Summary

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asserted that no world leader has the right to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin on behalf of Ukraine.

Speaking to Le Parisien readers, Zelenskyy emphasized that Ukraine alone determines its future and any dialogue with Russia must follow a peace plan based on strength and international support.

He warned against negotiating without clear guarantees of security, highlighting the risks of Putin resuming aggression after a ceasefire.

Zelenskyy called for a strategy ensuring Ukraine’s long-term stability and security, beyond NATO or EU membership timelines.

  • tired_n_bored@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I am so sad by how Ukraine has been handled.

    The West should have been an overwhelming power against Russian imperialism. Ukraine should have been given everything from the beginning, no strings attached, with no self-imposed red lines.

    They will swallow another democracy in 10-20 years and the cycle repeats.

    • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      And that would likely have ended the war sooner, causing less people to die, and making Putin less likely to try something like it in the future.

    • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Tactically, the plan is to make Russia bleed to death rather than temporarily paralyse it.

      Maximizing the loss of russian life and draining the russian economy to the point that the population won’t tolerate any further war is the goal. It’s unfortunate that this is at the cost of ongoing war in Ukraine.

      • GuitarSon2024@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        This is a solid take, but the other side of the issue is the question of how long will it take the brainwashed Russian population to realize the economy has passed a point of no return? Outside of major cities much of Russia lives in 3rd world poverty. Will they even notice if the ruble falls to zero?

        • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Some might not notice a change in the economy, but they will notice that their sons are being taken and that they are not coming back.

          Approximately 1 in 1000 Russian males have now been killed. How many more will have to die for the average Russian to say “no more” is a tough question.

            • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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              19 hours ago

              I used a population of 143,000,000 divided by an estimated death toll in Ukraine of 70,000 and assumed half of the russian population is female.

              1 in 100 might be correct if you only consider men of a fighting age.

              • thebestaquaman@lemmy.world
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                17 hours ago

                Holy shit, I haven’t looked at the numbers in a while, but

                • Russian population: 140 000 000
                • Male population: 70 000 000
                • Male fighting age population (18 - 60 years): Very approximately 50 000 000 (I honestly just made up a number a bit smaller than 70)
                • Documented KIA: 85 000
                • Projected actual KIA: 170 000 (Note: Prigozin claimed 120 000 KIA in June 2023)
                • Projected number of severely wounded: Roughly 500 000

                Result:

                • Roughly 0.34 % fighting age men killed
                • Roughly 1 % of fighting age men severely wounded

                This has to be getting close to a point where most Russians know someone personally that has been killed or severely wounded in the war…

                • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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                  15 hours ago

                  I heard a while ago that a very well connected person (the sort of person that doesn’t need to work and could spend all their free time maintaining family relations and friendships) would really only be able to maintain family relations and friendships with about two hundred people. The sort of people that say “I have 1000 friends on Facebook” are talking complete bollocks, there’s a huge difference between a relationship/friendship and an acquaintance that you haven’t talked to for fifteen years. The average person truly knows many less people than this, usually in the low dozens.

                  Using your figures and assuming that these relationships are 50/50 male/female, even these very well connected people would statistically still know less than one injured soldier and have less than a 1/3 chance of personally knowing someone that was killed.

                  I know this comment assumes and extrapolates quite a bit and the idea is somewhat of a tangent from the original comment, but I think it’s quite interesting.

                  • thebestaquaman@lemmy.world
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                    9 hours ago

                    True, I did a quick calculation and the probability of knowing someone killed or severely injured is

                    • 12.5% if you know 10 people
                    • 23.5% if you know 20 people
                    • 33.5% if you know 30 people
                    • 41.5% if you know 40 people
                    • 49% if you know 50 people

                    So around ⅓ Russians know at least one person that’s been killed or wounded, and around 10-20% of Russians have someone in their inner circle of friends and family (10-20 closest) that have been killed for wounded.

