Moral Reasoning Isn't Wishful Thinking

Thoughts on Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

Konstantin Kisin a Russian-British social commentator, and author of An Immigrant's Love Letter to the West, writing about ending Russian aggression in Ukraine (“Wishful Thinking Won’t End the War”) points out that too many people calling for a negotiated end to Russia's invasion of Ukraine forget that

…when the war first broke out, President Zelensky, called for negotiations every single day. He repeatedly called on President Putin to hold negotiations "mano-a-mano” to hash things out.

These negotiations failed because Russia felt in control and demanded that all of its stated war goals were met. That is not negotiations, that is unconditional surrender, which, I remind you, included demilitarisation, removal of the elected Government of Ukraine under the banner of so-called “denazification” and, of course, complete independence and, undoubtedly, immediate subsequent annexation of the Donbass and, likely, other territories it had under its control at the time.

In other words, attempts were made to negotiate, including by embarassing kowtowing from Macron and Scholz both before and after the invasion, which, undoubtedly emboldened Putin further by making him believe that he could break the West’s resolve by peeling off France and Germany.

He goes on to say that

…what Ukraine needs is long term security. Not words on a piece of paper. Actual security. If they don’t get it, the lives they “save” now will be lost double when Russia inevitably invades again. And, yes, I’m sorry, long term security for Ukraine means NATO membership which Putin would not agree to as things stand.

And so we are where we are.

Ukraine has the initiative. They’re taking back territory. Russia’s mobilisation efforts are stalling. Putin is busily reshuffling his deck of corrupt and incompetent generals. They know Putin won’t use a nuke over Kharkhiv and Kherson - it would be suicidal for him and for Russia. It makes perfect sense for Ukraine to continue its efforts to re-take more territory before the Indian summer ends and the fields of Kherson turn to impassable mud.

The only way to get Ukraine to negotiate right now is to pull all Western support and let them get slaughtered.

As for those who say this isn’t a war in the interest of US or Europe he says that

…Vladimir Putin [has] explained in the clearest possible terms what his actual objectives are: to dismantle the West’s hegemony.

It is in our strategic interest to prevent this from happening, not only because the impact on our standard of living will be infinitely worse than the energy crisis of our own making, but also because Vladimir Putin’s dream of a “multipolar world” offers nothing more than suffering and bloodshed to humanity.

Effective moral reasoning, as Kisin illustrates above, requires not wishful thinking but fact-based arguments.