Yesterday Trump and Vance met with Ukrainian President Zelensky. Zelensky was rude and confrontational. Vance was a bit rude as well. Trump handled the situation pretty well and pushed back against Zelensky’s arrogant attitude.
Ukraine fans in the media and on Twitter are having a meltdown about it. To them, Zelensky can do no wrong. They say that Trump and Vance “bullied” Zelensky or “ambushed” him. Chris Hayes of MSNBC said that Trump “irreparably destroyed the 80 year old post-WWII world order.”1
The theme of the Zelensky defenders is this: “Zelensky is the war-weary leader of a sovereign country which was attacked by Russia in an unprovoked invasion. He’s fighting for freedom and we should support him.” There’s so much wrong with that argument that it’s hard to know where to begin. For one thing, Ukraine is not fighting for freedom. The average Ukrainian citizen has no more freedom than the average Russian citizen. Also, it’s not true that Russia’s invasion was unprovoked. For the last 35 years, NATO has aggressively expanded closer and closer to Russia’s borders, breaking the promises it had given in previous agreements with Russia.
But the most confused idea of the Ukraine defenders is the idea that Ukraine is or has ever been a sovereign country. Zelensky’s government in Ukraine is not even seeking sovereignty, they’re seeking to join the EU, in other words, they are trying to get under the sovereignty of Brussels.
There are only a few dozen genuinely sovereign countries in the world: America, Russia, China, India etc. Most of the world’s nominally sovereign countries are client states of one of those few dozen powers. North Korea is not a sovereign country, but rather a client state of China. Cambodia is a client state of Vietnam. Most European countries voluntarily relinquished their sovereignty to the EU, and the EU is arguably a client of the US.
In Eastern Europe there are no sovereign countries (except Russia). The Baltics, Poland, Finland, Romania and Bulgaria are clients of the EU. Until 2014, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine were clients of Russia, and had been for centuries. Belarus and Moldova are still clients of Russia, but in 2014 the US/EU/NATO attempted to annex Ukraine from Russia into the US/EU sphere. The US/EU sponsored a coup called the Maidan Revolution which overthrew the pro-Russian government of Ukraine.
Shortly afterward, Putin counterattacked and occupied Crimea and parts of Eastern Ukraine. The US/EU/NATO continued to push for annexation of Ukraine and the Ukrainian provincial governor, Volodymyr Zelensky, mentioned that it would be a good idea to rearm with nuclear weapons and point them at Russia. After years of international tensions and low-level fighting in the Donbas, Russia launched a full scale invasion in February of 2022 with the intent to reclaim its territory. The US/EU/NATO armed provincial governor Zelensky with state of the art weapons, and Ukrainian forces were able to hold off the Russian army for much longer than either Russia or the US/EU/NATO had anticipated. Keep in mind that while Russia is vastly larger than Ukraine in terms of geographical area, Russia’s (pre-war) population was only 3x larger than Ukraine’s.
I oppose Ukraine’s cause in the war because Ukraine is fighting to expand the EU and the EU is an evil totalitarian regime. Russia is not much (or really any) better than the EU, but the EU is currently more powerful than Russia, so it would be good for Russia to win in order to preserve a balance of power.
Let’s drop the nonsense about Ukraine being a sovereign country. The only sovereign countries in this conflict are Russia and the US. Everyone else is a client.
I think it would be a great thing if the post-WWII world order were destroyed, but that world order will be dismantled through real policy, not through Oval Office spats like this one.
1. “The average Ukrainian citizen has no more freedom than the average Russian citizen.” This claim is asserted but not argued for. Care to elaborate?
2. An invasion can be provoked without being justified. Do you believe Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was justified?
"I oppose Ukraine’s cause in the war because Ukraine is fighting to expand the EU and the EU is an evil totalitarian regime. Russia is not much (or really any) better than the EU, but the EU is currently more powerful than Russia, so it would be good for Russia to win in order to preserve a balance of power."
This seems absolutely mad to me.
1) In what way is the EU totalitarian?
2) What is your problem with the EU in general?
3) In what way is Russia better (both as a country to live in and to be influenced by externally)?
4) How would this balance of power be beneficial to anyone other than the Russians?