I’m sure this won’t prompt another massive wave of missile strikes all over Ukraine in retaliation
This feels like reading about a boxing match, in which every hit by Thomas Hearns is covered breathlessly, while a blizzard of blows by Sugar Ray Leonard go utterly unremarked upon.
I’m sure this won’t cause Russia to retaliate by destroying air transportation infrastructure in ukraine or anything
This is precisely why the U.S. didn’t want them to have long range missiles
So they’re going to force an escalation with a small fleet of 9/11’ers instead
civilian planes are now military targets
great job!
Cessna planes were already being extensively used as military reconnaissance planes so this hasn’t really changed anything in that regard.
Putin harden your heart and increase your attacks
Or don’t. Cessnas are reasonably easy to target and shoot down, from a missile defense perspective. If this is all the Ukrainians have left, just buy some Iron Dome tech from Israel and maybe take a unilateral step towards ending this nightmare.
I thought Israel was now actively favoring and aiding Ukraine
That’s news to me.
They might be playing both ends.
What both ends, Ukraine declare constant support for Israel and vice versa, also both countries are dogs on the same leash held by Uncle Sam. The only contention point is that US treat flow to Israel is much more steady and unconditional because Israel is the still useful and Ukraine usefullnes is nearing the end.
But this kind of thing does push Russia towards the end goal of dismantling Ukraine as a sovereign state rather than simply taking the Donbas Republics and drawing the line there. As long as a sovereign Ukraine exists, it will be a hotbed for this kind of pseudo terrorist attack.
As long as a sovereign Ukraine exists
Sovereign Ukraine don’t exist since 2014 and won’t exist even after the war, whatever’s left of it will be either Russia or US protectorate. Russia would probably left it alone with just the neutrality declarations enshrined in law, but west gives them no room for any illusion of neutral Ukraine in every single of their relevant communicates.
But this kind of thing does push Russia towards the end goal of dismantling Ukraine as a sovereign state rather than simply taking the Donbas Republics and drawing the line there.
The original Russian policy (under Putin, no less) was to do the same kind of neoliberal puppeteering that Western states accomplished in Germany and Egypt and Japan. Use tight economic relations with the threat of targeted sanctions (and the occasional FSB knee-capper) to keep Ukrainian aristocracy in line. And the western response was to keep fanning the flames of insurrection until the country balkinized like a dropped egg.
Now he’s pivoted back to a more traditional boots-on-the-ground occupation, a la America’s domination of Haiti and Panama or the USSR dominion over Hungary and Czechoslovakia. And the western response has been to put up a losing counter-insurgency a la South Vietnam.
But the idea of Ukraine as a sovereign state was never really on the table. Ukranians had a shot at picking their own master back in the '00s/'10s. And they might have found a Turkey/Saudi/Israeli style middle-ground, where they played Russia and America off one another for a better position at the Cheap Imports / Military subsidies negotiating table. But they were always doomed to be beholden to someone.
As long as a sovereign Ukraine exists, it will be a hotbed for this kind of pseudo terrorist attack.
Ukranians had no chill. They simply couldn’t resist doing their own little Serbian genocide in the East. And as Russia proved in Chechnya, that was a red line they weren’t going to let Ukrainian fascists cross. Losing influence over the executive branch for a few years was a pill Putin could swallow (so long as Ukraine didn’t mind giving up Crimea). But ethnic cleansing as a tool of political consolidation? Nah, dawg. Not on United Russia’s watch.
But the idea of Ukraine as a sovereign state was never really on the table. Ukranians had a shot at picking their own master back in the '00s/'10s. And they might have found a Turkey/Saudi/Israeli style middle-ground, where they played Russia and America off one another for a better position at the Cheap Imports / Military subsidies negotiating table. But they were always doomed to be beholden to someone.
Yanukovych was trying this (libs saying he was Russian puppet are full of shit), but Yushchenko before him was typical comprador and i won’t even mention the maidan gang.
