Individual,

I think that "balance of power" has meaning when you want to curtail the aggression of a rogue state. Having the rogue states of Germany and Japan transformed into liberal democracies I see as positives. Further, having east and west Germany unite did not create the conditions for the degeneration of world order.

How would having the aggression of a rogue state like Russia curtailed lead to destabilisation of the world? I don't view the wanton murder of tens of thousands of Ukranian citizens as a legitimate action of Russia. I think it more a narrative invented by Russian cleptocrats in a similar vein as the Nazi narrative to justify invading Poland. There seems to be a narrative currently that liberal democracies will naturally degenerate into fascist states. So much for that narrative!

Fester,
How about putting a question to those Ukrainian power mongers who were vying for Western power mongers' favours to line their pockets. Ask them if they still think it wise to continue their stance & keep sacrificing more ordinary Ukrainians ?
Is ideology & greed really more important than the loss of thousands of lives in Ukraine & the risk of a WW3 ?

mox

It is refreshing to see that at least someone here has taken the time to read and understand the history of what is taking place in Ukraine.

You are right ... two decades of NATO's aggressive eastward expansion ... the US-orchestrated coup and overthrow of government in 2014 ... and Ukraine's subsequent refusal to honour the Minsk Agreements ... are indeed the reasons which have forced Russia into finally resorting to military action. Putin has tried repeatedly over many years to negotiate with US-led NATO, only to have his every attempt rejected or ignored.

The US knew Russia would not stand being pushed around for ever, but still it kept up its relentless provocation and bullying ... until it finally got the response it wanted. And it certainly won't back off now. Biden will continue pushing every lever he can until US plans for regime change in Russia have been achieved.

Putin is no madman. His objectives are clear and specific. He does not want to occupy Ukraine, nor any other country in Europe. He is standing up for Russia's sovereign right to live freely without being subjected to threatening military installations along its borders.

Russia has expressed its willingness to negotiate with Ukraine ever since it began its military action. If Zelenskyy can resume negotiating in good faith and if the Western world can stop flooding Ukraine with weapons, there is every hope a settlement will be reached.

Putin never had any plan to invade western Europe, and do you know why I know that?
Because you can't take Kiev with a population of 2 million people with 40,000 troops.
The objective was to split Ukrainian forces and hold them in place in separate parts of the country.

That's why they came in from the north;
That's why they also attacked Odessa from the Black Sea
It's a military strategy to keep troops in place, not take over the country.
Then they bomb the the oil refineries.
Ukrainian forces cant move without fuel
So now Russia can more easily take the eastern part of the country - which was their objective all along.

Putin's actually been using a velvet glove, he deliberately went in soft to spare civilians, but with faked atrocities and western media lies and narrative you don't understand that.

If he went in hard, he would've bombed every bridge, every tv station, all road and rail lines, power, internet, and then he would've ran over the country much faster, but there would be a lot more civilian casualties.
He doesn't want that, because the eastern part of the country is pro-Russian.
Ukrainian forces hold up in apartment buildings because it gives a good view of incoming Russia forces, and attacks on citizens can be claimed when really Russia is attacking the military assets.

He even leaves TV stations up so Zelensky can beg military help that results in dead Russians.
And the western news narrative and people like you says he wants to take over western Europe but has stalled because his forces are weak, that's not the true picture here.

The Minsk agreements failed, when Ukraine kept attacking the separatists region.

Putin didn't send forces into Ukraine until Luhansk and Donetsk claimed independence (which they have a right to do under UN Charter Article 1)
- and then formally asked to become part of the Russian Federation.

It was approved by the Russian Duma.
At this point Donetsk and Luhansk are now technically Russian territory.
(Only the west and its vassal states including ours don't recognise it)

Now if you consider them independent states, they don't have a recognised right of self defense / or collective self defense as Russia enacted in Syria because they are not member of the UN.

But there's a clause.
Russia (party to collective self-defense) is a part of the UN, which means that clause is nullified.

Next you have a right of nations (and there is a precedent for it in International law) to pre-empt any attack which is unavoidable.
This gives Russia a legal right to attack Ukrainian forces if there is unavoidable and imminent threat to those people and regions.

Which makes Russia's entire war in Ukraine LEGAL, as per international law.

There's only 2 outcomes Ukraine is destroyed, or they reach a negotiated settlement but the United States does not want peace.
It wants to keep the war going as long as possible to weaken Russia.
Peter Bowden, stop listening to western lies.

US is happy to fight to the last conscripted Ukrainian.
How do you think the Taiwanese will see this?
- Whats going to happen to them in coming years? -

Think about the Russian culture.

Every year on 9 May, Russia observes Victory Day as its most important national holiday. It celebrates the end of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) by staging events that dwarf those of any other country. In 2021, the performance in Moscow included 12,000 Russian troops marching through Red Square, followed by tanks and missile launchers, and it concluded with an aerial show of 76 jets and helicopters—one for every year since the victory over Nazi Germany.

This holiday is designed above all to remind the world of the enormous contributions Russia made in the Great Patriotic War. A few surviving veterans attend the event as a reminder that the Red Army inflicted nearly 90% of all Germany’s combat losses, and civilians across the country solemnly commemorate the 27 million Soviet citizens who died.

So how do you think Russia feels about a Ukraine which is run by NAZIs and in league with the United States, which will potentially have US bases under NATO membership and nuclear weapons 600klms from Moscow?

What Russia wants is for Ukraine to be like Mexico.
Mexico has its own government and rules, but the US most certainly would invade them if Mexicans decided to make a military pack with China and the Chinese started building military bases there.

Russia wants demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine, nothing more nothing less.