re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

The GOP’s Pro-Russia Caucus Lost. Now Ukraine Has to Win.
Once U.S. money starts flowing again, the dynamics of the war will change.

By Anne Applebaum

From the first days of the 2022 Russian invasion, President Vladimir Putin has been trying to conquer Ukraine through psychological games as well as military force. He needed to persuade Americans, Europeans, and above all Ukrainians that victory was impossible, that the only alternative was surrender, and that the Ukrainian state would disappear in due course.

Plenty of Americans and Europeans, though not so many Ukrainians, supported this view. Pro-Russia influencers—Tucker Carlson, J. D. Vance, David Sacks—backed up by an army of pro-Russia trolls on X and other social-media platforms, helped feed the narrative of failure and convinced a minority in Congress to block aid for Ukraine.

But with the passage of this aid bill, Russia’s demoralization campaign has suffered a severe setback. This is also a setback for the Russian war effort, and not only because the Ukrainians will now have more ammunition. Suddenly the Russian military and Russian society are once again faced with the prospect of a very long war. Ukraine, backed by the combined military and economic forces of the United States and the European Union, is a much different opponent than Ukraine isolated and alone.

Once the aid package becomes law this week, the psychological advantage will once again be on our side. Let’s use it. As Johnson himself recommended, the Biden administration should immediately pressure European allies to release the $300 billion in Russian assets that they jointly hold and send it to Ukraine. There are excellent legal and moral arguments for doing so—the money can legitimately be considered a form of reparations. This shift would also make clear to the Kremlin that it has no path back to what used to be called “normal” relations, and that the price Russia is paying for its colonial war will only continue to grow.

The Atlantic

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You either respect and adhere to international law, or you don't.

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Borders are an expression of geography, culture (identity), and ultimately power.

Russia is in a position to decide where Russia ends and where Ukraine begins here. The biggest factor is their overwhelming military advantage, but geography and culture also weight in their favor too. There’s no mountain chain here to delineate the border. And the Russian identity continues to resonate with people, especially in places like Kharkov and Odessa.

We can talk about rules, but we haven’t cared about those in a long time, and we’re also not in a position to enforce them, so it just makes us look weak when we talk about them. We also can’t inflict sufficient pain on Russia to make the war fruitless for them.

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Russia is in a position to decide where Russia ends and where Ukraine begins here. The biggest factor is their overwhelming military advantage, but geography and culture also weight in their favor too. There’s no mountain chain here to delineate the border. And the Russian identity continues to resonate with people, especially in places like Kharkov and Odessa.

We can talk about rules, but we haven’t cared about those in a long time, and we’re also not in a position to enforce them, so it just makes us look weak when we talk about them. We also can’t inflict sufficient pain on Russia to make the war fruitless for them.

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You cannot be real.

Even a child in grammar school understands that just because you want something, and you're bigger and meaner, it doesn't mean it's OK to just take it. Should Brazil take over its neighbors because it's the biggest country and the strongest army in South America?

I guess it's OK for China to start absorbing Vietnam and Korea and Singapore. And take Japan while they're at it?

You are professing an adherence to Might Makes Right, and just take by force. That would be a recipe for another round of world conflicts that would end in nuclear annihilation for everyone.

You can't really mean that. No one with any sense or recognition of right or wrong could actually espouse this nonsense.

You're either a paid troll farm bot, or a psychopath. There's no real middle ground here.

The lunatic warmongers have sunk to quoting the propaganda at the Atlantic.

Is there a floor to how far they can sink?

We'll see I guess.

Clark is generally a reliable and knowledgeable source of information and analysis for this war. I think he's badly misread Trump however.

Professor Michael Clark on Ukraine

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This caught my eye from your article. It went on but I wasn't able to read the whole thing.

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It seems to be in front of The Atlantic paywall. I can read the whole article. That's all I know..

Same link

In case someone isn't familiar with the author of the article Anne Applebaum

Among her other credentials...

In November 2022, Applebaum was one of 200 US citizens sanctioned by Russia for "promotion of the Russophobic campaign and support for the regime in Kyiv."[44]

You don't think that's what he was trying to say?

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Russia is in a position to decide where Russia ends and where Ukraine begins here. The biggest factor is their overwhelming military advantage

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Juat read what he wrote. He's spewing Kremlin talking points verbatim.

Has been for a long time

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There are no LEGITIMATE reasons short of being overtly threatened.

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So every war we've been in since WW2 wasn't justified on our part?

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Russia invaded in 2014 because their stooge got the boot and they saw a chance for a major land grab. They were never threatened.

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You wouldn't see losing a pro-US Mexican government to a pro-Russia one as a threat? Not to our existence necessarily, but to our interests it absolutely would be.

I just think its a little tone deaf as an American since our policy has been that no other power should interfere in our entire HEMISPHERE at all, but you can't even just kind of a tincy-weency bit understand why Russia wouldn't want a NATO country at its border?

And understanding doesn't equal absolving of blame, or that they shouldn't face consequences, and it certainly isn't blaming Ukraine.