The European Union is preparing its 17th package of sanctions against Russia amid Moscow’s demands for lifting some Western restrictions as part of its ceasefire terms, EUobserver reported on March 27, citing four unnamed EU diplomats.
Because of my pro-Russian views regarding this conflict, I don’t consider this good news.
However, many of you would likely welcome this development.
As long as you are against the war, against the invasion of Ukraine, even if you are pro-russia, we may discuss and agree on things.
After 3 years of senseless war, you must agree it was a bad thing that russia started this war, bad both for Ukraine and for russia.
Also, thanks for the sources you provided … i will check them out :
MediaZona and Oryx
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediazonahttps://en.zona.media/article/2025/03/28/casualties_eng-trl
Russian losses in the war with Ukraine. Mediazona count, updated
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Mediazona, in collaboration with BBC News Russian service and a team of volunteers, maintains a named list of deceased Russian military personnel.
100 k to 265 k
(…while Ministry of defense of Ukraine estimates is around 900,000)
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oryx_(website)
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https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/
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https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/2022/02/attack-on-europe-documenting-equipment.html?m=1
.My opinion on the Special Military Operation is that I understand completely why Russia started it.
But yes, good choice it was not.
It led to many horrendous crimes such as Russia’s war crimes that are Bucha and Izium massacres.
But also massacres in Kursk region conducted by Ukraine.
Both Russian and Ukrainian war crimes such as those simply would not have happened had SMO not happen, as much as Zelenskyy had to do with provoking Russia by not implementing Minsk II, it was Putin’s decision in the end to send troops into Ukraine.
We do agree that the war is bad and we do agree why it is bad.
We will not agree on the causes of the war - - it will take many, many years of peace, for the fog of war to dissipate, on both sides, before we see what really happened.There are probably very interesting things in the archives of both sides that wouldn’t be known until long after the conflict is over so yes.
as much as Zelenskyy had to do with provoking Russia by not implementing Minsk II
You don’t invade other countries for not signing deals. You have absolutely no right to pin this on Zelensky. He didn’t want a war.
He didn’t want a war.
You are right on this, initially at least. He campaigned to end conflict in fact.
However, the Ukrainian government made no effort to implement Minsk II. Minsk II was an agreement made after both sides violated Minsk I to death and it came after Russian forces attacked Ukrainian forces at Debaltseve in 2014 and 15.
Minsk explicity stated that elections come first and then withdrawal. Ukraine wanted Russia to withdraw first before allowing elections in the DPR and LPR which was against the agreement.
Ukraine also had the obligation to uphold linguistic rights to ethnic minorities but violated the Minsk Agreements with the 2019 language law which didn’t outright ban the Russian language but did discriminate against those who did not speak Ukrainian or an EU language.
Zelenskyy initially did campaign on a pro-peace platform but he was quickly pressured by far right militias to do otherwise as Zelenskyy would be met with something very grave, Azovite neo-Nazis who would threaten Zelenskyy and Azov and other veterans would sabotage Zelenskyy’s peace initiative with their ‘no to capitulation’ campaign.
Actually regarding the elections, Europe actually persuaded Ukraine to withdraw the law that prevented elections a month before the invasion during the 26 January 2022 Normandy Format meeting.
Problem was that Russia received no words about Ukraine’s readiness to swiftly start the implementation of the Minsk agreements.
In fact, Zelenskyy himself would even eventually admit that he never intended to implement Minsk.
It seems Ukraine’s failure to implement Minsk Agreement was the main cause of the invasion and this seems also likely from a realist perspective but it also does not mean it was the right thing to do.
You can claim that Zelenskyy not implementing Minsk Agreement did not give Russia the right to invade Ukraine, you would be right on this. But you have to admit that because of his failure to implement Minsk, invasion was made more likely.
