General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: do people today understand what war with Russia would mean? [View all]The Masked Shrike
(14 posts)Unfortunately, we can not guarantee their territory. I think the idea was to incorporate Ukraine into NATO, which was expressly formed to stop the Soviets (Russians) from taking over all of Europe. However, the Ukraine is too ethnically diverse and split politically to have formed an internal consensus to join NATO or the EU. They are split between clinging to Russia vs. stronger ties with the West. We would be intervening in a civil war. Similar to Vietnam--except with nuclear weapons. A LOT of nuclear weapons. I grew up during the cold war and nuclear war scares the beejeezus out of me. Most of Europe is not going to sacrifice angering their major energy supplier (Russia), so the US would be largely on its own. So, yes, the Ukrainians are on their own. The older I get, the more I view war as almost always making things worse.
I know US and UK diplomats made promises, but I do not believe there was a formal treaty ratified by the Senate. In all likelihood, the Ukraine will be broken up along ethnic lines, similar to a lot of eastern Europe, and then a smaller, more cohesive Ukraine could be bound more tightly to the west.