Red_Scare [he/him]

Yeah Parenti was right to end their friendship when Bernie voted to bomb Yugoslavia.

The Donbass is a territory unique from others in the region.

Doesn’t make it a nation.

I also believe that when two cultures come together, Russian and Ukrainian for example, that this creates a unique culture where traditions from both become mixed together.

Sure, this is basically what Cossacks were, with some influence from nations of Caucasus; there were even some calls for independence.

However this is not what happened in Donbass, ask anyone in Donbass what is their nationality and they will either say Russian or Ukrainian.

There is no nation of Hong Kong, they are Han Chinese. There is no nation of Donbass, they are Russians and Ukrainians. The way you’re trying to read that quote from Lenin, every single town, every village, every district is a nation. That’s not at all what Lenin said.

Tibet does have it’s own language, territory, and culture, and so it is indeed a nation.

It is quite apparent that you don’t understand Ukraine, its national-ethnic composition or its history.

language, culture and historical national conception of a minority in the far West of Ukraine.

OK this is laughable. I was raised in Ukraine and I don’t need a Westerner to tell me I don’t understand it, especially one who seems to think Ukrainians are “a minority in the far West of Ukraine”.

There is a continuum of culture and language in Ukraine going from East to West.

I’m aware, thanks. The way I’ve been taught, Dnipro marks the border between Eastern Ukraine, which was always under Russian influence, and Western Ukraine, which had significant Polish influence and cultural ties. But the same goes for Russia. Ukrainian language was spoken all the way to the Don, the Cossack dialect has strong Ukrainian influence, and really entire Southern Russia is a mixture of Ukrainian, Georgian, Abkhasian, Ingush, Circassian, and other influences. Where exactly is the “ethnically and historically correct” border between Ukraine and Russia? I have no idea, maybe it’s along Dnipro, maybe it’s along Don, or anywhere in between.

Where is the legally correct border between Ukraine and Russia? That’s much easier, that was peacefully agreed in 1991. Should Ukraine pursue a return to those borders? Fuck no, that ship has sailed and it’s time for Ukraine to cut its losses and accept whatever peace it can have.

Your post with date-by-date history of the lead up to this conflict is spot on and I’m aware of those events. They still don’t justify invading a brotherly nation. Again, having been raised in the USSR I can’t support Russia’s wars on its neighbours, even if the fault lies mostly with the West.

Look at China, it manages to maintain sovereignty without killing large numbers of people in Hong Kong or Taiwan, and without waging wars on internal separatists like in Xinjiang.

No, the DPR and LPR are not nations, they never claimed that, they consider themselves part of the Russian nation, as did much of Ukraine to some degree before the Ukrainan nationalist re-education project began post 1991

Again, having grown up in Ukraine in the 80s, I can assure you people living there considered themselves Ukrainian, even Russian speakers like me.

Not nations? says who?

Lenin, Stalin, and Marxist-Leninist theory in general.

The people of the LPR and DPR have the right to self determination.

Not any more than people of Hong Kong or Taiwan. Because they are not nations.

LPR/DPR have nothing to do with self determination because they are not nations. Russia and Ukraine are nations, both have their states, neither is fighting for self determination.

Donbass was not colonised by Ukraine, it’s a region of Ukraine with significant Russian population which is not unusual along borders.

This is a border dispute, of course people living there are affected, but that doesn’t make it a war for self-determination, otherwise all wars fought over territory would be wars of self determination.