Their line isn't that Ukraine should lose, it's that America shouldn't give them money while homeless vets, Ukraine is corrupt, biden crime family, nato expansion, etc. Which coincidentally are all Russian talking points.
Those damn russians, constantly bringing up recent history like that.
Didn't Hunter get like millions of dollars from both Russian and Ukranian oligarchs? It's so cool how the kids of politicans always end up with these sweet deals- and to think Trump is claiming to be the deals guy
Russia stated that it had never been under obligation to "force any part of Ukraine's civilian population to stay in Ukraine against its will." Russia suggested that the US was in violation of the Budapest Memorandum and described the Euromaidan as a US-instigated coup.
Yes, the CIA psyop'd over 70% of the country to support joining the EU, then forced yanukovitch to say "screw that we love Russia" and piss everyone off. And the totally organic resistance movement in the east that happened to have russian equipment and... Soldiers? Yeah just the people self determining or whatever.
So what about the ethnic Russians, and the rest of the non-Ukranian speakers?
There was a base of people (30% per your post) who didn't support this and when the government cracked down on resistance, city centers ended up shelled with artillery for years.
Just a shitty situation to get caught in the middle of, frankly. Did you support NATO intervention against Serbia when it used its military on a breakaway region?
Funny how those cities still stand after 7 years of shelling. Meanwhile there are several Ukrainian cities that simply don't exist anymore but we'll only see you criticizing Ukraine.
Also I love how you say "government cracked down on resistance" as if that wasn't part of euromaidan first. They cracked down on pro EU protesters first. Then you gesture broadly at the ~30% who didn't support joining the EU or didn't care as if that's some sort of justification for a Russian invasion of Eastern Ukraine. Which happened in 2014. That led to the fighting in those regions that you mentioned.
They still stand and the others do not in part because Russia intervened, the ones that have been under siege recently have all been used as military strongholds for quite some time. They're not civilian centers, the civilians in Donvas didn't exactly have many options.
Did you support Serbia keeping it's territorial integrity against a breakaway region too?
They still stand and the others do not in part because Russia intervened
Russia didn't "intervene," they started the fight by annexing Crimea and donbas. There have been 3,400 civilian casualties in the donbas region between 2014 and 2021. There have been 35,000 confirmed Ukrainian civilian casualties between the start of the invasion and July 2024. Remind me how Russia is trying to protect people again? And if this really was just about those regions, why not take them and stop? Why is Russia trying to take kyiv?
Also trying to whatabout about NATO is idiotic. I only referenced the Budapest memorandum. If you want to blame "NATO imperialism" for forcing Russia to invade a soverign country, then I have two questions. Why are there now two more countries in NATO than before the invasion? And do you honestly think NATO would invade a nuclear power? If so, to what end?
I remember when Russia did go in, briefly Fox News was full of editorializing that Russia should get to have Ukraine. They at least tried to got full on pro-Russia when they thought the narrative might fly and Ukraine was going to just get conquered in a week or so. Clearly they were trying to set things up for blithe acceptance for what Russia had done and for the world to move on (until next time).
I think that between the prolonged conflict and the fact that their boomer audience actually may still be inclined to remember their cold war feelings that this won't fly, that they backed off to less aggressively calling for complete Russian victory. But as seen here, there's still a theme of making it clear that you're ok with whatever outcome, leaning toward "but should we spend our money?" to undermine things rather than calling for a pro-russia outcome outright.
I wonder if a big part of the reason is just the whole phone call about Biden and subsequent impeachment, and how Zelenskyy wouldn’t play ball and the whole thing damaged Trump’s ego in a big way. So even if it’s politically advantageous in every way to say you want Ukraine to win, Trump is incapable of doing so.