Its interesting what the West will do. This is agression on the Ukraine and should trigger sanctions. Sadly, I am not sure the EU can come to agreement with harsh sanctions
I am myself could be considered an (at least partly) 'ethnic Russian", my grandfather came to Kyiv from St. Petersburg.
There are no ethnic Russian enclaves in Ukraine, there is no way to find out whether a person in front of you is "ethnic Russian" or "ethnic Ukrainian". Does it matter that 50-100 years ago somebody's ancestors came from Russia to Ukraine?
In Eastern Ukraine almost everybody uses Russian as their primary language, no matter whether they are "ethnic Russian", "ethnic Ukrainian", Jews or Tatars or Greeks (there is a sizable Greek community in Mariupol region).
The level of assimilation is very high.
What's important is whether a person is a follower of some Russian nationalism ideology, or neo-stalinism, or something like that.
"Ethnic Russian" does not mean "Anti-Ukraine".
Someone steals a chunk of Ukraine territory. Six years later, someone else admits that it happened, and that's aggression? The aggression was taking it in the first place!
(Yes, the one who took it in the first place is the same one who "recognized" the taking six years later...)
The only way this is aggression is if Russia uses it (or Ukraine's or the west's response to it) as a pretext to take more territory.
It is a bit more complicated, because on paper Russia until today recognized separatist-controlled territory as a part of Ukraine. The problem is that DNR/LNR state that their borders are the same as Donetsk/Luhansk oblast, which is a much bigger region.
Second, Russia involvement with 'republics' was mainly with keeping status quo since spring of 2015, that changed in 2021, and what they are going to do now, nobody knows.
Well, if only it was so simple.
Majority Russian-speaking Kyiv voted for pro-Western politicians since early 90's.
Russian language dominates in every major southern and eastern city, that does not mean that every Russian speaker wants to join Russia (in the very least).
It means that they are quite content living in a country that they call their home. I understand that it is hard to grasp, but not everyone in Ukraine works in Poland as a laborer.
It has nothing to do with West. People who are 40 or younger in a majority recognize Ukraine as their homeland, no matter the ethnic composition or the language preference.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 45.6 ms ] threadSomeone steals a chunk of Ukraine territory. Six years later, someone else admits that it happened, and that's aggression? The aggression was taking it in the first place!
(Yes, the one who took it in the first place is the same one who "recognized" the taking six years later...)
The only way this is aggression is if Russia uses it (or Ukraine's or the west's response to it) as a pretext to take more territory.
That is, the US recognizes China, but does not recognize their claim of the Nine-Dash Line. You can do one but not the other.
That's the point. This has the benefit of driving wedges between NATO members and making NATO look weak and ineffective.