cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/49348810
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Forcing Ukraine to relinquish the Donbas would dismantle its defensive shield, which together with the army, broader society considers an internal security guarantee. Rather than de-escalate the conflict, it would provide Russia with fortified ground, logistics hubs and forward operating depth, enabling it to regroup and prepare further offensives from a dramatically stronger position. A Russia that gains territory through coercion will use any pause not to reconcile, but to rearm.
It also violates a core principle of international law: borders cannot be changed by force. If conquest succeeds in Ukraine, other revisionist powers will conclude that war pays. Framing the Donbas as a bargaining chip also ignores the lived experience of Russian occupation. It treats territory as a bargaining chip while ignoring the people who live there.
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Millions of Ukrainians live under Russian occupation across parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk, along with the areas of the Donbas and Crimea. Their experience of Russian rule offers a clear indication of what further territorial concessions would entail.
Human rights organisations have documented widespread abuses in Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories, including mass repression, forced deportations, filtration camps, torture, disappearances and the systematic eradication of Ukrainian language and culture. The Kremlin is implementing a comprehensive campaign to erase Ukrainian statehood and identity – an ethnic cleansing in plain sight.
Russia’s coercive ‘passportisation’ policies deny access to employment, mortgages, home ownership, school enrollment and healthcare – including to critical medicine and other basic services – to anyone not holding Russian papers. Residents are also forcibly conscripted into the occupying Russian military, which is a war crime.
Education systems now impose the Russian curriculum, while Ukrainian language instruction has been banned. Tens of thousands of children have been deported to Russia or subjected to so-called ‘re-education’ programmes, including via ‘summer’ or ‘holiday’ camps. Disinformation is widespread on Telegram and other social media communities, which have become powerful tools to foster loyalty to Russia.
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Territorial concessions do not bring lasting peace. They create temporary, unstable ceasefire lines which Russia transforms into militarised enclaves to exploit in future escalation.
There is also a question of democratic legitimacy. Ukrainians have endured extraordinary hardship since the start of the war, yet public opinion repeatedly shows strong resistance to trading land for so-called peace. This reflects a widely shared understanding that surrendering territory under military pressure would reward aggression and leave Ukraine permanently vulnerable. Pressuring Ukraine to hand over land undermines its sovereignty and agency.
Wars do not end simply because one side seeks peace. They end when aggression fails. Peace without justice and security is an illusion. When Russia’s annexation of Crimea and invasion of Eastern Ukraine in 2014 was rewarded with limited consequences – it returned stronger. Rewarding further territory would only embolden an even more dangerous aggressor.
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What do Ukrainian conscripts think about rejecting “so called” peace? Does not matter, we want them to keep fighting for EU.
They’re fighting for their sovereignty, not for the EU. Stop with this baseless logic you tankies keep using.
The soldiers fight because they are forced to. They are able to because we sell them weapons with money we loan to them. Win win for our rich guys.
Just like Russian soldiers are forced to fight in Ukraine?
And are you even hearing yourself? They are ABLE to fight because they are sold weapons. The alternative is that they can’t fight back an invasion of their own country and have to surrender it to the imperialistic ambition of a crazy leader like Putin. I guess given the place you make your account, that is exactly what you want.
I just don’t understand all this pretense about caring for Ukrainian soldiers when we all know which side you actually support.
Yes exactly. Russian soldiers are forced as well, never said anything else.
If the fucking west was really interested in Ukraine winning we would have given them the weapons they needed early on. But we didn’t want them to win, we want them to keep Russia busy.
There are literally no gains for either side in the last two years. Do you suppose this war should go on until either side has it all?
Your outrage about where my account was made is pretentious and silly tbh.
The west should’ve, but they didn’t. I never said the west did everything right while helping Ukraine, but you were suggesting that they should let Russia keep the territories that they stole, which is basically giving Putin what he wants.
Remind me what happens the last time they conceded their territory to Putin? It definitely didn’t prevent them from invading again.
Ukraine is not conquering Russian lands, so there is no “has it all” for them. It’s a fight to not let Putin steal their land. The fact that you’re equating the two sides really shows your lack of neutrality in this matter. Where you made your account is simply more proof of it.
Okay so you say the EU should keep the war running as long as possible. If it makes me a monster to not see any sense in it so be it.
Nah, I don’t agree with prolonging the war, but I vehemently disagree with forcing the war to end by capitulating to Putin.
We’ve seen what happens when you do and the answer was not long term peace. Doing that again is as stupid as the US starting another war in the middle east.
As long as Ukraine is still fighting, the EU should keep letting them fight. Stopping Putin’s ambitions short is beneficial for them as well as Ukraine.
Ukraine had a functioning security guarantee for decades: adhering to the pledge of neutrality and staying out of great power blocs written in its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.
The ruling class of Ukraine could have rejected NATO aloud, suppressed the Nazi training camps and cut off their funding, and finally not run its mouth about wanting to obtain nukes from NATO where they can be stationed on Moscow’s doorstep. It has cravenly walked its people into the jaws of great power conflict with no end in sight.
