[trhway]

Civilians are intentionally killed and forced from their land because they are of different ethnicity. That is called genocide and ethnic cleansing. Putin has been very clear in his speeches that "Ukrainian question" is the main issue here. Ukrainians being of different ethnicity want their own culture, state, etc. while Putin refuses their right for that on the basis of his claim that their ethnicity doesn't exist.

[just-ok]

> because they are of a different ethnicity

[citation needed]

[trhway]

read Putin speech declaring the war. The people are killed because they of different ethnicity and refuse to play Russians as Putin tries to force them. From his point of view there 2 types of people in Ukraine - Russians and "nazi and benderovcy" with the latter needing to be killed.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-24/full-tran...

and that is summary which says it better than i'd say:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/2/23/22945781/r...

"Putin’s clearest answer yet came in a speech delivered on Monday. He believes that Ukraine is an illegitimate country that exists on land that’s historically and rightfully Russian

...

Putin’s basic claim — that there is no historical Ukrainian nation worthy of present-day sovereignty "

Edit to the commenter below:

Your post is either factually incorrect, like about my account or my motivation or about "historically friendly relationship", or just some conclusions not supported by any facts. Nothing to argue about, especially that i already addressed some of these your conclusions in our previous thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30541386

[brabel]

You have a throwaway account solely created to try to make us, Westerners, believe that the War by Russia is as evil as Hitler's War because it has the same root motivation: ethnic hatred with a genocidal goal.

You may be motivated by your rage against Russia starting this terrible war, or it may be simple counter-propaganda, i.e. Ukrainians lowering themselves to the level they believe the enemy to be for the purpose of motivating despicable actions from either side.

Your interpretation of the Russian motivation for the war shows either complete ignorance of the facts (the historically friendly relationship between Ukrainians and Russians within and across the borders of the two nations) or a disregard for truthness that can only be attributed to being a propagandist who will stop at nothing to get people to believe and do whatever it is you want them to.

Some sources that might educate you a little bit:

[1] https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/05/myths-and-misconception... (this is strongly anti-Russia, but describes in a much better way the relationship between Russians/Belarussians/Ukrainians and their "nationhood", unlike your distorted view of reality).

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMiSQAGOS4 - Why is Ukraine the West's Fault? Featuring John Mearsheimer (American geopolitics expert, while being less anti-Russia, also attributes blame to the West in this whole story)

[rosndo]

If you’re going to link Mearsheimer, you could also be honest enough to discuss what other geopolitics scholars think about his take.

[brabel]

Please provide alternative view points from other scholars on geopolitics and we can happily discuss.

[rosndo]

I’m not interested in having that conversation with you, just pointing out that this is one of the more extreme points of view on the table. It is certainly not a widely accepted one.

You could for example read what Mearsheimers university of Chicago colleague Paul Poast, or Stanfords Michael McFaul have to say about this.

They’ve gone as far as argue that it is exactly the absence of NATO expansion that is to blame for creating the permissive conditions for Putin's invasion.

It’s hard to view linking only to Mearsheimer as anything but deliberate cherry-picking.