| Jaicee said: The Ukrainians called upon the United States and Western powers more broadly to, as applicable, abandon the Nord Stream 2 oil pipeline between Russia and Germany |
That Nord Stream 2 pipe is just a red herring. Of course the Ukrainians were against NS2, NS1 runs through their country and they get quite a chunk of money out of it every year. (And it doesn't need a rocket scientist to know what Putin would have done once NS2 would be operating). I'm pretty sure they are dancing in Bejing now, they could get all the gas they need from Russia in the future.
The underlining problem has always been that the Ukraine is nowhere near what one could call a democracy. You basically have a set of old fashioned Oligarchs running he country to their will. So western support has always been, let's call it cautious. All these former Soviet satellites show the same behaviour. Poland, Hungary as they are run now by party dictatorship are the best examples of countries that have never learned what democracy means. The only former satellite states that do reasonably well are the baltic states, and boy are they nervous now.
"We like the Ukraine only because they are a pain in the *s to Russia" is the unspoken mantra hence the reason why you are going to hear a lot of "we are really concerned" speeches from European politicians, almost none of which have any interest in actually helping in whatever form that could be. Russia has the gas and the raw materials for electronic components. If you thought there is a chip crisis going on, just wait until Russia stops delivering the raw goods...
