Comments by "Tim Trewyn" (@timtrewyn453) on "European Union will send our money to Ukraine" video.

  1. Ukraine and the United States did a very nice thing for Russia back in 1994. Rather than help defend Ukraine by reworking its Soviet nuclear weapons into Ukrainian nuclear weapons, Ukraine, the US, and the UK offered the Soviet weapons to Russia in exchange for a Russian security assurance to respect Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity. What a lovely gesture of peace that was to Russia . . . the rest is history. No good deed goes unpunished.
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  2.  @okene  I've heard this before and it doesn't make sense. Even if true, soldiers guarding "fields" eventually go home after their tour is up. Ukraine was not obliged to let their replacements into the country. Launching communications can be disconnected. Ukraine has good scientists and engineers and the US and UK have all the tools to remanufacture Soviet nuclear weapons into Ukrainian nuclear weapons. What Russia has done is can result in the expansion of Western European nuclear arsenals. The invasion of Ukraine has put Europe on a hair-trigger. It appears that is the way Russia wants it to be.
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  3.  @okene  Thank you for a thoughtful comment. The nuclear arsenals of the US and Russia are a bone of contention. They impose a slight but enduring stability. It is possible a Ukrainian arsenal might have done the same thing. I propose that Sevastopol and navy surface ships in the Black Sea have lost value. Land based and unmanned forces have demonstrated higher levels of surface ship vulnerability. Truck mounted and aircraft mounted long-range weapons informed by reconnaissance drones will continue to improve and force an unproductive investment in a fleet that would need to be larger to defend itself. The asymmetry needs to be reduced by using smaller, less expensive, more unmanned, mobile weapons platforms. Russia has been blessed with vast resources and talented people, and it seemed headed for steady gains in prosperity. But the leadership has shown its violent core nature, and the world is aghast. I think it will take the passing of current leadership before the situation can be moderated. The Budapest Memorandum, a significant step toward peace and stability, was discarded by Russia, to the entire world's detriment. The next twenty years need to be about adjusting to climate change, instead it will be about contending with Mr. Putin's agenda.
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  4.  @johnlenin830  Ukraine would need a nuclear arsenal and powerful conventional forces of its own to be militarily neutral. Say whatever, our true beliefs are shown by the way we act. Russia invaded Ukraine. If Ukraine were in NATO, its defenses would just be conventional, like the Baltics and Poland, and lots of young Russian and Ukrainian men would still be alive, and Russia would be making billions selling oil and gas to Europe. Is this war worth it?
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  5. I think the government actually values the information they get from these interviews. It generally affirms their control of the public narrative. It also confirms that people are generally living in an isolated fashion. In other countries you could have a dialog with what is obviously a group of friends, that is, a component of a civil society. Not so much in Russia. The groups you see are either the leaders, or soldiers in the field appealing for assistance in accomplishing their assigned tasks.
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  6.  @johnlenin830  So any country is any other country's business. That's how country's behave.
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  7.  @johnlenin830  To my knowledge, the West did not pressure neutral Finland to join NATO. Indeed, NATO assumes a huge risk in accepting Finland into the Treaty. Finland observed Russian behavior and sought NATO membership. I am forever dismayed that Russian apologists always turn this upside down. It would seem more adult to simply assert that Russia is an empire and annexation of adjacent land is a part of what Russia does. Instead what we see is a display of faith that either large swaths of humanity can actually be duped, or, more likely, they can be talked down into submission with clever words and the threat of being ejected out a window. Pardon the rest of the world if it chafes at that kind of Russian disrespect.
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  8.  @johnlenin830  Russia's actions are better explained by the rise of its financial power and its desire for more.
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  9. There is always the prospect of four guys showing up at your home at 4AM. It underpins the linguistic strategy.
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