Balkanmapper on YouTube. They do daily video updates of the war

some MLs might benefit from re-reading Lenin’s works around WWI, because some subtext around here seems to be picking sides in this inter-imperialist war rather than hoping for peace.

Russia isn’t imperialist, and its actions in the context of the Ukraine war are if anything explicitly anti-imperialist. I imagine that’s why people are disagreeing with you (myself included). Anyone decent will side with Russia (regardless of its genuine issues, none of which involve being imperialist) in its defense of ethnic Russo-Ukranians and other minorities in the region, of its own integrity and resistance against NATO encroachment, and its role as part of the greater global resistance against imperialism as a world system.

which tbh some people on this site seem a little too excited about despite hundreds of thousands of people’s lives being at stake, both Russian and Ukrainian

Critical support for Russia because:

• it weakens NATO, EU, US, UK, and all the mechanisms they employ to keep communism down in the world. There can be no successful communist revolution without these entities being weakened or destroyed. For example, the recent decolonization efforts by Central African states like Niger and Burkina Faso would not have been possible had the West not been engaged and trounced in the war in Ukraine. Nor would the Palestinian Uprising.

• Russia is not fighting an imperialist war, but an anti-imperialist one. Specifically, it is preventing the subjugation of Ukraine by the West, which has been actively trying for the past 10 years to achieve this. And this was done for the purpose of attacking Russia itself. So in many regards, people support Russia because they recognize this is a defensive conflict.

• It is very likely that Russia will turn imperialist in the future, after this war is over, but right now, Russia serves as one of the most important allies for the world’s best hope for achieving world socialism, which is China.

some MLs might benefit from re-reading Lenin’s works around WWI, because some subtext around here seems to be picking sides in this inter-imperialist war rather than hoping for peace.

I understand where you are coming from, but I think it’s idealistic to wish that Russia and Ukraine sign a peace right now. A peace treaty at this juncture would mean that a Ukrainian neo-Nazi regime with an axe to grind will be joining an already-belligerent NATO, which would immediately station troops and nukes on Ukrainian territory. Ukraine’s (and the West’s) only motivation for peace is to gain time to rebuild their forces so they can try this again, like they’ve done before with the Minsk I and II agreements. In 5-10 years, the provocations will restart, with the West being better prepared for it. Which means that nuclear war might not be avoided.

If Russia takes out Ukraine’s ability to join NATO, denazifies it, and at the same time, humiliates the West such that it will not try something similar again in the near future, then the world will actually be a safer place.

I understand the desire to save lives, but we have to approach this conflict dialectically and understand the consequences of different outcomes.