(04-24-2024, 04:21 PM)snarkyguy_he_him_his Wrote:

(04-24-2024, 03:49 PM)mikesez Wrote: It's not at all irrelevant. It determines who was the aggressor, what a just outcome might be, and what Russia might try next after getting what it wants.  As tempting as it is to say that most of what Russia occupies in Ukraine should have been Russian in the first place, Moldova and Latvia have a similar situation.

We are the aggressor.

Sending advisors and influencers to other countries is not aggression. 

Russia expected Ukraine to always be in their sphere of influence but our influence efforts (and the EU's, which were larger) persuaded the Ukrainian majority to break that deal at any cost.  The majority should get what the majority wants.  

The Russian minority, placed there over time by czars and communist dictators, complicates matters.  If influencing people is aggression, forcing them to move or redrawing national borders without any real discussion is also aggression.

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