[sva_]

I don't think the Ukranian people are being supressed by their own gov

[no-name-here]

Is the argument that the U.S. should only militarily intervene when conflicts are internal within another country, as opposed to when it’s one country invading another? As that’s the opposite of the established international laws around prohibiting one state from attacking another vs the principle of non-intervention.

[CapricornNoble]

1. The Russian position in 2014 was that the Ukrainian people in Donbas were being oppressed by the new Ukrainian central government.

2. There's a lot of domestic political/information suppression in Ukraine but I consider this somewhat normal for a nation in a pretty existential conflict.

3. The Ukrainian military is 70-80% conscripts, increasingly of the "forcibly mobilized" variety (look up "TCC busification" for examples), with almost all military-age males banned from leaving the country. Dudes are getting beaten up, stuffed into vans, and sent to trenches to eat Russian artillery and FABs (air-to-ground bombs)....against their will. I think that definitely counts as suppression.

[cylemons]

What is Ukraine supposed to do then?

[ceejayoz]

> armed men wearing balaclavas drive up in vans and abduct people off the street to draft them into the military

Every country with conscription will do this if you refuse to show up.

> Both the west and the east have been pressuring them to hold elections to no avail.

Their own constitution and laws forbids it during martial law.

“Both Putin and Trump want Zelensky to violate the Ukrainian Constitution” is not the grand slam take you imagine it to be.

[lurk2]

They haven’t had an election since the war started and routinely force unwilling conscripts into vans.

[ceejayoz]

> They haven’t had an election since the war started

Because that’s what their constitution says. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/ukraines-presidential...

> routinely force unwilling conscripts into vans

Can you clarify what you understand conscription to be?

[Peanuts99]

How do you even securely hold an election during a full scale war? Thousands are outside the country or on the front lines. You'd also be creating huge targets at polling stations. Luckily their constitution recognises it's a bad idea to try.