Don't hit me back after I hit you. After I hit you repeatedly. And after I killed your families. And after I destroyed your infrastructure and mined your country.
Pretty much how every war has started since forever. But a lot of this "hitting back" is coming from the deep pockets of the NATO coalition, dumping all their spare hardware into Ukraine's back pockets. This is the textbook definition of a proxy war.
But then everyone gets a little blood on them and we see another round of hitting back. More Russian bombs landing in Ukraine's west. More Ukrainian villages encircled and civilians fled down south. More angry Ukrainians eager to hit back again.
Another year of pointlessly shed blood across Eastern Europe by people that seem to have learned nothing from the brutality of the last 30 years of wars.
I mean yeah you can say it's just a proxy war, but if a large nation supporting a small nation during a time of war makes it a proxy war, then the American Revolution was a proxy war between Britain and France. Proxy wars can still be liberatory, just like this one, where Ukraine is literally fighting for it's freedom and survival.
if a large nation supporting a small nation during a time of war makes it a proxy war, then the American Revolution was a proxy war between Britain and France.
Yes. It was an extension of the Anglo-French Wars which had been raging since the 1100s.
Ukraine is literally fighting for it’s freedom and survival
Given the enormous war-time debts assumed by the national government, that ship has already sailed. They're fighting for the opportunity to be a NATO occupied state rather than a Russian satellite. And they're most likely going to end this war thoroughly balkinized in either event, as the ethnic cleansing on each end of the country has weeded out anyone with divided loyalties.
Ukraine, as a continguous going concern, has about as much of a chance as Gaza or Sudan.