaroo court, but with typical American-style pomp and self-absorption.

No fun until it’s under 100 and stablely decreasing.

Let’s hope we can quickly scale this system.

I wouldn’t call it buyer’s remorse.

Let me share a hot take based on my experience of living in the US, Ukraine and Russia (and closely following politics).

There are two factors that are likely driving Roberts’ behaviour:

1. They need an alibi. They need something that can differentiate them from the current oligarch regime in the US. While the US is a pretty conformist country (not saying the most conformist there is, but far more conformist than the popularity of recital of freedom polemics would suggest), you always have the possibility of black swan type events. One example would be Trump and his close associates being taken down in a forceful and public manner. The judicial wing of the oligarchic regime wants a failsafe, something that would allow them to say “we are not oligarch shills, we were just following a conservative judicial philosophy, it is not our fault that it was exploited by bad actors!” They are smart enough to know that if black swan type events do happen, they often take a life of their own and all bets are off. They want an exit strategy.
2. Judicial independence. I don’t mean this in the American sense of the term. I am talking about different power centres within an oligarchic regime. Let’s take russia for example. Even though it’s a highly centralized regime, it still has different power centres. The russian central bank has a modicum of independence. Different cliques in the power structures (and there are many cliques) have their own agenda and capabilities. Regional warlords (Kadyrov being the most well know, but he is not the only one) do have some manner of leverage in the system. The oligarchs, while being banned from politics, do have freedom in how they run their businesses. The one notable example without any leverage is the russian judicial system. They are little more than rubber stamp goons with no independent power. Roberts does not want to turn into Judge Ivan of Govnogorsk. He needs to show the other power centres in America’s oligarch regime that cooperation has a price and that other thugs need to show him respect.