zlacker

The beauty of nuclear weapons being possessed by both sides in a conflict is that it's in neither sides best interest to fire the first nuke.

The West being aligned with Ukraine would prevent Ukraine from getting nuked in an extended conflict.

That being said, there would have been no extended conflict for Ukraine without the West's assistance, they simply wouldn't exist without the international assistance, reducing the chance of Russia using a first strike against Ukraine to 0.

>>midnit+(OP)
> That being said, there would have been no extended conflict for Ukraine without the West's assistance, they simply wouldn't exist without the international assistance

Don't underestimate Russia but don't overestimate them either:

Russia lost against Afghanistan already back when they were a superpower and had Ukraine on their side.

They will lose this time too even if they are even dumber this time and choose to waste all their conventional forces there.

>>reitan+up
> Russia lost against Afghanistan already back when they were a superpower and had Ukraine on their side.

The mujahedeen fighting Russia in Afghanistan also had Western (US, particularly) support.

>>reitan+up
The Kievan Rus is the mythical birthplace of the Russian people. Afghanistan on the other hand… has some nice mountains, I guess?