Thread by @kichanova

A Libertarian Case for Supporting Ukraine 🗽🇺🇦

Libertarianism is based on the Non-Aggression Principle. Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is the victim. Case closed?

For many self-identified Western libertarians, apparently, it isn’t. Let’s talk about why they’re wrong 🧵

I guess I have some credentials here. Unlike JD Vance, I haven’t just “seen stories”—I’ve lived them.

I was the first Libertarian ever elected in Russia (and got arrested for it). I ran a libertarian magazine in Kyiv and saw the 2014 Ukrainian revolution firsthand.

My Russian friends are in exile, in prison, or in fear of imprisonment. Most of my Ukrainian family has been displaced as refugees—except for my grandparents, who died in 2022 soon after the full-scale invasion.

So forgive me for being emotional when I talk about these things.

Let’s get into it. 👇

Just like individuals, nations have the right to self-determination. You respect individual autonomy? Great. Then why deny a country’s right to choose its own security and alliances?

Russia is a neo-Gulag, expanding until stopped by force. Ukraine is paying the highest price shielding the world from Putin’s imperial fantasies.

Some of you fear “Western imperialism.” Ok. But how is Russian imperialism any better?

Russia’s “family values”? If you protest the war, they threaten to take your kids away. Dissidents are sent to psych wards against their will. Citizens encouraged to snitch on each other, Stalin-style.

There are things worse than vaccine mandates and woke propaganda in schools.

Speaking of brainwashing kids…

Russian schools now have mandatory patriotic education and revisionist history lessons. The state history exam—Russia’s version of the SAT—tests students on the “heroes” of the war in Ukraine.

Freedom of education, anyone?

Meanwhile, Ukraine isn’t some top-down nanny state. Centuries of resisting empire built a culture of self-reliance, distrust of authority, and disdain for overregulation. Post-2014 decommunization only reinforced that.

But muh Nazis?

Far-right parties got just 2% in the last parliamentary election. A single seat. Zelensky? A Russian-speaking Jew from Eastern Ukraine. I worried he’d be too soft on Putin—never been happier to be wrong.

Meanwhile, Russian state media publishes articles calling for the “de-Ukrainization” of Ukraine—essentially advocating for the destruction of Ukrainian identity:

But sure, let's talk about Ukraine's “extremism.”en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Russ…

No, there was no “coup” in 2014.

Ukrainians protested for a European future. Putin’s puppet Yanukovych tried to crush them with riot police. They fought back. 100+ died. Then he panicked and fled to Russia.

I was there on Euromaidan, among people risking their lives for freedom

“Peace” on Russia-occupied territories?

Try torture chambers, forced deportations, child kidnappings, and mass graves. Mariupol—my great-grandmother’s homeland—was effectively destroyed.

But hey, let’s just hand over more land and hope for the best, right?

Ukrainians want peace. But they’re not naive.

Putin signed peace deals before—then ripped them up. Again. And again. And again.

Why should this time be any different?

Ukraine gave up its nukes in 1991 in exchange for Russia promising to respect its borders.

Guess what? Putin broke that promise too.

Good thing libertarians totally trust autocrats to keep their word, right? 🤔

“NATO expansion forced Putin’s hand!”

Wrong.

Even early Putin wanted Russia in NATO. The invasion isn’t about NATO—it’s about Putin’s obsession with controlling Ukraine.

Post-Soviet Russia has waged war in Chechnya, Georgia, Moldova, and now Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine spent 21 years as a peaceful neighbour, never starting a single conflict.

That changed in 2014—when Russia showed up.

Trump’s “peace plan” is a time bomb.

It hands Putin a break to regroup, cuts off military aid to Ukraine, and moves the war out of the media spotlight. Next time he attacks, the world will act shocked, pretend to be caught off guard, and “express deepest concerns.” Once again.

Aligning with Russia to “counter China” is pure delusion.

Rewarding aggression encourages China, Iran, and every other authoritarian state with territorial ambitions.

No one wants this war to end more than Ukrainians.

They aren’t fighting for land, mineral resources, political ambition, or ideology. They’re fighting for the right to exist as a free country—not as a Russian puppet state.

A real peace deal must prevent future Russian aggression.

That means NATO, defense treaties, and—if needed—troops to enforce it. Otherwise, it’s just another pause before the next war.

You claim to oppose tyranny? Then oppose Putin.

You claim to support self-determination? Then support Ukraine.

Libertarians who refuse to see this aren’t libertarians. They’re just useful idiots for an empire.