                    For this last number to reach 50%, the number of killed+wounded needs to reach about 5% of the fighting age population (≈2.5 million).

                    Of course, the above assumes that casualties are randomly distributed in the population. In reality it’s likely that fewer people know someone killed or wounded, and that those that know someone likely know more, because of the casualties being disproportionately effecting more rural regions of the country.

      • deczzz@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 days ago

        Please be more concrete. Who is the west? Because in Denmark we throw resources at Ukraine to support their efforts.

      • DicJacobus@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        they’ll give a shit once all other options have been exhausted, and people realize the next step is actual shooting war, with the bombs falling on Warsaw, Helsinki, Berlin, etc. When they realize they’re on their last legs before the big one, then they’ll take it seriously.

        America is a write off, Regulatory captured by the Russian Federation / Russian Mob, Same thing At the very least until 2026 midterms. Europe is still in denial that its time to switch from butter, to guns. Literally

        • vga@sopuli.xyz
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          2 days ago

          There is a lot in Ukraine to “steal”. It’s a large land mass with a long border with both Belarussia and Russia. They still have plenty of Black Sea border, and with proper support could have lot more. Breadbasket of Europe, plenty of nuclear plants and knowledge in that area. The Zone. Ukrainian people, one of the oldest cultures in Europe with all that that entails.

            • vga@sopuli.xyz
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              2 days ago

              They have uranium though, which could be more important in the future. Even if Russia gets all the land they currently control by military, plenty of those uranium deposits would remain with Ukraine.

    • thermal_shock@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      everything keeps pointing to time being a circle, the same things will continue to happen every 20-30 years. like the show Dark.

    • caboose2006@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      Maybe no civilian targets. But other than that totally agree. We should have put lend lease circa 1940s to shame

        • caboose2006@lemmy.ca
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          12 hours ago

          Or maybe the US should have stopped Catherine the great from annexing Crimea. Jesus you people.

          • bufalo1973@lemmy.ml
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            8 hours ago

            Oh, right, I didn’t remember I wasn’t allowed to set the time frame. Only you have that power, right? 🤦‍♂️

            Edit: and it was YOU the one talking about 1940s.

    • ZeroOne@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Ah yes “muh Russian Imperialism” argument/excuse that we all heard a bajillion times

      • iskela45@sopuli.xyz
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        2 days ago

        What exactly do you describe Russia’s actions in Ukraine then if not imperialism? Do you believe Ukrainians have a right to self determination?

      • fxomt@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        Russian imperialism is as real as any other. What makes russia different? What do you think is the reason for the war?

        • ZeroOne@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Resources mostly & technically what makes US a better alternative, I was expecting you to side with Both US & Putin due to your love for fascism

          • fxomt@lemm.ee
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            2 days ago

            due to your love for fascism

            lmfao. okay bro, you know literally nothing about me, but apparently i’m already a fascist.

            and resources doesn’t make a country any less/more genocidal, or imperialist.

            and fuck the US, fuck putin. unlike you, i’m not a hypocrite.

            • ZeroOne@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              Except Putin with all his craziness has done significantly less carnage compared to US & Israel (That’s Putin’s only redeeming quality) Reminder not justifying Russia’s actions but hey you people usually ignore that

              • fxomt@lemm.ee
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                1 day ago

                Two things can be bad at once. Eastern Imperialists are still Imperialists.

                And how does this justify the invasion? Russia is in the wrong. I’m not sure who or what you’re arguing for here.

                  • fxomt@lemm.ee
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                    1 day ago

                    Did you expect me to say the US should invade Brazil in that case, as a gotcha? Because I don’t.

      • vga@sopuli.xyz
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        2 days ago

        Putin has repeatedly mentioned in public interviews that he wants to restore the Russian Empire. Do you think he’s lying?

      • NeilBrü@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Ah yes, “insert'Muh'MemeLanguageHere” argument/excuse that we all heard a bajillion times