And you, what did you do in 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine?

As a chess player I have always felt admiration for the Soviet people, but the current circumstances force us to speak out.

BACKGROUND
- Putin does not recognize the sovereignty Ukraine as an independent country. (Is this a divine power?)
- De facto, Russia already ruled in CRIMEA (2014 military action) and the DONBASS. (Supporting the subversives)
- Main argument, does not want Ukraine to join NATO. (Then conquer it to stay on the edge of enemy missiles!)

FACTS (15 days ago)
- Putin invades Ukraine with the endorsement of the Duma, with "basic lies without historical foundation", violating International Law! and the UN's condemnation of the civilized world!

SOLUTIONS (today)
1.- Putin stops the war and apologizes to the world.
2.- Russia donates €10,000M to rebuild Ukraine.
3.- Russia pays €10,000 million in moral damages.
4.- Ukraine compensates all those injured and declares a national day.
5.- Ukraine will organize a world peace conference every year, to avoid future wars.

What can we chess players do today as a world civilian population?
- Encourage Ukraine in its resistance.
- Donate to Ukraine.
- Accept Ukrainian refugees.
- Boycott Russian products.
- Publish war crimes.
- Denounce and refute the daily lies of the Russian Government.
- Inform friends and supporters of Putin.

Now Mr. Putin will never not be able to lead a normal life in public, when he leaves politics and does not have that special protection, there will always be someone in the world who wants to settle accounts with him. Hopefully that day never came.

Maybe I'm not right, but I would do the same again with any invading country or evil dictator. Many people already doubt the state of Putin's mental health, either the Russian people ask to stop the war or the rest of the world will do it for them.

Now the important thing is to find a peaceful solution as quickly as possible. In the meantime, strength and vigor to the UKRAINA!

We are all Ukrainians!

Roberto Páramos
Vigo, Spain
10/03/2022

> We are all Ukrainians!

No, we're not.

>what did you do in 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
I think the same as i thought for all 50-60 wars and major conflicts that happened in last 2 decades . I also think why is this one getting so much more attention .

@neverplaeydchess said in #2:
> BACKGROUND
> Ukraine bombed their own people in Donbass last 8 years. Noone in the whole world cares about it. Ukraine has 98 biological weapons laboratories. Ukraine has access to Chernobyl atomic station and going to create a "dirty" bomb. BUT! Noone in the whole world still cares about it.
>
> But also, war is worst action. I totally disagree with this way.

russia's claims of Ukraine having bioweapon labs is direct propaganda.
Besides, Russia already took Chernobyl. Not much Ukraine can do with it now.

In these discussions, I always see a bunch of Whataboutism. Well, to address that, the other cases are different:

* The 1991 Golf War (Operation Desert Storm) was to counteract Saddam Hussein doing with Kuwait what Putin is trying to do with Ukraine.

* The 2001 war with Afghanistan was a direct retaliation for the 9/11 attacks.

* The 2003 invasion of Iraq was one I opposed and protested. That said, I would rather have Zelenskyy as my president than Hussein as my dictator. Hussein tortured people for opposing him politically, Zelenskyy doesn’t.

I stand with Ukraine, and I consider Whataboutism a flawed arguing tactic. The topic of discussion is Ukraine, and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

@jdwhite42 said in #5:
> russia's claims of Ukraine having bioweapon labs is direct propaganda.
> Besides, Russia already took Chernobyl. Not much Ukraine can do with it now.
Not to mention the fact that Chernobyl's been closed for over 20 years

@jdwhite42 said in #5:
> russia's claims of Ukraine having bioweapon labs is direct propaganda.
> Besides, Russia already took Chernobyl. Not much Ukraine can do with it now.

Every bit of news that you get from any outlet is propaganda, Western media has its own agenda, Russian media has its own agenda, Chinese media has its own agenda etc. I look at all propaganda and make my views. We will know whether it is true or false once Russia gives concrete evidence. Even China has asked for clarification on this topic mind you.

The important thing in any issue is to take a look at both sides, preferably both extremes. Western media is no saint, USA has waged war and have taken many more lives by its military operations in the Middle East and countries like Vietnam.

I believe racism is a major elephant in the room here, a human life is a human life, no matter whether it is Ukraine or countries with people of darker skin. I remember USA giving an entire nation (Afghanistan) to the Taliban not long back, was it anywhere as criticized as this, not at all. Its the power of media, to make the masses sway to its agenda like a pendulum.

@wavecrusher indeed. although the Russian media is spouting blatant lies with little to no truth in them to get the Russian people to believe what they want to believe (that Putin is right and the West is wrong)

The media, at least in the USA, is very left-leaning for the most part, so they're probably not going to criticize an action that the president of their own party took (to leave Afghanistan) whereas with Ukraine it's unrelated to American politics and is obviously viewed as a humanitarian crisis.(which the Afghanistan situation probably should have been considered as well)

i don't think it's as much racism as it is the media wanting to push their own agenda and not wanting to make Biden look bad.

Western countries forced this war, Russian cannot tolerate that Ukraine joins NATO. If Mexico was about to form a military alliance with Russia or China, USA would invade without hesitation.

I'm most worried about the authoritarian reaction of the west. We're seeing ethnic persecution against Russians and to anybody that disagree from the propaganda machine, It's Orwellian.