Mirth I'm not in favour of this continuing as the outlines of the end game are clear, particularly with the US placing their thumbs on the scale to suit their whims but I do feel like the dialogue here sees Eastern Europe as a bunch of NPCs.
Maybe this wasn't aimed at me, but I don't reckon I treat people in Eastern Europe (not the term I'd use here) much different from Australians or Brits . I've never visited Ukraine, but I've visited six of the nine former Warsaw Pact nations. I've seen more Russia and Poland than the other countries, and I've taught myself a fair bit of Polish and Russian in the past.
I think of guys like the Russian soldiers I drank with in Chita 15–20 years ago when I hear of another 100,000 dead. Pure evil in the form of talkative frat boys who like to get very drunk and call each other gay while arm-wrestling, singing and hugging, then try to fix your hangover with a cup of sugary tea.
Yeah I'm an Australian, I didn't grow up in the Soviet Bloc so it's true, I can't share the deeper feelings of people who did, but I do recognise and know them, and have had plenty more personal stories firsthand.