"Land for peace" sounds nice, but the president of Russia isn't fighting for land - he's fighting to destroy Ukraine

[Dennis Donovan]

The Atlantic - Putin Isn’t Fighting for Land in Ukraine(Gift article)

And Biden has mere weeks to give the Ukrainians the resources they need to fight.

By Anne Applebaum

November 12, 2024, 8:45 AM ET

Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukrainian targets have increased in frequency in the week since the U.S. election, killing civilians and destroying another dam. Russian troops continued to make incremental gains toward the city of Pokrovsk. The Russian army is preparing a new offensive, this time using North Korean troops. Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Donald Trump on his election but implied that he would have discussions only if the U.S. initiates talks, drops its sanctions, and refuses to offer any further support for Ukraine—accepting, in other words, a Russian victory. Meanwhile, Russian state television welcomed news of the election by gleefully showing nude photographs of Melania Trump on the country’s most-watched channel.

How will the new U.S. administration respond? What should the outgoing administration do?

In one sense, nothing will change. For nearly three years, many, many people, from the right to the left, in Europe and in America, have called for negotiations to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Biden administration repeatedly probed the possibility of negotiations. The German government endlessly proposed negotiations. Now a new team will arrive in Washington, and it will be demanding negotiations too.

The new team will immediately run into the same dilemma that everyone else has encountered: “Land for peace” sounds nice, but the president of Russia isn’t fighting for land. Putin is fighting not to conquer Pokrovsk but to destroy Ukraine as a nation. He wants to show his own people that Ukraine’s democratic aspirations are hopeless. He wants to prove that a whole host of international laws and norms, including the United Nations Charter and the Geneva conventions, no longer matter. His goal is not to have peace but to build concentration camps, torture civilians, kidnap 20,000 Ukrainian children, and get away with it—which, so far, he has.

/snip

‪Anne Applebaum‬ ‪
@anneapplebaum.bsky.social‬
6h
1. “Land for peace” sounds nice, but the president of Russia isn’t fighting for land. Putin is fighting to destroy Ukraine as a nation. When the next U.S. president takes office he will therefore face the same choices : help Putin win, or help him lose.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2024/11/biden-trump-ukraine/680632/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK3zffT0eLFQltr_IEJNr1tAo&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share (gift article)

Anne Applebaum
‪@anneapplebaum.bsky.social‬
2. And until then - Biden should send all of the allocated weapons, let the Ukrainians hit targets in Russia with American and European missiles, and above all pressure the Europeans, finally, to release the $300 billion in frozen Russian assets. No time to lose.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2024/11/biden-trump-ukraine/680632/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK3zffT0eLFQltr_IEJNr1tAo&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share (gift article)

November 12, 2024 at 12:02 PM

https://bsky.app/profile/anneapplebaum.bsky.social/post/3larcqrt7i22z

[bdamomma]

1. and

Putin will not stop at Ukraine. Unless someone stops him.

[SheltieLover]

2. Asshole wants Ukraine's neon for chip mfg

[dhol82]

3. Anybody remember the whole Lebensraum concept?

So familiar:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensraum

[JustAnotherGen]

7. And what is really insane?

Russia has a low birth rate.

[WarGamer]

4. When this is all over... either 60 days from now or 6 months...

I predict a smaller Ukraine, but a Ukraine with EU membership and a NATO application in process...

I see international investment and a thriving nation rebuilding and ex-pats moving back home to be a part of it.

Unlike many here... I've actually BEEN to Russia and Ukraine.

There has always been a divide. Western Ukraine has always felt more European and East Ukraine has always felt like Russia.

There might be blue hats in a DMZ for a year... but treaties will be signed, Russia will pay Ukraine for pipelines running across the country and in ten years, Ukraine will be in better shape that ten year AGO.

[Jit423]

5. NO!! Absolutely not. He is fighting for what is under the land in Ukraine.

Go back and study the history of the fall of the USSR. Almost every satellite country of the USSR has or had valuable resources underground. Putin know this well, from uranium, bauxite, lithium, coal, oil (oil fields all over Russia but they can't get to most of it through frozen ground). Sure, it may be all about the land on the surface, but it's what is under the surface that counts. (did I just make a pun?)
The to be brokered may be: Give me unfettered access, keep your land. And that might be the deal for all the other former satellites to keep Russia off their backs if they are not joined to NATO. My wild and crazy guess.

[Prairie Gates]

6. Land for Peace was also Hitler's constant offer

Until it wasn't.

[LiberalFighter]

8. Not just Ukraine but NATO too