[culi]

You're probably being downvoted because of the mere suggestion that Western propaganda is shaping the narrative but this is something that also irks me. I do not defend at all any of Russia's actions but the fact that it's just become commonly accepted that the war happened because "PuTiN iS cRaZyyy" is kinda scary. Absolutely no mention of the US' role in this or the fact that NATO specifically sent Boris to stop the peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia that would've prevented this or that Biden has been very explicit about a foreign policy to "weaken Russia" since taking office.

The complete lack of geopolitical and historical context in the media around this event has really shaken my trust. In the future I'll probably just be heading directly to the history books rather than trying to parse out the missing context from the media

[tim333]

The situation and background are complicated and the mainstream media doesn't really have so much time to go into it all - both a lack of reporter time and reader interest. I find it interesting to read takes from people on different sides of it.

One reason the US and UK come across stoppy (eg "Boris to stop the peace negotiations") is Ukraine used to have nukes and in 1994 the US, UK and Russia signed an agreement for them to give them up in return for the parties to guarantee their borders. If you let Russia just send in tanks, kill a few people and then say lets have a new agreement then what's even the point? If they don't stick to the first one they probably won't stick to the second. And then why even bother with nuclear non proliferation? If the agreements aren't worth the paper they are written on you may as well try to get nukes instead.

[stareatgoats]

In war you're either for us or against us. No gray zones, no "love thy enemy", no nuance or fair analysis even. It is a social psychological mechanism, because if you try to distribute blame on both sides you are potentially aiding the enemy, resulting in potentially greater losses on your own side (i.e. your neighbor might die).

It has little to do with the quality of the news, more with the psychosocial mechanisms of any polarized conflict that involves life and death. One may lament it, but only from the outside and at some distance.

As a side note one might wonder if this is not a main purpose of war: to create a polarized environment where dissent becomes impossible.

[fractallyte]

The war started in 2014, following the Euromaidan protests, and the Russian invasion of Crimea.

Putin isn't crazy - he's coldly calculating, and clearly demonstrated his ruthlessness in Chechnya (which the world chose to ignore).

[cudgy]

“Crimea's election committee said that 97% of voters backed a union between the largely ethnic-Russian peninsula and the huge neighboring country.”

“Residents of Crimea, up to 60% percent of whom are Russian, were given a choice of either joining Russia or opting for more autonomy from Ukraine under the 1992 constitution.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/03/16/crimea-...

[fractallyte]

There's a political process for that, which necessarily includes central government.

Isn't it suspicious that Ukraine's large, aggressive, well-armed neighbor was somehow involved in the referendum, and then sent in the "green men" to enforce the inevitable results?

And what about the native ethnic Tatars? Russia pretends they don't exist.

[culi]

If you look at surveys conducted even when the region was under Ukraine, you'll see that it's always had a very pro-Russia bias (Eastern Ukraine in general was staunchly opposed to the Euromaiden protests).

However, it's worth mentioning that Eastern Ukraine has also been heavily targeted with Russian propaganda for decades now and it's quite likely that had an impact. I haven't read into it, but I'd be surprised if they didn't also encourage Russians to move to Ukraine to make it more ethnically Russian. This is pretty much in the playbook of every colonizer (e.g. Israel with Palestine, Morocco with SADR, or China with Xinjiang).

[raxxorraxor]

This was a pivotal moment but the conflict has roots even beyond that.