Look at Ukraine's economy, and how "great" it did after couple decades of close relations with Russia.I think it's definitely possible that that fewer Ukrainians wanted to be in the EU than the 'official' poll's from the time suggest. Particularly when it comes to the citizens of eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine is not the UK, it would not go into the EU with the perspective of being a net payer yet not listened to in anything.
Better off in what? Letting Russia know that all neighboring countries that aren't in NATO yet are fair game, so get them quick while you still can?As well, given that Brexit happened and why, I'm not sure the EU is something sane people want to join.
I think Ukraine is/was a corruption ridden shithole, that has been been run roughshod over by it's neighbors (not just Russia, looking at you Poland, and of course the Mongol's ran through there back in the day as well), and that the US and West would have been better off not getting involved with Ukraine in the first place.
Welp, they have their interests too.They've gone bad and cost US civies, or dragged us into fights we had no need to be in, too many times.
Also, SK took the US civie ship building industry and plays a game with their northern neighbor to bilk aid out of US and China, and Taiwan tries to hold us hostage to their tech fab industry.
Still, if they didn't exist, you still wouldn'd dodge the other problems with China, and would have to deal with them while short 2 fortresses/unsinkable aircraft carriers.
Great strategic mind right there.
Now that's just hindsight abuse. You are proposing something even beyond what MacArthur wanted, and he was considered a crazy warmonger by his historical peers. And in his case that would be in alliance with South Korea, which you scoff at.Both are situations where older gens could have killed the CCP in the crib, but chose not too, and the younger gens are paying for their mistake, and are being forced to abide the games both SK and Taiwan play in their hostage situations.
I call it a good start. Western narrative crafters have a long way to go in learning to ignore the "muh neonazis" more. Tiny little groups of them get so much attention.This isn't about a purity spiral, it's about how the Western narrtive around Ukraine ignores the Neo-Nazi issue and how corrupt Ukraine's govs have been, and the risks accosiated with possibly engageing actual Russian troops in combat if NATO forces enter Ukraine.
Western narrative needs to care much more about commies and islamists, proportionally to how many there are.
So was I. There is a reason why Russia is so widely disliked among its direct western neighbor, its not just 1 or 2 countries with their odd beef, its vast majority of them. If they had so much legit reasoning, they wouldn't have such a low opinion among so many of their direct neighbors. Even Germany has a better one, and they had the fucking Nazis!I am someone able to look at a larger picture than the US MIC wants the public to look at, and acknowledge facts that are incovienent to the narrative of Western powers, because I was born after the Cold War ended, and do not automatically assume Russia never has any legit points or reasons.
Again with the Kremlin line. What bloody weapons? Where? Where are the secret NATO first strike weapons in Latvia then? Just 600km to Moscow, as opposed to 500km from Ukraine.After all, the underlying point of NATO's eastward push is to put weapons closer and closer to Moscow, for first strike use, even if no NATO politician or military leader will admit it.
If that was NATO's plan, who cares about Ukraine, should have been holding Moscow hostage with Latvia nukes since almost 2 decades.