President Zelensky reiterated his readiness to have a face-to-face sit-down with his Russian counterpart. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Kyiv has proposed to Moscow a new round of peace talks next week, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on July 19, hours after Russian strikes across Ukraine claimed more lives.

  • Richard Wonka@mas.to
    3·
    2 days ago

    @Saleh
    You are conflating so many things that it’s hard to keep up.

    The cold war was a different situation, but yes, the US are an international bully and will invade you for their own gain.

    That doesn’t mean Russia has a right to invade any other country.

    That doesn’t mean that Hungary has a right to install authoritarian rule when it signed into a fundamentally democratic EU.

    Russia is breaking international law.

    The US have been breaking international law.

    Neither of those are ok.

    • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
      21·
      2 days ago

      The question is, whether Russia is “right” to feel threatened, not whether the consequent actions were right.

      The comment i replied to outright denied Russia to be allowed to feel threatened and ridiculed it.

      And this why we keep getting into escalations. We deny other countries security interests, while declaring ours as righteous.

      • Richard Wonka@mas.to
        1·
        2 days ago

        @Saleh I’m trying to think of an instance when NATO was used as an excuse for an invasion from any side other than Russia’s invasion by Ukraine.

        The US have reliably made up their own excuses for their transgressions. I can’t currently remember them using NATO as an excuse.

        I honestly don’t see how NATO membership is a threat.

        Can it be construed as one? Surely - as much as one can find “weapons of mass destruction” when squinting hard enough. But that is then again not related to NATO.

        • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
          21·
          2 days ago

          https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia–NATO_relations#Founding_Act

          In 1999, Russia condemned the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia,[54][55] which was done without a prior authorization by the United Nations Security Council, required by the international law.[56] For many in Moscow, a combination of NATO’s incorporation of Eastern Europe and its military attack on sovereign Yugoslavia exposed American promises of Russia’s inclusion into a new European security architecture as a deceit. Yeltsin’s critics said: ‘Belgrade today, Moscow tomorrow!’ [23]

          …

          A drastic reversal in the US and NATO policy toward Russia occurred in December 2001. Most importantly, the US unilaterally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia in 2001–2002, which was followed by the US signing bilateral agreements with Poland and Romania (with NATO support) to build ballistic missile defense (BMD) systems in their territories, against Russian wishes. Although none of these events depended on NATO enlargement - not even the agreement to build BMD sites in Romania and Poland, given that the United States also has bilateral BMD equipment arrangements with a wide variety of non-NATO members (including Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates) - this withdrawal was interpreted by the Russian political elite, and by many Western political scientists, as US exploitation of political and military weakness in Russia at the time, and led to the loss of Russia’s trust in America’s political intentions.[23]

          The US also called article 5 after 9/11 and the Afghanistan invasion was a “NATO and friends” mission. Also the Iraq invasion was done by various NATO members, even if it wasnt formally a NATO mission. However even countries not involved in the fightinf were provising logistics such as Germany.

          • Richard Wonka@mas.to
            11·
            2 days ago

            @Saleh so your argument is:

            Russia wanted other sovereign countries to do its bidding, but they didn’t comply.

            Saying that’s NATO’s fault is the political equivalent for throwing your toys out the pram.

            Saleh, you are disqualifying yourself from the discussion.

            Other countries don’t have to comply with Russia’s wishes. And if they don’t, Russia still doesn’t get to invade them.