" I watched Putin standing at the memorial to bygone soldiers."
You can watch him again, cuz he's saying, "Bye, gone" to about 1000 / day.
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" I thought USA super duper whiz bang clever war machinery would beat Russia's less advanced equipment"
If Ukraine's WBCWM can beat Russia, ours prolly can, too, but nobody is anxious to put that to the test.
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"I believe Russia will escalate as much as it takes to stop the onslaught."
Here's an idea; how about de-escalating by removing all your troops from Ukraine? That will end the conflict.
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"I recommend Luhansk, Donetsk, Crimea etc are now Russia provinces"
I recommend withdrawing your troops back to your own country.
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"I suggest it's better to not go MAD"
Next time you see Putin or the folks at RT, tell them that, cuz they're the only ones talking about using nukes.
Ukraine got a signed commitment in 1994 to ensure its security – but can the US and allies stop Putin’s aggression now? (theconversation.com)
Ukraine as an independent state was born from the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Its independence came with a complicated Cold War inheritance: the world’s third-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. Ukraine was one of the three non-Russian former Soviet states, including Belarus and Kazakhstan, that emerged from the Soviet collapse with nuclear weapons on its territory.
The U.S., in a burst of diplomatic energy and at a time of unmatched global influence, worked to prevent the unprecedented collapse of a nuclear superpower from leading to history’s largest proliferation of nuclear weapons.
This diplomatic activity manifested in security assurances for Ukraine embedded in what has become known as the Budapest Memorandum. With the entrance of Ukraine into the international order as a non-nuclear state, Russia, the U.S. and the U.K. pledged to “respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.” The memo reaffirmed their obligation to “refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine.” The signatories also reaffirmed their commitment to “seek immediate” UN Security Council action “to provide assistance to Ukraine … if Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression.” These assurances upheld obligations contained in the U.N. charter and the 1975 Helsinki Final Act. |
