I want to know exactly what his stated reason for starting the war is. I can only find excerpts, and I distrust western news.
>>1545391kys, nazi
>>1545394I don't know if this is ironic, or meta-ironic, but I found it anyway. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/67828
basically this is why, I think
>>1545396but also this, it seems to be a combination of the two most parroted reasons, the anti-side giving greed for land, the pro-side giving the atrocities in donbass
>>1545391OP,I know this is partially off-topic,but this conflict comes down to military needs and the desire for a quick cash grab.Putin doesn't decide everything he's usually just a spokesperson for the elites,he doesn't rule everything single-handedly(although he has power to do so),Kremlin has "towers"of influence,Crimea occupation had happened because military faction was not decisive enough at the time of 2013 to fully make a decision of full invasion in Ukraine,war faction lost and they were suggested a compromise,I don't remember exactly why they didn't like Kharkov pact but there were some concerns about fully owning a peninsula,so it was first mistake,had they started rolled through Ukraine back then,they couldn't be stopped.Then there was a lot of consequences - they lost influence in SBU(it got purged),took a largest blow in HUMINT,KGB influence sphere(which gave the US a lot of information on the inner workings of agent networks)and lost their puppets like AZOV battalion,radicals and nationalist realized that switching sides would be much more profitable.Then they made their largest mistake - when they prepared their plan of attack on Ukraine in 2018,US already sent a lot of equipment like radios and javelins to the AFU,and when they decided to execute the plan in 2021 I thought they were insane,with only half a million of troops they planned to execute of full occupation,I think they were thinking with their asses at the time or they were completely braindead,I don't know for sure,it didn't help that Putin by himself"suggested"to split frontlines into three - south,west,north, many people were against it,including me.With already low manpower it was such an idiotic task,Instead of putting competent people in leadership positions,they were chosen based on how"devoted"they were to the elites and Putin himself,so they put convenient people that listens orders from presidential administration in lieu of people who oppose dumb ideas from politicians.
>>1545529Thanks for the explanation anon, coming down to military needs, desire of the elites makes a little more sense, given he starts talking about history 100 years past to justify it in his speech. I think I understand this subject a little better, thank you.
>>1545529this is alot of the internal intrigue about the timing, but not so much in terms of the raison d'être>>1545532in practical turns, the peninsula represents water access thats available year round/doesnt freeze over. critical for commerce, but also deep sea navy power projection. also, there is lots of fertile farmland, and access to other nations logistically that are more developed thru Ukraine. but of course none of that is stated reasoning. That basically seems to amount to "it was always part of Russia, its historical creation involved major disenfranchisement of a population, there are nazis gaining political power in Ukraine unchecked, the people in this one region have no political power despite being a majority in the territory and so have no representation, and its nobody else's business what we do to secure our interests" have all come up at one point.
>>1545675I know. I tried to cram as much of information as possible in one post(2000 symbols) so the OP could deduce the rest. I didn't want to write tomes answering "why" because understanding it requires knowing a lot of information. Yes, the Sevastopol naval base was one of the concerns, but it was cause, not a reason. The main issue was the rising US influence, they didn't want to allow US influence, they had absolutely no problem with Ukraine's existence before, only when US moved their agents into Ukraine and Moldova and started forcing their influence did the elites in Russia start ringing their alarms to evacuate their golden geese. After November 2003, Putin absolutely hated that his sphere of influence was attacked by the US despite a verbal agreement not to push eastward, he could slightly tolerate expansion in the former warsaw pact countries, but not the former USSR, he thought it was his personal playground and so he felt personally attacked. In his 2007 Munich speech he criticized the idea of trusting the US, he tried to find allies that also hate this(but he wasn't unable to find anyone in Europe to oppose US influence, Brussels had a deep grasp on everyone), he thought before that they would "play fair" and won't abuse vacuum of power after dissolution of USSR and was pissed off that they actually did. The Ukraine conflict is essentially a clash of influences with some side quests like making a quick land grab in order for oligarchs to take factories and make themselves richer. As for the US, they did it to prevent RU from becoming a global player instead of regional one, a Russia-Ukraine-Belarus alliance would be a much scarier enemy to fight to, so they used cheap tricks in order to prevent it, like old trusty radicals and nationalists CIA connections in Ukraine with Nazi-collaborators(like UPA) since 1947(1957?don't remember) and a cultural war via globalism(essentially replacing the culture of an enemy country with the US's preferred culture).
>>1545777but it was an effect, not a cause*>>1545675>>1545397The "Ukraine has always been part of Russia" rhetoric is bullshit even if it is factually true, and they know it. They use this reasoning to appeal to uninformed citizens and shape their mindset around their goals because, for numerous reasons, they can't openly say, "We hate the US for taking our toys, so you must die for our noble causes. We will also openly oppose the US and their influence, so a new Cold War is guaranteed." No one likes the truth, especially the US. That's why efforts are being made to brainwash average citizens so their goals can be inherited.
