Comments by "Tim Smith" (@timonsolus) on "Ukraine can’t deliver ‘knockout blow’ to Putin unless military aid increases" video.

@livingtribunal4110 : Russia regards the presence of any post-Soviet state in NATO as unacceptable. That means the 3 Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - must either withdraw from NATO and declare neutrality, or risk being invaded.
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Wrong. This is what the Budapest Memorandum actually says: "1. Respect the signatory's independence and sovereignty in the existing borders (in accordance with the principles of the CSCE Final Act). 2. Refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of the signatories to the memorandum, and undertake that none of their weapons will ever be used against these countries, except in cases of self-defense or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. 3. Refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by Ukraine, the Republic of Belarus and Kazakhstan of the rights inherent in its sovereignty and thus to secure advantages of any kind. 4. Seek immediate UN Security Council action to provide assistance to the signatory if they "should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used". 5. Not to use nuclear weapons against any non - nuclear-weapon state party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, except in the case of an attack on themselves, their territories or dependent territories, their armed forces, or their allies, by such a state in association or alliance with a nuclear weapon state. 6. Consult with one another if questions arise regarding those commitments. So nowhere does the Budapest Memorandum commit the US and UK to defending Ukraine WITHOUT a UN Security Council Resolution (which would never happen as Russia would veto it).
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@МногоХочешьНаглыйГугл : Ukraine didn't complete all its obligations under the Minsk accords, because Russia wasn't doing so. Russia was supposed to withdraw all its troops and heavy weapons from Donbas, and refused to do so - lying through his teeth, Putin claimed that all the troops and heavy weapons in Donbas belonged to the Donbas separatists, the DPR and LPR - when in fact they were nearly all Russian.
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@mattburns8839 : To both Democrats and Republicans, Ukraine’s survival is less important than winning the 2024 election. Simple as that.
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@KIZMET3001 : Lol, the UK hasn’t been the world’s biggest bully since the 18th Century. Losing the American War of Independence was the beginning of the end for the British Empire.
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@livingtribunal4110 : Because Putin wants the 3 Baltic States and Finland to leave NATO. If Trump wins the US election and pulls the USA out of NATO, and Russia wins the Ukraine war and annexes the whole country, then Moldova is next, and the Baltic states after that if they refuse to leave NATO.
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@prsimoibn2710 : That's all Putin wants FOR THE MOMENT... while he spends a few years rebuilding his depleted army.
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@solconcordia4315 : Sad but true. The USA went crazy after 9/11 and launched 2 unnecessary invasions - one against Afghanistan in 2001 and one against Iraq in 2003. All that was needed to get the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden was a bombing campaign like the one against Yugoslavia in 1999 - the Taliban had almost no air defence in 2001. And Saddam Hussein was only interested in staying in power, not in using WMDs. Now, because of the 20 year disaster of Afghanistan, the USA is too politically weak and divided to stand up to Russia and save Ukraine, and China is feeling encouraged to attack Taiwan.
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@livingtribunal4110 : Russia regards the presence of any post-Soviet state in NATO as unacceptable. That means the 3 Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - must either withdraw from NATO and declare neutrality, or risk being invaded.
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@SM-fk5or : Russian military actions, including the First Chechen War, were among the factors driving Central and Eastern European countries, particularly those with memories of similar Soviet offensives, to push for NATO application and ensure their long-term security. When Poland and the Baltic States joined NATO, there was no movement of US forces into those countries. That only happened after the Russian occupation and illegal annexation of Crimea. Therefore Ukrainian accession to NATO did not previously imply immediate deployment of US forces in Ukraine - not until the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Now it would be unavoidable. However, even now, US forces permanently deployed in Ukraine would be nowhere near strong enough to conduct an invasion of Russia on the same scale as Russia’s ‘Special Military Operation’. That’s not US policy. Instead, US forces would have the same function as they do in the Baltic States and Poland - to help train local forces, and stiffen their resistance capabilities to a Russian invasion in the event of war. So NATO doesn’t pose an existential threat to Russia. The reason Russia hates NATO is because NATO prevents Russian revanchist imperialism, the rebuilding of a Russian empire, and the re-establishment of Russian dominance over Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Russia wants to turn the clock back to the 1970’s when the USSR and the Warsaw Pact was stronger than NATO.
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@miah146 : No it doesn’t, because it is the aggressor and not the defender
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@livingtribunal4110 : Far more than you.
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@miah146 : No it can’t, because NATO has never attacked Russia. You can’t defend against an attack that hasn’t happened.
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@miah146 : Too early to say that yet. Zelensky might make a deal with the West - Ukraine agreeing to a ceasefire with Russia and Ukrainian recognition of Russian sovereignty over the currently occupied territories, in exchange for fast-tracked NATO membership.
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@miah146 : Yes they are, since Biden is getting desperate for a solution to the Ukraine crisis before the 2024 US election.
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@borisreljanovic7292 : If Ukraine had doubts about its security, it shouldn’t have agreed to give up its nuclear weapons. But Ukraine had a pro-Russian president at the time.
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@r200ti : No, they were SOVIET nukes - and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (founded 1919) was one of the 4 founding members of the Soviet Union (founded 1922). So they were Ukrainian nukes, not Russian, since Ukraine is a post-Soviet state, like Russia itself. Russia is trying to rewrite Soviet history, but it won’t succeed. The world knows the full truth of the USSR.
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@keithswaddling2370 : Yes - a stab in the back by Russia, not by the West.
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