1/7 🧵There is much discussion over when and how a peace deal should be struck on Ukraine. These are things for the people and leadership of Ukraine to decide. It is informed by more than the destruction of cities. It is rooted in a history of colonialism and imperialism.

2/7 It is predicated on fears of cultural, social, & economic repression grounded in historical realities & myths arisen from more than 700 years interactions. It is rooted in the overthrow of the Hetmanate and extends through hundreds of years of foreign conquest.

3/7 It is forged in the liquidation of intelligentsia in multiple parts of Ukraine with the rise of the Bolsheviks and crushing of democracy in 1918, and in the forced collectivization and starvation of millions eastern Ukrainians during Holodomor.

4/7 It was crystallized in the scorched earth policies of the of the retreats of both the Red Army and then Nazis. And the subsequent rape and pillage of Ukraine by the Red Army as the Nazis retreated. Resulting in millions of Ukrainian deaths.

4/7 Cultural oppression and subjugation from the Tsars to the soviets sought to hide Ukrainian culture, poetry, art, and language. It resulted in the forced colonization of millions of Ethnic Russians to Поселок (settlements) throughout Ukraine.

5/7 no 🧵can do justice to the complexity of the relationship between Ukraine and Russia this is a simplification. There is immense fear not only in the destruction of cities and the loss of life, but in a reversion to being subjugated under an oppressive colonial power.

6/7 When developing a calculus of peace a failure to take into account these fears and to only account for the human toll of cities is to misread the conflict. There are intangible aspects to war and peace that exist beyond a pure rational choice matrix of land and lives.