Unit2Sucks said:
Cal88 said:
blungld said:
Cal88 said:
calbear93 said:
OK, Cal88, bottom line it for us.
Give us your elevator speech.
Do you believe that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was a justified and righteous incursion?
Yes or no?
No deflection or whataboutism.
Here it is in a nutshell.
It's a civil war that has been fuelled by a nationalist ideology that is incompatible with the ethno-linguistically diverse nature of Ukraine.
The Minsk Agreements largely addressed this problem, providing some cultural autonomy for the Donbas.
Ukraine violated this agreement, largely because of the influence of ultranationalists within the Zelensky govt that forced a hardline policy and created the Donbas rebellion. This was a civil war with a strong element of ethnic cleansing.
This, along the fact that Ukraine was arming (potentially with nuclear weapons, having both the fuel and know how), precipitated the Russian invasion.
I can't call it "righteous" because it is going to result in tens, hundreds of thousands of dead, majority of them conscript hacks, but it was inevitable at that point.
The real tragedy is that it could have been easily averted with the proper handling by NATO. Instead its various governments pushed for this war, using Ukraine as a pawn to weaken Russia. Pure geoplolitics play.
Those nasty Ukranians committing crimes against humanity when properly and lawfully invaded by Russia. Thanks for posting out the real story of the region.
But now that you have served Putin well, can you just stop?
I'm sure your '93 senior year Eurail pass Summer romp in Europe provided you with a very solid understanding of European history and "the real story of the region".
Here's a question for you - can you name one country in Europe where people aren't legally allowed to work, study or hear news in their native language?
Can you do it without citing Kremlin propaganda? I didn't think so.
Quote:
During a press conference on June 6, Lavrov said Ukraine adopted "laws banning the Russian language," claiming the Russian language was prohibited in "education, the media, everyday contacts, etc." Lavrov mentioned that if English had been banned in Ireland or French in Belgium, Europe would have responded differently.
But Lavrov is mischaracterizing a Ukrainian language law. It does not ban Russian from the country.
In January 2022, a new provision of the law was introduced, under which print media outlets registered in Ukraine were required to publish in Ukrainian. This did not ban publications in other languages. Instead, the law required that all content also be published in Ukrainian.
Ukraine's language law, which has been implemented in phases, establishes Ukrainian as the country's sole state language. The law requires Ukrainian to be primarily used in business, school and media settings. However, it does not ban the use of Russian or other languages.
Shocked that you would dissemble Putin's propaganda without examination. Quelle surprise.
Politifact, lulz!
Did you even
try to do some basic research on this subject?
Here's some info from Wikipedia, a known Kremlin propaganda outlet:
"In April 2019, the Ukrainian parliament voted a new law, the
Law of Ukraine "to ensure the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the State language". On 16 June 2019, the law entered into force.
The law made the use of Ukrainian compulsory (totally or within certain quotas) in the work of some public authorities, in the electoral procedures and political campaigning, in pre-school, school and university education, in scientific, cultural and sporting activities, in book publishing and book distribution, in printed mass media, television and radio broadcasting, in economic and social life (commercial advertising, public events), in hospitals and nursing homes, and in the activities of political parties and other legal entities (e.g. non-governmental organizations) registered in Ukraine.
Some special exemptions are provided for the
Crimean Tatar language, other languages of indigenous peoples of Ukraine, the English language and the other
official languages of the European Union; as languages of minorities that are not EU official languages,
Russian, Byelorussian and Yiddish are excluded from the exemptions"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_policy_in_UkraineIn Zelensky's Ukraine, you can publish a book in English, Norvegian or Swahili, but you're not allowed to publish in Russian, the native language of a third of the country (ironically also Zelensky's mother tongue).
Any people will rise if their basic right to live in their own language and cultural norms is denied by a central government authority that intends to suppress their culture and language. Quebec would rise and immediately secede from Canada if French were outlawed by the federal Canadian government, no ifs, ands or buts.
There is no other country in the so-called free world that throttles the rights of an established, large minority to the same extent that Ukraine does.
This is a very basic facet of the Ukraine conflict that is totally left out of the official narrative.