So Ukraine has turned into a shit show with on the one hand Russia and on the other hand the US and EU. It is clear that Ukraine is merely a pawn in their chess game. This is clear to me.
I try to make it clear to my surroundings too but one question keeps coming back to me whenever it comes to peace talks: what about what Ukrainians want? Should they accept a split in their country with Russia seizing captured land?
I noticed that I do not have a clear answer to this and I wanted to see some input from you guys. Peace talks should imo be the goal as it would be the end to a bloody conflict and it would further (even if slightly) reduce risk for a bigger war. But it is also clear that Ukraine is just a pawn in those peace talks and everything will be decided between the US and Russia. Is it realistic to acknowledge Ukrainian interest in this? And if so, to what extent can leftist support said interests?
Thank you in advance for your answers. It might make it easier for me to go against the warmongering that has been going on lately, and to prevent people close to me from falling for it.
The ukrainian people chose, multiple times I must say, neutrality (which is the best case scenario for everyone except the US empire). The thing is their leadership has been coopted by literal nazis, so they ban russian language, genocide etnic russians and try to join NATO.
But I wouldn’t expect an end to this conflict where Ukraine simply ceases to exist. Even a maximalist view where Russia imposes whatever on Ukraine I’d expect them to take everything east of the Dniper + mykolaev + Odessa at most.
That said ukrainians’ right to self determination doesn’t trump other people’s that live there. And if they want to live peacefully, then maybe stop being a battering ram on Russia would go a long way.