I provided sources going over the fact that constant shelling has occured and resulted in civilian deaths, not just on the raw number. Further:

Russia-backed armed groups in the Luhansk region and the Ukrainian government blamed each other for the attack. Several military experts, including the open source media group Bellingcat, said that the spray pattern from the impact crater from the shell in the yard was consistent with the attack coming from the south, the direction of Russia-backed armed groups’ positions.

Actual examination of shelling shows that it’s Kiev that’s guilty. The HRW reports on the shelling and humanitarian impact, while playing vague at who actually was guilty.

Even if you’re correct in saying Russia wants to establish itself as a new hegemon, it currently has a paltry share of the world’s financial capital, and no colonies nor neocolonies. It doesn’t have hundreds of millitary bases overseas. It could not simply replace the US Empire, and as a consequence it is better to critically support Russia over the US Empire.

The working class in Russia is rallying around the CPRF, desiring a return to socialism. This isn’t yet dominant, but is a rising trend. The working classes in Ukraine support an end to the war. It’s mostly supported by the nationalists in Ukraine to continue, rather than surrender the four Oblasts that already want to be a part of Russia anyways.

The war itself isn’t about “Russian expansion,” but even if it was, the US is the world hegemon and therefore Russia could never even hope to be as bad. Calling it “problematic all the same” is disingenuous and erases the fact that the US Empire is the one that is plundering the global south, and is the one with hundreds of overseas millitary bases, not Russia.

Atrocities committed by Kiev and Russia aren’t good, I agree. I have never once said “war crimes good” in this entire conversation. I don’t want a world with war crimes. The best course to stop it is for Kiev to cede the 4 oblasts and agree to neutrality with NATO. That way the people of Donetsk and Luhansk are protected from the Banderites, and the Ukrainian conscripts aren’t sent to die for wealthy capitalists in the US Empire.

The specter of COMMUNISM!

Where do you depart from Marx?

Again, having a shared land, history, culture, and language is enough to form a distinct nation. Simply claiming that imperialism shouldn’t exist doesn’t mean that it doesn’t, and national liberation using Vietnam as an example is progressive in the context of freeing Vietnam from colonialism. Nationalism in the US perpetuates imperialism, nationalism in Vietnam works towards ending it. It doesn’t matter how much you don’t want nations to exist, they will until imperialism is ended and global socialism is achieved, and as such we need to first end imperialism, where nationalism in the imperialized countries is a useful tool.

If your side is with the international workers of the world, then the worst outcome is Russia losing, and being weakened into opening up its markets for foreign plunder. Imperialism is the highest contradiction today, helmed by the US Empire. This isn’t simply “campism,” but a recognition that continuing to fuel the US Empire delays the global transition to socialism. Opposing both sides sounds nice from a sloganeering perspective, but unless you have an alternative that’s just saying you don’t think it actually matters.

Without Russia intervening, the Kiev regime was about to invade DPR and LPR, creating a humanitarian crisis far exceeding the decade pre-2022. The fact is, the Banderites in Kiev had already slaughtered people in the Maidan Massacre and couped the president Eastern Ukraine supported, which is valid enough reason for seperatism. Kiev responded with shelling, warfare, and a general humanitarian crisis.

Kiev doesn’t just have fascist militias, but an outright fascist government that upholds Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera. They aren’t merely reactionary, but a particular type of fascist that requires suppressing democracy, destroying labor organizers, and forcing austerity measures as Ukraine is hollowed out by the west.

The war was avoidable and is tragic, and was provoked by NATO and the Banderites. Russia tried to establish the Minsk accords to stop the fighting before 2022, and both were broken by Kiev. It’s a mess of a war that will end the only way it can, with Russia annexing the four oblasts.

I don’t share your same fear. Hopefully the US Empire will die soon, but either way, Trump is not some dark horse phenomenon, but a reflection of the deterioration of the US Empire and the need for the imperialists to inflict austerity to cover their losses from that.

Trump is just another president, just more honest about the cruelty. The US Empire has always been evil.

I’m trying to tell you that Trump does not have the ability to act unilaterally. The US forces would sooner perform a coup than let that happen. The US isn’t simply Trump’s whims, but is merely run by his faction of the capitalists right now, and that faction has interests particular to them and universal to the capitalists in the US, none of which would let Taiwan reunify even peacefully.

They said “Russian,” that’s a word. Not really a point tho.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a Romanian anti-communist organizer has a bad opinion of socialism, nor do I think it especially worth reading over better books.

Read the reports cited yourself.

I provided multiple reports going over the conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk, which resulted in 13,000 civilians killed by Kiev. Those are the “goalposts.”

The entire premise of China “invading” Taiwan is false. Taiwan is Chinese, and the PRC is the legitimate government of China, not the ROC. As such, the PRC is just waiting for the seperatist government to stand down, despite the US empire wanting a hot war. This is a hot war the US establishment desperately wants, there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell they’d trade that for a tower.

Ceasefire violations, famous for having 0 casualties or fatalities.

Russia-backed armed groups in the Luhansk region and the Ukrainian government blamed each other for the attack. Several military experts, including the open source media group Bellingcat, said that the spray pattern from the impact crater from the shell in the yard was consistent with the attack coming from the south, the direction of Russia-backed armed groups’ positions.

Actual examination of shelling shows that it’s Kiev that’s guilty. The HRW reports on the shelling and humanitarian impact, while playing vague at who actually was guilty.