Thread by @TimothyDSnyder

I am getting weary of reading articles in which Americans advise other Americans about how to negotiate the future of #Ukraine. (Thread) 1/
#WestSplaining

We are not fighting in Ukraine, and so we do not decide when the fighting stops, or on what terms. 2/
#UkraineWar #RussianUkrainianWar

This war would have been avoided had #Russia treated #Ukraine as a sovereign state, and negotiated with it. 3/

Instead Putin refused to speak to Ukrainian leaders, presented them as vassals, denied the existence of their country, and invaded. 4/

Ukraine's great achievement in this war has been to establish its existence and its sovereignty before the world, and even to the Russians. 5/

Now it is taken for granted, even in Moscow, that this Ukrainian government will represent this Ukrainian state in future negotiations. 6/

When Americans speak to other Americans about what #Ukraine must do, we are heedlessly negating Ukrainian sovereignty. 7/

Let us not deny who Ukrainians are and what Ukrainians have achieved. 8/8