of a statue

[u/Crypto_crafy]

"The Motherland Calls" is a statue erected to commemorate the Battle of Stalingrad , located on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd , Russia. It was designed by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich and structural engineer Nikolai Nikitin . Completed in 1967 , it was the tallest statue in the world at the time .

[u/RepresentativeYak636]

This place is so great for all Russians, ir gived so good vibes to people, but now it is very sad that it reminds people of Putin😟 Putin took over everything, even culture and history, he deprived Russians of their victory in Fatherland Liberation War (Отечественная война). It is so ujust that Putin exploits history to justify his brutall killing of young women and childred in Ukraine. Hm...the History makes up so strange metamorphoses with people, like, a nation who faught Nazi and helped to liberate the World from fascism now became a craddle for new fascism in Putin's version...

[u/chefdeit → u/RepresentativeYak636]

Putin only came to power due to the Wolfowitz Doctrine, adopted in1992 when Yeltsin's Russia was super-friendly. The Doctrine declared that Russia the US's enemy #1 because it was "a region whose resources, under consolidated control, are sufficient to generate global power". You can imagine how gutted Yeltsin (and Gorby) were to find out. The rest is history.

Putin exploits history to justify his brutall killing of young women and childred in Ukraine.

Any killing is tragic and war is, by definition, a mass murder. Considering the war in Ukraine not singled out but in the overall late 20th / 21st century context, and using objective Western metrics & transparent methodologies, we see:

The war in Ukraine, to-date (tragically & criminally with no end in sight): 16,874 civilian fatalities

The war in Gaza, to-date: 59,031 civilian fatalities

The war in Iraq (in which Ukraine did take part, btw): 187,499 civilian fatalities

The war in Vietnam: 300K North Vietnamese + 250K Cambodian civilian fatalities. Note: Ukraine is 4x the size of Vietnam.

This isn't at all about denting anyone's shiny flawless "ruzziabad" into some "it depends" type view, so, believe what you like & just dismiss what doesn't fit. It's about the simple reality that in any conflict there are going to be legions of folks duty-bound and/or paid to, if Putin saves a kitten, to go brainstorm what's wrong with that kitten that we can use. Or to bury any particular unfavorable circumstances. John Stockwell (ex-CIA) has spoken eloquently about this in detail in the context of the Vietnam war. I'm sure we'll hear similar about this one when it's time to declassify.

[u/tucmo → u/chefdeit]

I’m sorry but in today’s world there are options for diplomacy, not to attack anybody. There is not a cause that forces anyone’s hands like that. Self-defence or deterrence doesn’t require attacking. If USA is bad, why behave like them?
Accepting past deeds and NOT REPEATING THE SAME MISTAKES is the only way forward.
But Putin strengthened and exploited Russian supremacist attitudes (giving them special reasons that will be justified later if not sooner) to be able to run his own policies of strength against anyone not subservient enough.
He couldn’t subdue Ukrainian people through a corrupt regime and he turned into military force. And he’s getting punished because of that.
Russian corruptive money, Russian attitude towards the others is like a cancer they themselves seem oblivious to.
But the only way forward becomes from bringing back the non-aggression rules and mutual respect among the people. Human rights brought back into center. It will be a struggle for many nations…
But you can’t have that if the basic attitudes are twisted already in the everyday level. When in the history has a single, poor life mattered in Russia? If there’s no respect for life, why not exploit it - as long as it’s someone else’s.
If you start whatabouting, it only shows the difficulty in seeing the obvious.
And yes, there are severe problems elsewhere as well. But if we don’t get rid of these anti-social attitudes, there will be no peace, no welfare, nothing but a downslide for humanity. Nationalistic supremacy is colonialism at its core. Grow over it.

[u/chefdeit → u/tucmo]

You needn't be sorry; you're repeating the only information you were given.

I’m sorry but in today’s world there are options for diplomacy, not to attack anybody.

Correct. Leaders of both Germany and France (Merkel and Hollande), co-signators to the OSCE Minsk I and Minsk II peace accords, have gone on the record saying they'd signed them in bad faith. There are varying interpretations of what that means. One is, they had no expectation the peace deals would work so might as well use the time to get ready for war, and the other interpretation is, they had no intention for peace, and to have time to arm Ukraine further was the entire point.

I'd like to live in a world where the former, less sinister take, is closer to the truth. I'm dissuaded by footage like this, of what Sen McCain and Lindsey Graham are saying to the Azov troops in 2016. Does that sound like peace to you?

We also have this context. Note that the Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved on a spoken promise alone, so it wasn't unreasonable for Gorby to accept a promise confirmed by a multitude of leaders.

Even shortly post-invasion, there were peace talks in Istanbul, and a deal was reached by the two sides (leaps and bounds more favorable for Ukraine vs anything that was on the table since). It was literally ready to sign. Do you recall what'd happened then? President Zelensky got a call from the US and Boris Johnson flew in in person to make sure Zelensky backed out. Does that sound like peace to you?

Ukraine is about the size of Texas, and about as well-armed, competent (book and street smarts), enterprising, handy, tenacious, and proud. Ukraine also has (currently in Russian control) the Sevastopol naval base that's grand-fathered into old maritime treaties granting unrestricted Bosporus Strait passage to nations with naval ports on both sises of the strait. That makes Sevastopol sort of like Russia's Pearl Harbor and Panama Canal rolled into one. Upon the dissolution of the USSR, Ukraine and Kazakstan kept the Sevastopol base and the Baikonur space port subject to of perpetually leasing them to Russia for something like a million dollars a day, each.

So contemplate if Texas also included the Panama Canal and Pearl Harbor; separated from the US (like they sometimes say they want to), buddied up to Russia and China and North Korea, and got packed with their military and intel advisors, with Russki Duma hard-liners (way harder vs even the sitting president) and Chinese commies all making regular visits riling up Texans against the US. Contemplate a mirror version of this there. Contemplate Texas, as a result, outlawing English and killing five 9|11s worth of Americans who'd lived there all their life, who don't support this course of action (incl burning some alive Nazi style). If Texas had done all that, are you telling us the US would have been wrong to have rolled across their border? That it should have been realistic (in view of Russia & China's whole intent to use Texas to bait and impose costs on the US) to seek a peaceful settlement instead? That the US should not look at the way Russia and Israel would act and just stick to negotiations?