Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stressed that no country or world leader has the right to negotiate with Russia on behalf of Ukraine. He noted that any dialogue with the Kremlin must be held according to an agreed action plan and only from a position of strength.
Summary
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asserted that no world leader has the right to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin on behalf of Ukraine.
Speaking to Le Parisien readers, Zelenskyy emphasized that Ukraine alone determines its future and any dialogue with Russia must follow a peace plan based on strength and international support.
He warned against negotiating without clear guarantees of security, highlighting the risks of Putin resuming aggression after a ceasefire.
Zelenskyy called for a strategy ensuring Ukraine's long-term stability and security, beyond NATO or EU membership timelines.
You'd think this would be a fairly cut and dry issue - the countries helping Ukraine wouldn't like it either if another country started negotiating terms on their behalf (especially not with a monster like Putin).
Ukraine and its people should be the ones to decide their own fate.
I swear people who think otherwise must've read David vs. Goliath and sided with the Goliath.
100%. Reading the Bible cover to cover + learning about the history of how Judaism was born out of the polytheistic Yahwism and the resulting merge between Yahweh and the chief Canaanite god El was the way I just kept pulling the thread until it all came apart. The inconsistencies between an omnibenevolent god (El) and violent massacring war god (Yahweh) make a lot more sense once you know they used to be two separate gods.
Honestly I'm not qualified enough to make educated guesses what type of texts those are. As in, are they written in a form that insinuates to be literal stories. The teachings of those stories are pretty understandable, though.
Some say that the oldest stories are reverse prophecies. And we know how accurate prophecies are considered in general.
The Bible is not a science book, but one of relationship between God and man.
It's interesting that that relationship changes, isn't it? Like, early on God is the sort of deity to turn you into salt or flood the world if He's displeased. And over time, He does that sort of spiteful intervention less and less. It's hard not to see it as Him getting wiser and more compassionate. But... if He's all powerful and all knowing to begin with, why does His approach to people change?
It's not only interesting, it's difficult to understand, and Old Testament contains a lot of stuff that makes you doubt. But if you look at it from a theological view, God's judgement does not disappear anywhere in New Testament. It's just diverted into one person: his own son, who he abandons to be crucified, even though he is innocent.
Christianity is really a horrifying religion. The core of it is disgusting and offensive.
I can't say I disagree. The tendency to outright dismiss christianity online is understandable, but a little frustrating. Even with that horrifying core, a lot of people find solace in it. For many, it's the only semblence of community that's lasted into the 21st century.
On another level, it's just plain interesting the sorts of stories people felt needed to be preserved. It speaks to how they lived and what they valued. A lot has changed, and a lot hasn't. That kind of narrative window into the past is valuable, and I'm glad I grew up with it, even if I don't consider myself Christian anymore.
The stories in the Bible are kind of comforting, in a way. It's basically a chain of generations after generations fucking everything up and doing every horrible thing mankind does. Yet through all that the message is that God is always the same and always waiting for his people to stop running away from him.
Hey Goliath was clearly in the right. David brought a gun to a fist fight, bastard never should have been allowed to walk free after that level of cheating.
Israel gets all the munitions it wants to enact a genocide, but Ukraine has to fight for every bullet to fight for its own sovereignty against a modern day dictator.
The US government's priorities really are something.
Then why is Ukraine constantly upset US isn't giving enough aid?
Also, Europe supplies more aid to Ukraine than the US.
You might not realize this, but you're comparing a continent to a country. US is still "the country sending the most aid to Ukraine," which I said in my previous comment.
Maybe it's just me, but life in Ukraine didn't look all that different from life in Russia before the invasion.
Both nations are far behind the civilized world when it comes to social issues. Corruption was cited as a major reason for denying Ukraine entrance into NATO.
the difference beforehand was that prior to the shooting (big shooting at least). One was a flawed democracy that was trying to improve, and trying to do to itself what Poland did to itself after 20-30 years in NATO and EU.
the other was an authoritarian mob state. going from one to the other, was evidently worth fighting to the death over, I am inclined to agree.