[Boudica]

Thanks Shionari. I appreciate your input.

My pleasure ^^ I love having these discussions

At the end of the day, he, and others in his government, chose independence as more important than the risks. I believe the stance the civilians have taken have shown they they, by a large majority, agree with this stance.

To clarify, this isn't something I've taken from news, it's because I know actual Ukrainians in real life. This has somewhat altered my viewpoint. They do a very good job of also describing the Russian perspective, which is very interesting.

Of course, without speaking to someone actually from/in Russia, it's difficult to get a fairer picture.

The narrative that Zelensky put his people in a situation they weren't happy to enter, isn't entirely true. If that were the case, his approval ratings would plummet. The opposite has happened, showing that the Ukrainian people want to remain independent of Russia. To say he shouldn't have been elected isn't fair, as he's representing his people's interests (for better or worse).

Unlike the Ukraine, Russia is seeing signs of dissent. Over 14,000 people have been arrested for protest, and their astronauts are wearing the Ukrainian flag. The will of the people, in both Ukraine and the rest of the world, is evident.

I see. I hadn't really considered the fact that Ukrainians seemed to support Zelensky's decision. Perhaps it was unfair of me to judge him hastily, but I still think his decision was overall a bad one. At the end of the day, this whole conflict still hasn't led to anything that could be considered positive. Sure, people are now speaking out against Putin's brutality and dictatorship, and Ukraine has shown that it wants to obtain its independence, but that's nothing compared to the hundreds of lives that were lost in the process - at least, in my opinion. There had to have been a better way than to go through all this bloodshed.
Then again, it's still too early to say anything for certain. Maybe this will lead to new developments in the future that will justify what the Ukrainians went through. I kind of doubt it, but you never know.
@"Boudica" What did you mean by Russian perspective? I'm curious to know about that

Agreed! I was shocked it really went as far as an outright war.
I suspect no war is ever worth it, especially to those that lose someone. However, there's no country/nation that's history is free from it.

So, I'd be curious to see what Russian's themselves think about this. I'm aware thousands of their citizens have been arrested for protesting, and independent media companies are being censored. So I'm curious to see what this war would look like, from someone of a different bias to my own. What do they think of the protestors. How much do they believe the Nazi narrative?