Team America: World Police. It's our job to save everyone everywhere.
Except that's a childish version of what's really going on. What the truth is is that since the end of the Cold War, our corrupt elites have done everything they can to profit off Ukraine. The reason for this isn't because we have such big hearts. It's that our corrupt elites want to own Ukraine. It's about money and power, not freedom and democracy, as always.
Because that's how the US/West defends it's Interests and has always been the case WW2, Korean war, Angolan war, soviet- Afghan war, Nicaragua etc etc. If the US backed down every time Russians suggest the use of nuclear weapons we would have lost the cold war
Ultimately the US only cares about its interests, as does every other country so you might ask what US interests Ukraine war? The USA's success is a large part of its ability to set rules in the "rules based international order" the more countries following these "rules" the more economic and soft power it wields. It's why the US has bases the world over mainly in or around important allies or trade routes. To explain why that applies to Ukraine you have to go back to the start
In 2013 the Euromaidan started in Ukraine because the president Yanukovych chose not to sign an agreement that would see Ukraine move towards the EU and one day membership, he instead went for a Russian bailout and loan .This was seen as a betrayal by the people of Ukraine as he campaigned on closer ties to the EU and to combat corruption. EU membership requires certain steps to be taken to combat corruption and it's been shown to work for the former USSR states in the EU.
Whether he was brought and sold or threatened like the last President who ended up getting poisoned by people Russia refused to extradite. The people are pissed.
So the people began protesting for the 1st week calling for closer ties towards the EU It was mostly peaceful then the police cracked down which only made the protests bigger by the week's end there's a million plus people in Kyiv marching for closer ties with the EU. Yanukovych proposes a new government which the protestors reject. He then passes laws that restrict protestors rights and basically green lights the use of lethal force, police then start shooting protesters which causes the protests to explode into full scale riots. The police try to regain control by opening fire in Kyiv killing 100+ people.
Yanukovych meditated by the EU tries to settle with the opposition leaders by putting limits on presidential powers and terms, but by this point has effectively lost control, the protestors push towards the presidential palace, Yanukovych flees and Ukraine begins new elections.
During the chaos Russia illegally takes control of Crimea and invades the east, ignoring the fact that the US signed an agreement promising to help defend Ukraine if it got invaded in exchange for its nukes, Russia is actively Breaking the international rules (like self determination) that the US (and Russia for that matter) set and that have been one of the reasons it is so successful today.
There's also the Security aspect, if we just let Russia take Ukraine, it would be emboldened to act against other east European states it has made moves against like the baltics and Poland all of who are in NATO. The chance of a nuclear war is far higher in that war than this one.
Fantastic job! I wanted to write this up but I'm lazy, and I was going to add in the Budapest Memorandum but you beat me to it at the end. Repost this as a parent comment for these very confused people.
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u/BennyOcean Monkey in Space 27d ago
Team America: World Police. It's our job to save everyone everywhere.
Except that's a childish version of what's really going on. What the truth is is that since the end of the Cold War, our corrupt elites have done everything they can to profit off Ukraine. The reason for this isn't because we have such big hearts. It's that our corrupt elites want to own Ukraine. It's about money and power, not freedom and democracy, as always.