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Comment by jacknews

14 days ago

Ukraine is very clearly a proxy war between NATO and Russia, merely framed as a plucky country defending it's sovereignty, though it is that too, of course.

With all the backlash here, I feel like some kind of radical, but here is a BBC article from 2 DAYS AGO that basically says what I'm saying: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2nrlq1840o

Although they miss out the bit about a media campaign, and so on, of course.

This is the BBC, pretty much the mouthpiece of the UK government.

And although they frame recent actions as trying to give Ukraine an advantage in any Trump negotiations with Russia, the truth is that these missiles will probably not advance Ukraine's military position, but will certainly change Europe and America's standing, possibly to the point of derailing any possibility of negotiation.

> though [Ukraine] is [a plucky country defending it's sovereignty] too, of course

No "too"

It is only that.

If Russia retreated behind its internationally recognized borders and returned Crimea today, Ukraine would stop attacking it today.

That tells you everything you need to know about who the aggressor and escalator is in this conflict.

Anything else is a Russian talking point in service to their trying to lose fewer troops while invading a neighboring country.

  • [flagged]

    • > yeah, fook off, you have nothing to say.

      Oh, sorry, I was under the impression you wanted a discussion.

      > edit: oh dear, a few people on HN really do not like this take, without offering any take-down

      If you just wanted to complain, but not have anyone challenge your opinions, you should have phrased the above differently.

      3 replies →

Your link backs up what people here are trying to get across to you:

> Russia has set out “red lines” before. Some, including providing modern battle tanks and fighter jets to Ukraine, have since been crossed without triggering a direct war between Russia and Nato.

This is the latest of a long list of small, slow, racheting-up responses to unilateral Russian aggression. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_lines_in_the_Russo-Ukraini...

  • no.

    And no-one has been 'getting anything across to me', inferring that I'm 'not getting it'. They've been throwing incomplete or irrational arguments, like yours, or simply downvoting.

    Sure there have been 'red lines' by Russia, and the US has continuously pushed across them.

    But this one was also a US 'red line'. Consistent with keeping a proxy-war in-theater.

    Why have they crossed it, now?

    What do they hope it will achieve?

    Most likely very little militarily.

    But maybe quite a lot in shaping or constraining future US policy.

    • > But this one was also a US 'red line'. Consistent with keeping a proxy-war in-theater. Why have they crossed it, now?

      For the same reason they crossed all the others - continued Russian aggression.

      Each expansion of US aid or reduction in restrictions on how that aid is utilized has followed logically from Russian actions. Obama started with non-lethal aid; we've initially balked at every single step since that before eventually going "ok, now it's warranted".

      It's very clear the US is keeping responses small and incremental to take the wind out of Russian bluster about nuclear holocaust if they do this one more little thing to piss Putin off. It's also very clear the Russian "no don't send Javelins/HIMARS/Patriots/Abrams/MiGs/F-16s/ATACMS, we'll be very mad" has lost a lot of its potency.

      5 replies →

Here is a BBC article from 2 DAYS AGO that basically says what I'm saying

Which says nothing at all about the conflict being "a proxy war".