To think Britain should have nothing to do with this war

[Foodtimeisit]

After yesterday's news, Britain shouldn't be the one funding war as USA has said they are out now. There's no chance Britain can fight this war alone with Ukraine against Russia.
Since this war started, our life has only become miserable with CoL increase.
AIBU to think we shouldn't have anything to do this war and we should fix our own problems first before giving away our tax money?

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10034/

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025-01-06/debates/7A29F43F-1BAA-4F77-AE79-888303D606BA/FrozenRussianAssetsUkraine

The year 2008 rings a bell. I wonder why it might be significant...

Oh yeah, the year that Russia invaded Georgia, annexing South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

If Russia doesn‘t want other countries to form defensive alliances, perhaps it should stop giving them reasons to defend themselves.

Hopefully it will all be back on track soon @deeppremium. It is useful sometimes to remember that however much Russia is an irritant, they have far lower resources than they pretend, resources that are being eroded daily by the war they started. We need to unite with our allies, and the US is a good ally, but we do not necessarily need them (Trump and co seem keen to remind us of this). Happily the European leaders are in broad agreement.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGyzyqwIoZL/?igsh=MTRmbXN0eWRudW1sMA==

Agree, any kind of pressure taken off now would result in them rearming.

If you’re familiar with European history then you are aware that a key part of the end of the Cold War, stopping nuclear proliferation and a major part of nuclear disarmament was Ukraine disarming the largest part of the Soviet Unions nuclear arsenal?

Under that disarmament of Ukraine was given guarantees of its security and sovereign integrity by Russia, the UK and the US

Putin has broken that promise, Trump has reneged on that promise.
Only the UK remains taking our word seriously

….. and we are not the only ones supporting Ukraine.

The USA was the largest single entity, the rest have contributed more.
Trump has opened up a wide hole in that support

For those who think that Trump is just working to get peace, you're very much in a minority. 78% of Brits consider Trump to be a threat to peace and security in Europe. A majority would support the deployment of British troops in a peacekeeping role.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/06/donald-trump-threat-to-peace-ukraine-talks-survey-western-europeans

There have been plenty of cogent arguments here, hardly evidence of war-hungry MNers...
I'm passionately anti-war in principle but Putin didn't allow any room for diplomacy and peace and of course Trump is making things ten thousand times worse. Sometimes you have to fight to defend yourself, as is the case here. There are such strong parallels with Hitler. Do you think we shouldn't have stopped him either?

Exactly, Trump just tells lies all the time. He's only interested in what suits him. He has, for many years, supported Putin's ideas about what should happen in Ukraine.

The article says 1165 Brits, not 78 percent of Brits! I think you may be jumping the gun slightly!

Who were the 2263 they interviewed, just out of interest? How were they selected?

When you say "Only the UK remains taking our word seriously
….. and we are not the only ones supporting Ukraine" what do you mean by we are not the only ones supporting Ukraine? Do you mean other western european countries, or someone else?

The article doesn't say 1165 at all. Where on earth did you get that number from?

After Trump’s apparent alignment with Russia, the polling, carried out between 26 February and 4 March, found majorities in all five countries believed the US president had become a “very big or fairly big threat to peace and security in Europe”. That sentiment was weakest in Italy at 58%, rising to 69% in France, 74% in Germany, 75% in Spain and 78% in the UK.

Yougov is a reputable pollster and will weigh samples to reflect the general population.

Primary source for the poll: https://yougov.co.uk/international/articles/51741-where-does-western-europe-stand-on-ukraine-donald-trump-and-national-defence

The article says 2263 brits were interviewed, 78 percent of that number is 1165.

We need to get some sort of referendum done to get a clear idea of what the UK thinks - that would really give a strong idea and backing. 2263 is just too tiny a number to be compelling. Do you think we should organise a referendum?

In any event, does it say anywhere how the 2263 were selected? Sorry, I haven't read your link yet if it is there.

I just had a quick squizz and it looks like the sample (the 2263 people) is self selected; if you want to give your view you apply to join yougov. Not sure how yougov weight, but the weighted and non weighted figures look like they are the same. Interesting stuff! Thanks for linking.

Where did you learn maths? I'd be asking for a refund if I was you. 1165 is not 78% of 2263.

Having a bigger sample wouldn't guarantee that it is representative. In 1936 The Literary Digest surveyed 2.38 million Americans. They predicted that FDR would lose by a reasonable margin to the Republican candidate. In reality FDR won by a landslide.

Are you seriously suggesting that we organise a national referendum on the question of "Is Donald Trump a threat to European peace and security?"

What a waste of time and money.

Of the guarantee made to Ukraine on their nuclear disarmament - by Russia, USA and the UK
Only the UK remains “keeping our word” to Ukraine

Or in other words - the Budapest memorandum

https://treaties.un.org/Pages/showDetails.aspx?objid=0800000280401fbb

Note the ….. that I included with regards to others who are supporting Ukraine today

(My post was in response to “why should the UK be supporting Ukraine” - because WE promised them we would - WE being the UK)

It would make no sense for Trump to oppose UK+EU spending more on defence, as he's long been calling for NATO powers on this side of the Atlantic to do this. Of course, something making no sense hasn't always stopped the orange feller.

In terms of affordability, the EU+UK has something like five times the population and fifteen times the GDP of Russia. Building and maintaining a defence capability sufficient to deter Russian aggression should be well within the capability of our economies. I sincerely hope this can be done without the need to actually fight a 'hot' war with boots on the ground.

The actual cost will be much less than the headline figures, as the money will largely be spent at home, training and employing people in highly skilled roles in the defence industries, and will then circulate in the wider economy. As options for providing Keynesian economic stimulus go, it's got to be better than paying people to dig holes and fill them in again!

It's a handful ofpeople regardless of maths capability...

While his actions have been disappointing and we expect and hope that Trump will work better with the US's allies soon enough, he has not yet invaded anywhere. Russia have. The USA are not actually obliged to protect European countries from Russia, and should not be blamed for concern about what actions Russia will take next.

My political acumen is limited, as is my economic awareness here, so I'm happy to be re educated for any ignorance here 😬.

I watched that fab BBC documentary about Zelensky. Yes I know propaganda exists. There definitely is compelling evidence however for me to have a position on this......

There's alot going on in the UK pissing people of. COL issues and how people feel their tax money is being managed is the number one issue I see continually. So that will drive opinions. If there's a way to say well this Ukraine stuff isn't justifiable and because of all my personal financial woes I am comfortable to disagree with it - of course people will jump on it.

I think if I had a child in the Army and had to think about them being sent to war. Well there are so many issues right now where I would be saying NO WAY. This situation, I can tell you, I would say morally, for our own benefit also, your participation in that as a soldier, I support and accept.

Putin and his psychology and ' plan' is absolutely terrifying and a threat to democracy and all of us. His approach to complete control, domination and destruction of a group of Western inclined people ( Ukraine) disgusts me to the core. It is a threat to our entire way of life.

That round face will NOT stop with Ukraine. It will grow unless he is assassinated. I can't understand how that has not yet been achieved yet.

So yes, it is something in our interests to absolutely jump on.

I need to understand more about this Oligarch Russian frozen asset situation and how that is proposedly going to fund things. Sounds great but I accept that is not so simple. There will be a price to pay also.

Trump is behaving like a psychopath. If he isn't sociopathy he is a psychopath. So that's also scary for us. Aligning against America. I wonder what price one would pay for that.

Because people are upset about the immigrants on boats situation, it isn't helping this. I see people are thinking, sort that crap out and maybe we can get behind this other problem!

I actually get that.