@ScumbagDog
i think the problem with that is: if the "international community" really stands so close together, why doesn't the west supports the smaller countries so that they don't depend as hard on russia?

my guess is because the west only ever does such things if there is a gain for them or at least it doesn't cost more than peanuts. look at how much is spend on humanitarian and infrastructure aid and how much germany alone now spends on military. it's at best a sick joke if the west claims to have any moral high ground.

@bonifartius
For your info, the west already donates a lot of money in humanitarian aid: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_development_aid_country_donors

Relative to the German military spending in 2019, Germany's humanitarian aid is about half of that.

But sure, "peanuts".

That being said, this is mostly whataboutism. Developing countries can't pick and choose their trading partners, regardless of humanitarian aid.

"Why didn't the west do X"
Well, why didn't Russia just not invade Ukraine?

We can theorise all day.

@ScumbagDog

> Relative to the German military spending in 2019, Germany's humanitarian aid is about half of that.

fast forward to '22 we will spend 100 000 000 000€ because of russia. if we have a war with russia, it would be WW3 and nobody comes out of that alive. the crazy spending is like throwing money directly into the incinerator.

> Developing countries can't pick and choose their trading partners, regardless of humanitarian aid.

the west could be actively pushing for more (fair!) trade with those countries. nobody to blame but ourselves we didn't do that.

> That being said, this is mostly whataboutism.

fwiw, i think "whataboutism" can be applied to almost anything at this point and invoking it is always a try to "win" a discussion.

@ScumbagDog, officially my country (Việt Nam) refer to the sanctions as the West’s. The state’s media so far stay neutral military-wise, while showing support for Ukrainian citizens. Officially we call for deescalation which is basically against Russia’s military operation, but we neither condemn the Russian government or the Russian people. This is consistent with our previous response to the USA’s military operations in the middle east.

Personally I think all of those operations are unjust invasions and our government is too dependent on both sides to publicly condemn them. I believe that the situation is the same for most other small countries and I still prefer it to a single polar world where the west can dictate everything.

That being said, sanction against Russian people is absolutely sociopathic: not only it hurts powerless people, it’s also a justification for Russians to resent the West. I am happy that my country is not a part of WWIII escalation.